Top 10 list - Weather (#8)

This one might surprise you because usually weather as a hi-lite is reserved for warm climates with perpetual sun.   This is my list, though, and I’ll tell you why I’ve included it.  We’ve got four seasons.  Four genuine, glorious seasons.  For me, the cycle begins with Spring and ours is the classic version, full of the new life that puts a skip in your step.    No whiplash change from cold to hot but, rather, a nice transition that lasts long enough to savor.  Next, just as you’re ready for summer, it arrives.  Not too hot but warm enough that’s it’s clearly summer.  Generally just right for mountain hikes, dips in the community pools (which are without exception terrific) and even a nice Rhein swim.  In September, comes Fall, generally beginning with a nice Indian summer as the leaves begin to change, bringing with them the clear freshness in the air that makes you break out the sweaters while not regretting having to do so.   Lastly, we have Winter, which brings cold, but not bone chillingly so, temperatures.   For the most part, just right to enjoy the snow sports or a nice fondue after a hike in the snow.   In a nutshell, what you get are the seasons without the extremes that plague some regions of the world.  And on those rare occasions when the summer temperatures rise too high?  You can head to the mountains.  This past summer we had an atypical heat wave when the mercury reached over 35 °C (95 °F) for three weeks in a row.  It was so hot that even friends visiting from South Carolina complained.  What did we do?  We went to the mountains, where we played in the snow and cooled off.   Try doing that on a hot, muggy New Jersey summer day.  

Engelberg on July 5th