Saturday, July 21, 2007--Lucerne--Day 13

I’m going to subtitle this day’s entry A Man, His Dog, A Tennis Ball, My Sister, and Lake Lucerne. Keep reading and you’ll see why.

This morning after breakfast we decided not to participate in the city tour, so we started our shopping early. We walked along Lake Lucerne to downtown, about a 15-minute walk. We had our shopping done by lunch time, so we found a cute English pub and had fish and chips, washed down by a pint of Guiness. We then walked a few blocks to see Thornwaldsen’s Lion Monument before we headed back to the hotel for a little rest. We had the window wide open when it started to storm. The rain actually woke us because it was coming into the room pretty heavily. t was still raining when we left for our traditional Swiss folk dinner and entertainment, which turned out to be three hours of lusty food and fun. Tonight we’ll repack for our last day’s trip back to Frankfurt and our return flight on Monday.

Okay, about the topic of the subtitle…..On one of our many walks along beautiful Lake Lucerne during the day-and-a-half we spent there, we saw a man with a cute black Lab. The dog was fixated on the lake and looked poised to jump into the water. When we got closer, we could see the object of his attention—a tennis ball floating on the water. The man was trying to figure out how to get the ball without wading into the lake or allowing the dog to jump in, as the bottom was pretty rocky. Enter tenderhearted Lisa, who somehow communicated to the nonEnglish-speaking man to grab hold of one of her feet while Bob held the other so she could hang head first over the concrete wall to get the ball. It took some maneuvering, but she eventually got the ball, only sustaining a few scrapes, dirty smudges, and blows to her dignity. The dog was ecstatic, and the gentleman grateful, if not incredulous at the utter zaniness of his new American comrades. As you can see, the pictures don’t even begin to do the scene justice. Not too shabby for a 53-year-old, though! (In case you’re wondering, Lisa was wearing a skort – a short skirt with attached shorts.)