6TH ANNIVERSARY: BRAIES & CORTINA

For our 6th anniversary, (holy moses, 6!) Nick surprised me by taking me up to the beautiful mountain town of Braies. We arrived late Friday night, and woke up to this...

Hotel Braies is where we stayed. It's the only hotel on lake Braies. The hotel owner greeted us when we arrived, along with his massive Burmese Mountain Dog. The owner was surprised to see Americans there. Their typical visitors are Italians, Austrians and Germans. It was hard to find anything in English as a result. The hotel included breakfast and dinner. It wasn't anything fancy, but it was good!

We started off the morning with a little 5 mile hike. :)

The first mile took us around the lake. It was only about 45 degrees - a big change from the 95+degree weather we've been having in Sacile.  Luckily, Nick brought about 10 fleeces. I was not expecting to go to a climate so cold!

We found a furry friend along the trail..

We got right up next to him, and he didn't seem to mind that we were there.

 My face was so cold I had to warm it up to smile for a photo. :)

"Am I smiling?" :)

We had to do a jumping photo to keep the tradition alive!

It's hard to tell, but there's actually water flowing over those rocks. The water was so clear you could hardly see it.

Pictures just don't do this place justice. They also don't show just how many people were out here! It seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere, but the crowds found us. Most of them were only there during the day, since there was only one hotel to stay in on the lake. 

The clouds were clearing, and Nick forgot his sunglasses. :)

We hiked for about an hour and a half uphill and we came to this sign. We decided it would be a good place to stop for lunch before heading back.

I didn't take as many photos of our hike because we were huffing and puffing, and it's more fun taking photos of the lake. :)

After a quick rest, we rented a boat for an hour to explore on the lake.

Nick wasn't excited or anything. :)

This was our favorite moment of the weekend. Nick wanted to take a photo of me rowing the boat. He stood up and told me to lean back as I was rowing....

I leaned a little too far back. Hahaha! I forgot that the oars weren't locked in place, so when I leaned back I thought they would help me stay upright. Wrong! Hahaha! I was crying I was laughing so hard!

Nick took over after that...:)

After our boat ride, Nick took a swim in the freezing water!

Brrr...

The next morning we wanted to do one last walk around the lake.

Of course, Nick is great at skipping rocks. :) I learned that I'm not so bad at skipping rocks on the water either. :)

Next on our list was Cortina d'Ampezza. It's a beautiful town on our drive back home.

Nick had seen several gondolas would take you up to secret tunnels the Italians used during WWI, and WWII. We decided that would be a great place to have lunch!

The air was definitely thinner! We walked up one set of stairs and we were both winded. The view was definitely worth it!

We didn't realize the tunnels would be such a hike to get to. We unfortunately didn't have enough time to get to one, so we had a small lunch at the top and headed back down.

Overall, we had a fun and event-filled anniversary weekend! I still can't believe that it's been 6 years since we got married on the beach in Cayucos, CA. I'm so grateful for Nick and all of the adventures we've been on the past 6 years. I wouldn't want to spend it with anyone else! <3