Day 9: Return to Chamonix

Today, we decided to return to Chamonix because we couldn’t pass up taking the tram up the gigantic, glacier-covered mountain.  We arrived at Chamonix around noon and waited in line for tickets.  Since we didn’t do any research about this place we didn’t know that young children aren’t usually allowed up the mountain because of inner ear pressure issues while taking the tram up.  We were forced to go up in two groups so Lucy, Bea and I went up first.  The two trams traveled at airplane speed up the mountain and our ears were popping every few seconds.  The views were spectacular and I just couldn't believe how steep the mountains were.  It was summer at the bottom and then winter at the top.  Incredible.  At the top there was a Snowbird-esque lodge with a few places to eat and many levels of look out points.  The sky was pretty clear and you could see half way around the world from up there.  The glaciers were right next to us and Bea had fun eating some snow.  There was a museum of extreme outdoor sports and a couple of ice caves that lead out to where people were ice climbing up to the top of the peak with tons of gear.  There was such a strange mix of people up there.  You had your ice climbers with all their fancy gear, then the normal tourists who looked up to the top and realized that it might be cold up there and wore jackets, and then there were your Russian tourists who decide to come up in nothing but a yellow sundress and sun hat and freeze to death.  haha.  Anyway, by the time we got to the top they told us that we had to take the 4:30 tram down and realized that our decent time was too late for Justin to be able to come up, so we devised a plan, which was to take Bea's coat off in the ice cave until she got cold enough to throw a tantrum and then ask if we could go down.  It worked and we left around 3:30.  Then, Bea fell asleep in my arms on the way down and I decided to stay at the mid level while Lucy went to swap with Justin so he and Henry could come up.  I sat for about a half hour staring up at the most beautiful mountain ever and wishing I could go on a hike up to the nearest glacier with my family.  Too bad we couldn't all come up together.  Next time I'm just going to hike the first part.  Then Bea finally woke up, but was cranky, of course, and I went into a little shop and bought her a cool twisty popsicle.  Just as she was starting to smile and be happy, she tripped on a rock and her popsicle got smashed into the ground and was covered in rocks.  I was able to salvage the popsicle and I got Bea to stop crying because these two random miniature donkeys were watching the entire thing, probably hoping to get a little popsicle out of the ordeal.  They were way too friendly ad hungry and bugged everyone up there.  I don't know why in the world they were there.  haha.  Finally I met up with Justin and we decided to go back up to the top, but we had to just be sneaky because we already used our ticket, but they let us on, no problem, but I felt bad when I passed the same guy who I convinced to let us go down early because of screaming Bea and now here we were again up on top.  There were a lot of clouds at that point so it was harder to see far, but it was so fun to be up in the clouds and above a lot of them as well.  We stayed until the last tram came down and met up with Lucy to head back home.  Chamonix is one of my new favorite places.