August 1 (Swiss national holiday)

On August 1 my parents, my brother, & I had breakfast on a hill close to the lake of Thun. It was a beautiful day!
While just sitting there outside the restaurant after the meal we started talking about the Niesen, a close mountain we could see very well from where we were sitting. My dad said something about going up there and meant it as a joke, but immediately my brother was all for it, and me, too!! So, we spontaneously decided to go up there since we all hadn't been in quite a while.
It felt pretty odd to all of us to go up on a mountain wearing nice clothes and flip-flops or sandals...!! We felt like tourists who knew nothing about Swiss mountains!! :) It was hilarious.
The cable car ride up was fun and way steeper than I remembered it. Alongside its path there's the longest stairway in the world with 11,674 steps. It's open only once a year to the public for a stair run (and we saw people exercising for it...they were basically running up that steep mountain ;)).
We all couldn't get enough of the beautiful view from the top of the Niesen. So beautiful. I always think it's so amazing how things look different if you get to see them from such a big distance or from above. That might be why I love flying so much - it just always takes my breath away... I think after that day we all appreciated the beauty around us even more.
After just enjoying the view for a while we sat down on deckchairs in front of the restaurant up there and later my brother and I decided to go for a walk/hike to a part of the mountain where we saw a herd of cows in the distance. It took us longer than I first thought it would but it was a lot of fun. Since my brother has been gone for the last six months and I had just been on vacation it was awesome to have some time together. Sometimes walking was kind of difficult in flip-flops but my brother was my great protector so I didn't get harmed. :)
On our little hike we saw one of my brother's friends who was just getting ready to take off with his paraglider and we watched him and the guys with him take off. My brother's friend told us he was planning to land very close to the lake and in case he wouldn't be able to make it he was wearing an inflatable life jacket and his girlfriend was waiting for him in a boat on the lake... I thought that was funny. :)
So after my brother and I greeted the cows ;) we headed back up towards the restaurant where our parents were sitting outside and enjoying a drink and a band that played traditional Swiss music.
Back home we celebrated with the youth group from my parents' church. We went to see the huge fire that's being set up just a little up from our house every year and, of course, watched all the fireworks we could see in every direction.
...That was one of the best First of August I can remember! :)