Little Mountain Cabins

Ok, I love Wisconsin, but have you seen this forecast?!  Good grief!  Everyone seems to be sitting inside, talking about where they might like to be instead.  It's been super cold for most of my break, and now it's just getting more ridiculous.  I miss walking outside the most; I started looking through some photos from a hiking trip I took with some friends in the Austrian Alps this summer.  Look at all these little mountain cabins we passed - some of them are so tiny!  The one in the last photo is a little speck.  We stayed for a couple nights in the one in the third photo, with the red and white shutters.  There is a huge network of huts in the Alps for hikers to stay in as they do long treks, and they're really nice and comfy.  And people live in those tiny ones seasonally, perched among the hills, tending flocks :)

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  2013 really flew by (I only just started remembering to write the date correctly!).  I'm ringing in 2014 in my hometown this year, which is freezing right now, so we stayed in with friends, and watched the little fireworks show at midnight from the window.  I was thinking about how, in 2013, I saw the most amazing fireworks show of my life during the trip to Venice last summer, and I looked through some of the photos this morning.  The one weekend we happened to go there was the one weekend of the year they have this HUGE night of fireworks, where thousands and thousands of people crowd on to one side of the island, and they have an elaborate show timed out, with 3 different boats shooting off fireworks from the water for a full hour.  At the end people cheer or boo, and the success of the show is discussed for the next week.  The whole show was like a constant finale, it was so elaborate.  There were shapes and colors that I had never even seen before!  My favorite kind are the large, arching golden ones, which are so majestic, and they shot off a ton of them at once, seemingly filling the sky.

Wishing everyone a joyous beginning to the New Year! Any resolutions? Goodbye 2013 - You were a great year!  :)

~xomo