Faire Du Ski

I love to ski. I absolutely love it. It makes me so happy to be on the slopes, in the snow, flying down the mountain. Every time we go, as much as a pain it can be to get all our gear together and get up on the mountain, once I'm up there, a smile forms on my face, and I just know its going to be a great day.

I had forgotten how much I loved to ski. When I was little, my family used to go to the mountains all the time. I remember hating taking lessons cause they never let you use poles. And I remember my mom teaching me as I got older, how to transfer from the snow plow to a more parallel stance.  Those were always fun trips, but somehow as I got older, I stopped going skiing as much. If I was lucky, I made it to the mountains once a year.

But this winter, I have already been skiing 6 times! And each time, I feel myself getting better, more comfortable, and loving it more and more.  Since the new year, that's pretty much all I've been doing on the weekends.

Before Travers left for his 2 week trip to Kiev, we went with a group of friends to a nearby town called St. Cergue.  It was an hour train ride away. We lugged our gear to the train station, got on board, and enjoyed the short trip. Unfortunately, the directions on the website weren't quite clear, and we ended up getting off the train a stop too early. And even more unfortunately, there wasn't another train for an hour. But we made the most of it. Shelley and Mike went sledding. And the rest of us went inside the one small cafe for some coffee and apple strudel. Delish!

We finally made it to the mountain, and to Travers' dismay, had to take a tow rope up the mountain. For skiers, its not a big deal, but for snowboarders, its very difficult to maintain balance. And this tow rope was one of the longest I've been on. But after falling off once, he made it up the hill, and were immediately surrounded by clouds, and snow, and wind and cold (this is why I have no photos of this day as it was too cold to take my camera out, and no visibility to take any good photos). It was going to be a rough day. Our group worked our way to the one chair lift on the mountain, and we braved the weather for a few hours until breaking for lunch at a tiny hut on the mountain.  Thankfully, the food was delicious and the building was warm. We all needed to thaw out a bit. And after lunch, I only lasted one more run as my gloves, which I've had for too many years to remember, decided they didn't want to keep my hands warm anymore, and my fingers were on the verge of turning blue.  So Shelley and I headed back to the lodge, and got some vin chaud to warm up as we waited for everyone else to join us.

As convenient as it was to go an hour outside of Geneva to ski, I don't know if we'll go back to St. Cergue. It was a small mountain, and with only one real ski lift, the rest being tow ropes, it is too difficult to get some good runs in. Maybe it would have been better if the weather was good, but I don't think we'll go back anytime soon to find out.

But all that bad weather was erased from my mind the next weekend, as Travers was in Kiev, I went with another group of friends to Megève, France. Here in Geneva, you can sign up for the season to take the ski bus. It goes somewhere different every weekend.  So some friends of ours were taking it to go to Megève, and I tagged along, paying just a small fee to get a seat on the ski bus.  The downside, is that the bus leaves at 7:30am. So early. So I was up at quarter to 6am, and out the door by quarter to 7am. I got a minute away from the apartment and realized that I forgot to put my contacts in that morning! So I ran, carrying my skis on my shoulder, back up the hill and into the apartment. Threw my contacts in, and speed walked back down the hill to the bus stop. I had to catch a specific bus in order to get to the ski bus pick up location. Timing was everything. Luckily, I made it and Shelley and Mike saved me a seat with them on the bus.

About an hour and a half later, we were in Megève ready to ski. It was a beautiful day, sunny skies and not overly crowded. We had a great day of skiing, finding some great runs on one side of the mountain. Megève is actually pretty big and we never made it to the other half of the mountain, so we will definitely be going back there someday.  We enjoyed a nice lunch outside on a sun-filled patio, then hit the slopes again for a few more hours before heading back to the bus for the ride back home. It was a long day, but such a fun trip and a great day of skiing.

Travers got back the following week from Kiev, and we immediately left the next day for Zermatt!  We had been to Zermatt in the summer when my friend Katy was visiting, and we were really excited to go back to see it in winter.  It was our friend Mich's birthday and she had invited us to go along with a bunch of other friends of hers. So we took the train that Friday afternoon, bringing wine, a baguette, salami and cheese for our dinner, and enjoyed the 3.5 hour ride.

Once there, we got settled into our hotel, Haus Darioli, and met Shelley and Mike at one of our favorite spots, Grampi's. Every night, there is a guy that plays the piano and sings, mostly american classic songs. He is so entertaining, and we had a great time listening to him for a couple hours before meeting up with Mich and the others at the Hotel Post Broken Bar Disco club downstairs.  We danced for a couple hours and got caught up with everyone. We knew we wanted to get up early the next day to go skiing, so we forced ourselves to go back to the hotel and get some rest before it got too late.

The next morning, after mis-setting my alarm and miraculously waking up, we made it to the bottom of the gondola, and realized that the majority of the slopes and lifts were closed due to bad weather.  But we didn't let this stop us. We got our tickets and took a train up the mountain, that went through a tunnel at what felt like a 60 degree angle. It was a little scary. But it got us to the top of the mountain in no time.


The weather wasn't that great, but definitely not as bad as St. Cergue. The best part though, was that it had dumped snow the night before, so everything was covered in fresh powder! It was amazing! For the skiers in the group, some slopes were really tough as we really had to work on each slope. But for Travers, his snowboard floated over the top of the fresh powder, and he had an amazing time, finding jumps, going through the powder, and just having so much fun.

We went down one slope that from the chair lift, looked tough, but we were up for it. We would take breaks after a few turns to catch our breath, it was that hard. Thankfully, there were people that really looked like they knew what they were doing stopping too and also out of breath. It made me feel better about my ability.  Unfortunately though, all of us took a spill on this slope at one point or another. I don't know how bad the others' were, but my fall was pretty rough. I somehow got turned around edges caught, and went flying backwards down the mountain. Never a good thing.  I landed flat on my back, looking up the hill. It all happened so fast, so I layed there for a minute, making sure everything was where it should be, until Shelley came over and asked if I was ok. I slowly got up, and after the initial shock of the fall wore off, I actually loved it. The snow was so soft and I was getting such a rush out of skiing that I didn't really care about the fall.

After a few hours, we stopped for lunch, then immediately headed back out to get in as many more runs as we could. We met up with the entire group of people by the afternoon, and the group of 12 of us did our final run of the day all the way down to Zermatt, ending at the bottom of the train that we had taken up that morning.


We had a glass of vin chaud to warm us up, before heading back to the hotel to rest, shower and get ready for dinner.  Mich had made a reservation at an italian restaurant called Chalet de Giuseppe. It was a cozy restaurant, with a friendly owner who greeted us at the door and made sure our entire night was wonderful. They automatically served us prosecco upon arrival, with a piece of bruschetta. Then after dinner, we got complimentary grappa to help digest all the food we ate.  It was the perfect meal to have after a long day of skiing.  We topped the night off with a quick stop at Grampi's, then back to Hotel Post for a little dancing. We were all pretty exhausted from the day and called it a night somewhat early.

The next day, we slept in, took our time getting packed up and checked out of the hotel. Then wandered the streets for a bit before grabbing a lunch at the Brown Cow Pub and heading back to Geneva on the train.

We love Zermatt. It was such a fun trip and we were so happy to help celebrate our friend's birthday.  I just hope we can go back again soon. I absolutely loved the skiing there. And I hope next time, the rest of the mountain will be open. Its been four days since we were skiing Zermatt, and I already can't wait to go again. Unfortunately, we have a couple weekends where we won't be skiing, but I'm already starting to plan the next trip.

Ringing in the New Year

Angie & Travers

We spent an amazing night ringing in the new year of 2012. We started planning a few weeks ago, and Travers came up with a brilliant idea to have a progressive dinner. This is where the party starts at one house for appetizers, then moves to another for the entrees, then to another for dessert. So along with our friends the Rosinskys, the Vissers, and Peter, we planned our last night for 2011.

The Rosinskys - Mike & Shelley

Because of my husband's fame of having the best party music playlist in Geneva, we were elected to go first for appetizers, so we could listen to his music mix and get into the party mood right away.  Mike and Shelley were on for entrees, the Vissers, Dave and Angie, were on for dessert, and Peter brought champagne, a necessity on new year's eve!

Dave & Me

I shopped for all the food the Friday before, and on Saturday, picked up a few last minute things and started prepping by about 2pm. Everyone was due to come over by 5pm. And I figured it was plenty of time. Well, it was just the right amount of time as it turned out. We were literally plating as the clock struck 5pm. (we don't actually have a clock that strikes, but you know what i mean). Thankfully, everyone was a fashionably 15 min late so we had a slight buffer for us to get our outfits on and make sure everything was ready to go!  Here are a few pics of our dishes. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos before everyone started eating!

We made 3 types of 'toppers' which are baguette slices baked with olive oil, then topped with the following: 1. Brie Cheese, Apple Slice, and Carmelized Onion. 2. Fig Jam, Goat Cheese, and Sliced Walnut, and 3. Fig Jam, Honey, and Sea Salt.  Yumm!  We also made Megan's Meatball Delight (we thought of the name that night), which is a mini homemade meatball (yeah thats right, HOME MADE), some marinara sauce, and some mozzarella, wrapped inside a small pastry dough (not home made), then baked into delicious goodness.

We then also made some prosiutto wrapped melon bites.  Now this was a risk as I am not an expert on melons and the store only had 2 kinds, neither of which were honeydew. I kept trying to look them up online before I bought, but in the end, just picked one and hoped when I sliced it open, it would look ok. And by the looks of our half-eaten tray here, I was successful. I used a Melon D'Hiver (winter melon), sliced it up, seeded it, and took off the rind. I then sliced up some prosciutto and wrapped each piece, held together with a toothpick. And for all those recipes out there that say you don't need a toothpick to hold the prosciutto on the melon, I think they are wrong. There was no way this was staying put together without it. And besides, don't you need something to pick the melon up with to eat instead of your hands?

After a couple hours, we moved onto the Rosinskys for the entrees.  They served a traditional Swiss meal, including fondue (yumm), Wiener Schnitzel, Rosti/Scalloped Potatoes, Sauerkraut, and Salad. They had a beautiful table set up, and Mike even dressed in his lederhosen outfit to get us into the spirit.

Mike in Lederhose with the schnitzel!

Dave checking out the fondue

After striking a pose for the camera, we filled some to go cups with coffee, hot chocolate, and mint liqueur to keep us warm for the walk over. Even though we were full, we were all really excited to see what the Vissers came up with for dessert!

Fierce!

The Dessert!

And we were not disappointed. They went all out! They had chocolate fondue with pretzels, cookies, waffles, and fruit to dip in. They had home made rice crispy treats, home made peanut butter balls, homemade truffles! It was amazing! And even though we were full, it was too good to resist.

The Boys!

The Girls!

Good thing our last stop was one of our favorite dance clubs, La Sip, so we could dance off all the food we just ate!  We made it there just before midnight, did the countdown, and then danced for the next few hours to some of our favorite songs! Bonne Année!

Off-Piste

Goodbye 2011 and Hello 2012. It is crazy to me that we have been here for 8 months now and just celebrated Christmas and the New Year in Europe.


We celebrated Christmas with our friends Michelle and Mike on the ski slopes in Chamonix, France.  After a quick hour drive from Geneva, we arrived Thursday night to a snowy, festive ski town.  We stayed at the Hotel Faucigny, right in the center of town. It was recently renovated and was run by a nice husband and wife and their staff.


After getting settled, we put on our warmest clothes and walked around town in search of a fun place for dinner. We explored the small town, which was decorated in sparkling lights and decorations, and found a nice place for dinner called Munchie, which served a sort of fusion of foods, from sushi to ribs.  After dinner, we wandered down an alley that all the popular bars are on, and found a small bar with no one inside except the bartender, called Boogie Woogie. After a couple beers by ourselves, we wandered down the street some more to a bar we dubbed "Smelly Bar" as it had a slight beer-sweat-something unidentifiable smell to it, but apparently it was where all the people were hanging out that night.

View from the top of the gondola

The next morning we got up early to go skiing at The Grand Montets, one of the ski areas of Chamonix.  After a few mishaps of forgotten gloves, forgotten ski goggles, and ski boot rentals, we finally made it to the slopes. We took a gondola up from the base and after breaking through a low layer of fog, we came to the top of the gondola with blue skies, sun, and gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains.

Looking back into the fog below

Mountains across the valley

I'm ready to ski!

Travers is ready to board!

We skied for a few hours, stopping to have some fun in the snow along the way, and breaked for a brief lunch, then headed back out for a few more hours of skiing.

Travers' favorite 

View into the chamonix valley

After the long day of skiing, we found an outdoor restaurant with heat lamps so we could enjoy some apres-ski drinks to warm us up before returning back to the hotel to get ready for dinner and another night out on the town.  We ate at a restaurant called Chez Yang, the only chinese restaurant in town. It was delicious and the perfect meal to make us feel strong again after a long day of skiing. Then we went to a bar/lounge called Mix, where the music was good and we got a huge lounge area to hang out at.  We topped the night off at The Y Bar, another lounge that had some good music and a nice couch area to hang out at.

Travers launching me down the slope

Christmas Eve, we woke up to clouds, snow and a general overcast sky. Instead of putting ourselves through a rough ski day, we decided to take it easy, have a nice breakfast, and then drove to a nearby town to go sledding!  It was so much fun, sliding down a slope and running back up to do it all over again. We were definitely the biggest 'kids' out there, but we all had a fun time, even when we would fall off the sled, or go sliding into the padded wall at the bottom. Here are some good action shots of our day.

Mike almost falling off the sled.

Travers after getting a push from Mike

Shelley going slightly too far to the side

I made it all the way to the end!

I'm ready!

Travers & Mike ready to race a mom and daughter

Looks like Mike won!

We eventually got tired of our tiny sled, and Shelley went to rent a larger one!

Big sled time!

Travers flying down the slope!

Its more fun sledding together!

Mike & Shelley getting a push!

We tried towing Mike behind the sled!

And didn't go very fast

I think he's still hanging on back there.

But we ended in a pile of snow, sans Mike.

We eventually called it a day, and went back to town to have some tasty crepes for a late lunch, then hitting up the hot tub and sauna at the hotel. We had the hotel staff make us a reservation for Christmas eve dinner that night at a local, traditional French Savoyarde restaurant called La Caleche.  We ate delicious steaks and appetizers, and topped it off with a caramel waffle dessert. Yumm.  We then went for an after dinner drink at the "Smelly Bar" where Shelley and I beat the boys in a game of darts!

Christmas morning we woke up early to a gorgeous day so we decided instead of driving back to Geneva right away, we would get in a half day of skiing at Le Brevant, another ski slope in Chamonix.  So we packed up the car, checked out of the hotel and drove the 5 minutes to the slopes!  We skied for 3.5 hours straight, with few people around us, and spent a good hour or more on one slope that had some great off-piste skiing/boarding with lots of powder. Travers was loving playing in the snow there, and I even tried a little of it, making a few small jumps here and there.










We finally called it a day, and drove back to Geneva. We were exhausted by the time we got back home, but were still able to make a nice Christmas dinner, and skype our families so we could wish them a Merry Christmas and open presents together.  Our families definitely outdid themselves with sending us presents for us to open here. It was the perfect way to end a wonderful weekend with snow, skiing and Christmas!