Fondue, Football, and a Visitor

Kristin Najarian and Andrea Ingrassia are the two European Dreamers from Palos Verdes High, and we're lucky to have them on our trip. Kristin's father, over in Europe on business, was able to take the train to Zermatt and take her and a few friends out for dinner. They had fondue at the Whymper Stubbe and had a great night.
I believe Laura Sattelmeyer, Lyndsey Sherwood, and Alexander Ochi were the lucky friends. The next night THall and I took Andrea Ingrassia and two friends--Kelley Kadota and Sandra Bignone-- out for dinner, to where else, The Whymper Stubbe, a longtime favorite of ours. We owed Andrea big time for the job she did collecting funny money on our Tuesday night sessions. We laughed, we cried, we ate fondue.

Kristin also hiked the Schwarzee with her father and three boys: Peter Cameron, Harrison Heller and Kevin Clifford. From the sounds of it, they didn't curse the mountain the way many of us did The Gornergrot. They hiked, enjoyed the views and had a little picnic.

Incidentally, Heller and Clifford hail from Carson City, Utah and Agoura Hills, respectively. They are legacy travelors as many of their older cousins have gone with us. Are we lucky to have them? Yes we are. They are personable and affable and have made fast friends. Kevin is one of those kids who moves easily from one group to the next. Peter and Kevin just passed by this computer on their night out in Zermatt, and they are both wearing the same pale blue shirts. I hope that was a coincidence. Anyway, Harris is a talented musician, and he has been regaling the girls on the piano in the hotel lobby. He is incredible as he'll hear a song once and pick it up by ear. Right now I'm hearing him hatch Daniel Powter's "Fine Day."

Ten boys played soccer today on a small stadium court in the center of town. Quite a crowd gathered. I could hear them whispering, "yes the Americans really can play fussball." One team--The Skins--consisted of goalie Alex Graeber (long reach, good feet, big head), Eric Haynes (good peripheral vision, excellent ball control), Billy Barron (fast, hard hitter), Mike Tsujimoto (tough, no nonsense midfielder), Nate Carroll (aggressive, scorer mentallity) and Coach Hoeger (absolutely clueless, but finally got involed near the end of the game with a hand ball in the goalie's box.)
The shirts team--no real physiques on that team--included Mitchell Beck (fast, scorer and passer) Mike Cooke (some good headers and a powerful leg), Andy Kole (super fast and super strong), Matt Lucky (clever, good ball control either foot), Victor Poon (shrugged off a leg cramp to make some pivotal plays, Dan Mathieu (goalie and floor leader) and Coach Hall, who played surprisingly well in bare feet.

For us, Barron scored first, then Haynes scored two in a row and then Carrol scored on a long shot. Anyone surprised by those results? Anyway there was lots of fun-loving trash talking, but the interesting part for me was the contrast in goalies. Graeber was a chest-thumbing acrobat in the box, while Mathieu shouted out directions continually--usually it was watch Hoeger on the left--to create a defensive spiderweb.

Anyway, The Shirts won the first game 2-1 and the Skins won the second game 3-2.
The Skins had the momentum and were in complete control until Coach Hall's blister burst. Then ringer David Eiges filled in and made a crazy long pass to Lucky who, in the air, left-legged it passed our goalie. We have some good pictures that I'll put up after the trip.

On to Stresa.