Skiing in Garmisch!

Todd here.  I'm on a roll with guest blogs, so let's keep this going!

Having grown up in New England, I'm no stranger to skiing.  However, I'm not great.  After college I did not ski for at 15 years, and now I only ski once or twice a winter.  But, since we were spending a weekend in a ski resort town, I definitely wanted to hit the slopes. 

 There are three ski mountains - the Hausberg, Kreuzeck and Alpspitze – joined together in the Garmisch-Classic ski resort.  You can see the Zugspitze (the highest mountain in Germany) on the right.

The kids were excited to ski too!  However, they've only been two or three times, so we decided to sign them up for a half day of ski school.  Here you can see Natalie with her group.

There's my little buddy ready to tear up the slopes.

With Natalie and Grant in school, I took the gondola up the Hausberg mountain to the "Classic" ski area of Hausberg-Alpspitze.

A traditional ski lift took me to the top for my first run of the day.

Let's do this.

The skiing was great.  In the beginning, I stayed on the beginner trails. But as the day went on, I became more daring and hit up some of the intermediate runs.  I fell a few times, but thankfully no injuries!

Around lunchtime, I went back and checked on the kids.  They were having a blast, and it was such a warm, sunny day, no jacket required.  (Thank you Phil Collins.)

Grant finding his ski legs.

You're getting there little buddy!

Here comes Natalie.  Pizza and French Fries!  They're not just for lunch!

After lunch, it was back the mountain for a couple more runs before the kids finished up ski school.  Here is a great view of Garmisch-Partenkirschen.

Just two rugged, young men skiing in the Alps.

After ski school, I went down to the practice area, and Natalie, Grant, and I spent almost two more hours skiing.  Above, you can see Natalie demonstrating her skills as both a television host and skier!

Three snow monsters on the slopes of Germany!

Uh oh!  Look at that sad face. What happened here?  We are not sure!  :(

Upon removing her ski boot at the end of the day, Natalie complained that her foot hurt so badly that she could not even stand on it.  Unfortunately, that meant no skiing the following day.  And, just to be safe we took a trip to the emergency room to get an x-ray.  Nothing was broken, but Natalie's foot hurt quite a bit and she was on crutches for several weeks.

But even with a sad ending, we all agreed it was a great day of skiing!  Until next time Garmisch-Classic ski resort!