Bonjour! We are back from Switzerland, France … and Amsterdam! All good things must come to an end, and with this #Epic trip, so ends our ski season. We surpassed our goal to ski 20 days this year. I skied 24 and Alan skied 25! We skied in Michigan, Ohio, Utah, Colorado, Vermont and Switzerland. We skied at 5 new resorts. It’s been a memorable ski season. How was the Europe trip? We packed a lot in our 10 day trip. Just ask Alan, who said I was the Energizer Bunny. The main activity was skiing but we got to see a lot of cool things too. I’ll be writing posts about more Europe but for now, here are some of the highlights!
Skiing in the Alps… it was spring skiing! Not too warm but no new snow. That’s no big deal, because it’s the freaking ALPS!! Every turn made us gasp “WOW!” The Swiss Alps (Verbier and Crans-Montana ski resorts):
We enjoyed drinks at lunch on the slope. Ahhhhhhh, living the skiing dream!
We went up to the Mer de Glace glacier in Chamonix France. Another WOW spot for sure! I loved the little red cog train that took us up to glacier. An incredibly scenic ride.
We even went inside the glacier!
We went to Zermatt Switzerland. Seeing the Matterhorn in real life was amazing. I didn’t think I would be so excited about seeing a mountain but (again) WOW!
Clearly my enthusiasm cannot be hidden!
We also visited Annecy in France.
Mon – touring Geneva. And eating fondue. Yummmmm
Tues – Travel day and Amsterdam visit. We booked our flights to have a long layover in Amsterdam so we could get out and explore the town. We wanted to be sure we didn’t miss our flight back home which only left us 1.5 hours in the Amsterdam city center. No problem, we hit all of the big ticket items on my list (thanks ChatGTP for giving me an intinerary!).
Weds – 6 miles running + gym visit. Back in Ohio (whomp whomp) and back at it! Let’s just say that croissants and fondue are not diet food! 😉 But it was all worth it and I was looking forward to working out after my vacation. Surprisingly I was not jet lagged because I went to bed at 10pm last night and woke up at 6am after my 8 hours of sleep. Perfect! I ran 5 miles on the treadmill. When the sun came up I was excited to get outside too so I ran a bonus mile around my neighborhood. My visit to the gym included a workout on the Smith machine which left me feeling like I REALLY overdid it. Oops.
Flowers are starting to poke out of the ground in my yard. Yay!
Thurs – 3 miles treadmill run. My quads were quite sore this morning due to yesterday’s gym workout. The kind of sore that makes you walk down stairs backwards AND use the hand rails in the toilet stall! It was bad. There are a lot of stairs in my office, so yay, fun day! I did go for a walk after work. It was 70 degrees! Note, I was way overdressed with a jacket and jeans (and when did my jeans get so tight?? LOL). [Hey girl, nice hair! Yikes]
Fri – 20 mins elliptical to get the legs moving this morning. And then, a trip to the physical therapist! [Rant alert!] I have had a tight spot in my back which comes and goes and has been hanging around for the year. I thought that was related to a muscle imbalance and I needed to get “straightened out”. When I made the appointment my back was tight, and that was 2 weeks ago. Now, not so much! But I figured it would help in the long run. I went to see a different PT who was recommended by my doctor, and I have to say I was not impressed with the whole thing. First of all I don’t know yet if this is getting billed as a specialist visit ($110 copay, ugh!!) or a PT visit ($30, which is what I was told it should be when I booked the appointment). Second, she wanted me to get an xray of my hips. Um.. I’m pretty sure an xray is going to cost a lot and won’t really tell us anything. I’ve made it this far, it’s really not that big of a deal (not worth hundreds of dollars IMHO!). But I did leave with two sets of exercises, one for the back and one for my tight hamstring, so I guess that’s a win. In the future I will stick with my tried and trusted physical therapist!
Sat – 6 mile run. I finally ran outside!! It was cold. Sure, I could have waited until it was 55 degrees in the afternoon, but I’m a morning runner! This felt decently hard, partially because of sore legs, but not terrible. Just felt like the start of training plan.
Need some more inspiration? I’m linking up with Deborah at Confessions of a Mother Runner and Kim from Running on the Fly for their Weekly Run Down. Check out all of the fun blogs there!
Fun pic of the week – my son is on Spring Break. He drove to California with some college friends (yes, a 33 hour drive straight from Ohio!). They are skiing (of course!). Oh, but they are skiing in cut off shorts and crop tops 😂 They forgot to reapply sunscreen. Ouch!
And… did you happen to see my video of driving in the mountains of Switzerland? It was such a crazy experience! Spoiler alert, we made it through [just barely!].
Q: Are you enjoying spring in your area?
I saw Utah is hitting 90+ degrees this week! Too soon!!
Welcome home, Lisa! Your photos from the alps are stunning!! How nice to get to see some of Amsterdam too.
Ugh about the PT. Good choice to choose your usual PT in the future. I agree about the x-ray – that will say absolutely nothing! I hope at least she assessed your mobility, sore spots (if any) and things like that?? Unless I had access to a proper sports doctor (maybe you do?), I’d always see a PT (or in my case, start with my own trainer/physical therapist) first because they are always the experts of sports injuries and will ask you to see a doctor if needed. I thought your knee was the biggest issue recently!
Also, you may think you’ve gained weight but you’re looking great! Enjoy the spring weather!
My family Dr is a sports doctor, which is a great benefit for my family! I have to have a referral to go to physical therapy though, so it always starts with my Dr. I just didn’t care for the style of this different PT person. I didn’t feel like I got my money’s worth out of it, if that makes sense! I tend to have alignment issues with my hips, which causes other issues – the kinetic chain you know! The knee issue is 98% gone now, but the random tightness in my back comes and goes. Nothing painful, just tight. In a perfect world I’d like all of my body parts just doing their thing and humming along quietly. 🙂
Oh that’s handy to have a sports dr as a family dr! I get it about having to get a referral… I think we need that here too but we’ve always gone to private PTs instead because then you just make an appointment.
Oh yes about the body parts doing their thing! If only!
Sorry to hear about your PT experience! Hopefully you’re back is feeling better and you can truly get in some good workout. I bet you are sad to be back, but it’s always nice to be back in the routine! Your photos from your trip has been beautiful. I can’t imagine skiing and shorts! Or driving from here to california! Sounds like a memorable and fun experience.
Well, my back is still feeling the same… which was nothing! But hopefully whatever she did will keep the tightness away. My son said they had a great time. Crazy college kids!
You sure did have an epic ski season! Love all your photos from the alps!
I always find the jet lag coming home from Europe works in my favor but it hits me eventually.
It was a great ski season! Too bad we don’t live closer to the slopes because it was also a lot of travel! It’s nice to be home and dig into some projects now.
Wow! What an epic adventure. And it looks like the weather was incredible.
We’re going to do a roadtrip next month, including a stint in Switzerland and I am GLAD MY HUSBAND WILL BE DRIVING. Narrow roads like that freak me out.
Those narrow roads were a bit harrowing to drive on! The Swiss drivers aren’t rude and have a good system of allowing cars to pass, so that was nice. But my husband is used to driving a larger truck and judging the width of the smaller rental car was tricky! I think we made the right choice by renting a car though. I loved being able to go wherever we wanted. Have fun!
How fun! Skiing in the Alps is for sure on my bucket list! Is it really different than skiing in Colorado? That food looks amazing!
Of course skiing is so weather dependent, but the big difference is the size of the Swiss resorts and how much of the area you could ski. The groomed runs were great and everything else was “off piste”, so skier beware. Seems like in the US we have mostly defined areas and you can’t just ski all over the place. We didn’t ski off piste on this trip because that snow wasn’t good. We also stayed on the easier runs because Alan was having foot pain due to a bunion, and moguls/turning bothered him. Had the the snow been better and the foot was good, we could have ventured out more and done some advanced skiing. But it’s all good, the experience was incredible. Still, we love skiing out West and skiing in Switzerland didn’t “ruin” our love of Colorado 🙂 But WOW, those views in the Alps.
That’s a lot of skiing! You certainly made your rounds, and hit a lot great slopes. Your trip really sounds great! Awesome pics, and I’m sure the memories are even better. 😉
Yes, it was a great trip to Europe – the perfect way to end the ski season!
Yes, those photos are amazing. It sounds like an incredible experience for you! And that sounds like a major gym workout on Wednesday- I know that soreness of overdoing it on squats. How is your knee doing? That’s what was bothering you before, right? Sounds like you got some runs in and everything is fine. About the tight back- I always hate getting anything like that treated. It’s such a crap shoot as far as cost and effectiveness. Maybe the exercises they gave you will help.
Looking forward to more Europe posts!
My knee issue is just a faint memory now! My Dr did remind me to not overdo it so I’m taking it easy. I can’t believe how awful my legs felt after that workout! I don’t think I really had that much weight on the machine but I guess it’s been awhile since I’ve used it haha! Alan was quite sore from hitting the gym this week too.
Welcome home, Lisa! Your ski trip sounds amazing, and what a great season of skiing you guys had! That will be hard to top next year. Poor Zack’s sunburned legs! My husband got a horrible sunburn spring skiing when we lived in Utah.
For sure, the sun really gets amplified in that snow when it’s so warm! I’m glad his face didn’t get sunburned too bad because he wasn’t wearing goggles for most of the time.
It’s a bit funny that we had big ski goals and it was probably the worst it’s been in decades for ski conditions everywhere. Go figure! Hopefully that means things will be better next year. It’s been really rough for the resorts with such a decline in business.
I’m envious of your trip to Switzerland! Your photos are amazing. I’m so glad you got to go.
When I was in high school, I spring skied with my friend at Copper Mountain and ended up with a terrible sunburn! That snow is a challenge!
Sunburn, not good, but a trip with friends to Copper sounds fun!!
The Alps were pretty incredible, of course the pictures do not capture the full beauty of it all.
Oh what an adventure! And that fondue! I would love to see Switzerland in winter, even without the skiing. I could totally find plenty to do!
I’m sure the return to Ohio was… not as fun. It’s so hard to come back from such amazing trips.
take care of that back!
When I booked the trip I was concerned we wouldn’t have enough to do on the non-skiing days. There was definitely enough to do!! I would love to go back to Chamonix. I think it was the most beautiful town we went to.