Vielen Dank & Garmisch Return v. 4

Thank you so much for the supportive comments on the announcement of re-launching Classic Developments Photography. I did operate under the name CDP before moving to Germany, but I was fresh out of college and didn’t really know how to start a real business. This time, I feel like I have the experience and drive (as well as awesome support from John) to make this a success. That said, if you know of anyone who needs photos done, I’m your gal and I’m willing to travel!

With that said, I can’t let any more days pass without writing about last weekend, which was our last baby-free vacation – our babymoon, if you will. We spent Saturday through Monday in the Alps in Garmisch, Germany, at Edelweiss, where John proposed back in 2007. It was the first vacation we took together, and I think it was very fitting that it is the last vacation we will take over here without having a baby in tow.

We were really aiming for a low-key trip, and we were rock stars at accomplishing that goal. We took naps both days, spent a lot of time reading on our new Kindles (love them, by the way) and just lounged around. Saturday night we went to dinner at our favorite little Italian restaurant, Antica Roma. (We’ve blogged about it before here, here and here.) The crust on their pizza is divine, and don’t even get me started on the salami. Yum.

On our walk to the restaurant, we heard a commotion. As we got to the bottom of the entrance of the restaurant (through a hallway and up some stairs), we noticed a large crowd, yelling, smoke and flares or fireworks (we weren’t sure which) about 2 blocks down the street. We could not discern if the crowd was protesting something, rioting or celebrating, so we just stopped and watched. We figured that if we needed to get away from the crowd, the restaurant door was right behind us. As we waited and watched, we realized that the crowd was making their way toward us and were chanting/singing something. We could tell that they were all male, too. I ended up taking a video, because it was just so bizarre:

http://www.youtube.com/blondetaters#p/a/u/0/czsfRu9K_zc

We were told that it was some sort of soccer celebration. I haven’t been able to figure out what exactly was going on, but it sure was crazy! Speaking of crazy, we kind of wish we had been able to make our trip sometime between February 7th and 20th, because Garmisch-Partenkirchen is hosting the 2011 Alpine skiing world championship competition. Drat. We were able to see the set up for it, but it would have been fun to watch the actual competition. We don’t even have EuroSport, so we can’t watch it at home. Bummer!

I almost forgot a vital part of my story about the way I woke up on Saturday morning before making the drive. My alarm went off at 6:30, and I intended to snooze for 10-15 minutes. About 6:35, I shifted in bed, and holy mackerel, I suddenly had the worst Charlie Horse of my life. I shot my left leg up in the air and was begging John to rub my calf muscle. I couldn’t get out of bed, because I was suddenly on my back. Ask a pregnant woman in her third trimester to get up from lying on her back and it’s not going to happen (no, I don’t lie on my back regularly. I know it’s not safe.) To make matters worse, the only way I could figure to stand up would be to roll over onto my belly and then get my foot on the ground. Another no go. I finally managed to get my feet on the ground, but my left leg, the one with the Charlie Horse, did not want to stand. My foot was so pointed that I could have probably danced Swan Lake en pointe. My calf muscle ended up being sore for 4 days. Oh the crazy things that happen to you when you’re pregnant…

I don’t want to monopolize too much space on our blog today, so I will wrap this story up tomorrow. There aren’t any tales of cramps or “riots,” though, so it might be a little boring!