Uncle Bob—Part II

Our Swiss Yooper

Bob and Bridget

You can take the man out of the U.P., but ya can’t take da Yoop outta da man. From the moment I spotted my Uncle Bob in the low-ceilinged parking garage of the Zurich airport, his phone pointing at me to video-capture my first reaction, I could see he hadn’t changed a bit. I feel like I change my clothes and manner of speech anytime I’m somewhere new, but my Uncle Bob has been in Europe for years, and he has remained Uncle Bob. Even his younger brother Dave says he’s surprised how Bob is the same Yooper that left Michigan fifteen-odd years ago. 

He’s still a quiet Peterson, still has his accent, and still walks around documenting the world through a camera, although now primarily on his phone—more on that later.

Despite my nine years jumping around Europe, I never made it to Switzerland or his new hometown outside of Zurich—a fact I’m quite ashamed of. So when I started 18 Uncles and moved back to Michigan, I kept an eye out for flights to rectify that oversight. As destiny would have it, I got some insanely cheap ones in December, told Uncle Dave, who immediately signed up for the adventure, and the two of us hopped the pond to spend five days with the Swiss Petersons. 

It was a lovely trip, filled with drizzly drives through the mountains, city wandering, hauling bricks—see the Uncle Dave piece for more on that, intense foosball games in the living room, and the quality family time around the dinner table that I’m coming to appreciate more and more. 

As with all of my uncles, that quality time and conversation bring our relationship to a different level. Uncle Bob and I are now exchanging texts via Telegram and long emails. I’m finding the many things we have in common and looking forward to seeing him again soon, riding another Swiss train, cooking for him and the family, and taking another sauna in the Alps.