Our Vacation

We went up to Garmisch again for 4 days before Christmas. It is in the Alpine mountains and there was even more snow than we left behind at home. We had wonderful family time and picked extraordinary restaurants. My favorite place had pumpkin seed crusted schnitzel and pumpkin seed pesto spaghetti. Yum! I can't wait to try to replicate them!

Oberammergau is a 15 minute drive from Garmisch and is the home of the Passion Play. This town is known for the beautiful murals on the sides of buildings. They have millions of shops with wood carvings ranging from Nativity scenes to the Lord's Supper to individual statues. So beautiful! We will be going back in the Spring and purchasing a few things for sure.

We changed hotels for the last night to a hotel up on a mountain in which the only way to reach the hotel is by cable car. This is not my style, being afraid of heights and all, but my sweet husband was so excited about it that I agreed to give it a shot. I closed my eyes on the way up taking a few peeks. On the way down, I was a bit braver looking out the back window. This is a huge improvement for me. I very clearly have a memory of getting on the skyline at Disney and trying to convince the guy running the ride that the people taking me on the ride were not my parents and were kidnapping me. I was 7 years old and I was holding onto the sides of the door making a loud and embarrassing scene. I lost that battle and so clung to the floor of the cable car without moving until it was over. I also have many other memories of trying to overcome my fear of heights and failing. Another one that sticks out in my mind is standing on the high dive at camp with the life guard blocking my way down the ladder while all my friends chanted Chicken over and over. I usually won those battles by waiting them out. This cable car was much much higher by thousands of feet! When Brian asked Hannah what she thought of it, my little clone responded with trepidation in her voice, "What if it breaks and we fall all the way down there?" That's my girl! To her credit she didn't complain or cry, just wondered about the whole falling thing.
Here's the cable car...

Here we go down...

The kids inside the hotel...

At dinner in the hotel, I taught Hannah how to sew with her plastic needle and plastic grid. She's a natural!

Brian and Genna played a game with the coasters. I don't think Brian really understood the made up game, but Genna didn't notice.

Here's the frozen Gorge below the hotel.