Switzerland spring break

So this post just chronicles the second week of Regan and Jane's two week spring break.  I'll try to get them to do a guest post soon on their first week of a special adventure with Jake.

We had such a nice time.  Not nearly enough photos to capture the fun and the beauty...

Not pictured: Jake and I had a date night at a very adventurous restaurant called After Seven.  It ended up lasting something like four hours and we were quite satiated but happy at the end.  We also took the whole family to a wonderful restaurant called Cervo Puro. It's got to be one of the few Michelin starred restaurants where you can ski into it - but it was also very welcoming of our kids.  To get there from town, we go into the funicular tunnel but instead of getting on the train, we get on a big elevator that also takes us up on the mountain.  Another fun experience.

Overall the kids did a great job skiing.  Anna was a bit more nervous than last time so I think we'll do more ski school next time.  We hired an instructor for our family for our full first day to help us get our ski legs back and show us around the mountain.  Zermatt has gotten the most snow this year in many, many years so we had plenty of snow.

Such a beautiful valley and always fun to explore new places as a family.

So-ooo, we let Regan and Jane fly ALONE to Abu Dhabi.  Not as unaccompanied minors and not on a direct flight!   I couldn't get them on the direct flight because of our triangulation to Switzerland.  And I couldn't have them fly as unaccompanied minors due to all the different airline rules (Air France and Lufthansa don't allow unaccompanied minors on codeshare flights - which is what flies into Abu Dhabi and Air Canada only allows unaccompanied minors on direct flights.. and on and on).  But like Southwest Airlines, Air Canada allows kids to fly alone starting at age 12 so off we sent them with a few minor bumps.  At the point when the above photo was taken, Jane only has a standby ticket from Washington to Toronto and their seats (on the 12 hour leg from Toronto to Dubai) has them seated not anywhere near each other...  Eek.  But they handled it really well and got the seating situation all sorted on their own.  They did need the notarized note at Canada's immigration that Jake and I had both signed giving them permission but once they got their seats sorted, it was smooth sailing for them.  Jake eagerly picked them up at the airport in Dubai and I was very relieved to get the call that he had them.

Meredith, Anna and I flew to Geneva from Washington and met Jake, Regan and Jane there.  Loved seeing the mountains in the background when we landed near sunrise.

Lake Geneva and its famous fountain

Tiny pizza joint we found - only had 3 tables! That's the full kitchen behind Anna.  Yummy pizzas and salads.

Anna found lots of unicorns at the famous Franz Carl Weber toy store

Anna and Mere were my sightseeing buddies much of the day because the rest of the family didn't arrive until afternoon

Reunited!

Fun "road" that goes under someone's house!  Love these old European winding cities

The old-fashioned carousel was a surprising hit - even for the high schooler!

They even talked me into riding!

On the train heading up into the mountains to Zermatt.  Train travel is *such* a civilized way to travel.  Wish we had more trains in the US still.

There are no cars in Zermatt and only these little electric taxis.  We picked up our ski rental gear and took a taxi to our chalet (aka 'apartment')

Our first fondue as a family.

We liked the fondue restaurant name

Matterhorn

So Ian our instructors was a great instructor - not so much as a photographer.
This is our only family shot of the whole trip  :-( 

Hot chocolate break!

Taking the funicular up to the mountain.  This funicular is absolutely amazing from an engineering standpoint.  It's all underground - about a mile long and zips you up about 2500 feet in elevation gain.  It's a bit of a hassle to get on the train but sure is efficient in getting you up the mountain.

View from our chalet

Gondola ride

My favorite shot of the whole trip.  So much snow and such an amazing view
(Mere and Jane if you can't tell who they are!).

Meredith, Jane and Regan loved finding little trails off the main runs to do little jumps.  They were very adventurous.  Anna wanted nothing to do with that nonsense off the groomed trails.  I have a few videos but they are hard to post here.

The Swiss do there mountain snow lunches right.  4 and 5 star restaurants right on the slopes.  Amazing food and very civilized to have a real sit down meal to get us reenergized.  Can't beat the views either.

Snow tunnel outside of our chalet.

Snowball war outside of our chalet.  Got a bit tough.  There might have been a few tears involved...
But lots of fun was had by all...err...most.

From our balcony.  The kids loved just playing in the snow

Tons of snow means they needed to blast tons of avalanches.  This is right near the train station 

Found a fondue pot in our apartment so we made our own fondue one night.

Taking a break from skiing to climb, slide and frolic a bit