No more vacation

It was a good run, but now it's definitely over. That's what I thought this morning as I scraped the frost off my windshield before heading off to work. During the last week or so of my vacation, I often found myself clueless as to what day it was and I'd have to reference a calendar to figure it out. It was a great feeling actually because that meant I had no pending deadlines and that all I had to do was have fun.

After Germany I visited my grandparents in New Jersey and celebrated Thanksgiving with them and a couple other relatives. But before that we went to the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in NYC. We really didn't plan on it, but we ended up just going to NYC on Thanksgiving day and running into the parade since it ran through the heart of Manhattan! We got close enough to be on the front lines of the parade and we were able to watch it in all its glory close up. After all that fun on Thanksgiving, we went to Atlantic City and enjoyed a casino buffet and a walk along the boardwalk. The last time I was there I was too young to remember, or take pictures. So I'm glad I was able to do both this time :)

We then came back home and visited Kristin's family and they served us some delicious food that I forgot the name of, but it was good. Our families got along really well and I was happy about that. I laughed when I found out that Kristin coached her parents before the visit to make sure it went smoothly. I don't think they really needed coaching to get along but it sure made the morning/afternoon go well.

After the family meeting, my family left and I was left all by myself to do whatever. And I found myself clueless as to what to do. So I just unpacked all my luggage and set up all the fun souvenirs that I bought and prepped Kristin's gifts for when she could stop by to pick them up. But then I finished all that, so I started cleaning. Yeah that's right, I cleaned almost first thing after my vacation. I think I'm crazy. I guess I just wasn't used to not having anything to do after all that time of going everywhere humanly possible in the short 2.5 week span I was on vacation.

Now I'm already used to being bored. I don't know if that's a good thing or not, but last night I just curled up on the couch and watched TV. I then went to the grocery store and bought ingredients for stuffed mushrooms and chicken saltimboca, or however you spell that. It's listed in my blog, so if you're curious, look at my previous posts. After prepping all the food, I headed to bed. And that's my life.

And so we leave Germany

As the trip comes to a close. I took the time to reflect upon how blessed I am for being able to travel this distance and and do so many things in such a short amount of time. And even now, the vacation is not over. I still have New Jersey and New York to visit yet this week!

Today we went to Castle Neuschwanstein (New Swan Stone) in Southern Germany. Well we also got a good look at Hohenschwangau while we were there because the father of the king that built Neuschwanstein built Hohenschwangau so they were right next door to one another. Anyway, Neuschwanstein was built in the 1800s because the king was reminiscent of the old castles built during medieval times. He built his castle to replicate the styles of those times. It is truly a beautiful castle but unfortunately, they do not allow you to take pictures of most of the castle and I was not able to document that leg of my trip :( However I got a lot of shots from the outside and the fantastic scenery around the castle. I probably got some of the best mountain shots of the whole trip.

After the castle we ate dinner at a restaurant by the castle. We all had traditional German dishes. I was ecstatic about this because one of the most fun parts of traveling abroad is enjoying the local dishes. I had the Jägerschnitzel, which consisted of a thin pork chop on bed of mushrooms in cream sauce with potato croquets. MMMM

I also bought a couple of souvenirs. I got a real German beer stein for less money than I would've though and a surprise for Kristin that I hope she likes. My sister bought a cuckoo clock as well, and it's prettier than mine, fooey. I've already been outdone. I think she fell in love with mine while I had it hung up here :) It is so much fun though. I really love it. So I guess that's all for now. I'll see you all back in the states!

Weiβwurst

When you go to Germany, you have to eat a German sausage or (wurst). Today I went to the store and bought a traditional southern Germany Weisswurst. I had it with lots of Sauerkraut and a sweet brown mustard. It was very good and mild with a rather smooth texture. Translated it is "white sausage." I feel like I have lived now because I have now eaten a sausage.

I also bought a ton of German chocolate at the store today. And to tell the truth, our whole family filled a large duffle bag with chocolate and other stuff to bring home. it was great.

Beautiful Sights

It may be 30 degrees colder here than Iowa, but that doesn't detract from the fact that it is so much more beautiful out here than the flat, boring Midwest! Out here they have winding roads that carve paths through the mountains and through beautiful old growth forests and you can see mountains and valleys in most of the directions you look on a clear day! It's so amazing how beautiful a few large sized rocks can look if you're not used to seeing them!

Yesterday we traveled to Lindau, Germany near the Austrian and Swiss border by the Bodensee. It was Sunday, so all the shops were closed, but even with that, there were so many picture taking opportunities in Lindau and during the drive to get there and back, I don't feel like we wasted a day because we couldn't browse the local goodies, which seems to be a big part of any vacation. ...you know admiring the local crafts and foods that you don't have at home.

I was able to take a lot of good pictures and post them on Flickr. I have some that are only visible to friends and family when they log in, so if you have an account, log in before viewing! I also upgraded to a pro account so that I could organize my pictures into sets. They limit you to 2 sets if you have a free account. So I figured it was high time to upgrade. And besides, it was only $25 for the whole year :)

I've had cold cuts for most of my meals out here so far. I think it is far more common to eat cold cuts out here than it is in the states. It isn't bad though because they have so many varieties of sausages, salamis, hams, cheeses, and breads that you can eat cold cuts for several days and never eat the same thing. That is nice in itself, however, I do wish I could get a hot local meal :)

My dad was introduced to pesto the other day. I bought a jar in the store, and now my dad has been putting pesto on almost everything. I guess you can say he likes it. He even put it on his picked fish sandwich! I'm glad that my dad likes it so much. He even asked me to keep introducing him to foods I like that he hasn't tried. That made me feel good because it lets me know that he appreciates my opinion :)

And so with that I think it's time to add pictures and let you all be jealous of how beautiful it is out here. I wish you all the best and I hope you are having as much fun as I am!

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Update from Deutschland

So I woke up exactly 34 hours ago and I have gotten about 2 hours of sleep from power naps during the flight and while riding around in Europe, but I can't complain because I've had a great time so far. We arrived at 6AM Germany time and after renting the car, the first thing we do is decide to drive to Zurich in Switzerland to go shopping :) My dad bought some watches for his relatives, and I bought a Cuckoo clock that actually has a little bird that pops out every 3o minutes and counts out the hours at every hour! It is so much fun. And it requires no batteries or electricity!

After Switzerland we really started getting tired but we really wanted to keep moving but it was so hard, and we took several power naps during the drive back to Munich :) When all was said and done, we finally made it to Munich at about 7PM or so because of traffic at the Austrian/Swiss border.

It's about 25 degrees here and there's a ton of snow on the ground, but that didn't stop us from walking about 2-3 miles in Zurich between stores and going grocery shopping after the long trip in Munich. I am glad that we got all this done today because we probably would be tired tomorrow. I'll try to get a couple good pics uploaded in the next few days if I can but it may be a challenge since I have limited internet access times and free time :) Until my next entry... adios!

Edit: uploaded pictures here and to Flickr

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Branson Finale

Today in Branson I started off with a run on the treadmill and a swim in the indoor pool. Then I ate a nice hearty breakfast and we eventually made our way to the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum. It was pretty fun because I got to see a lot of crazy crafts like scale replicas made out of matches, shrunken heads, meteorites, optical illusions and a lot more interesting stuff! I took the tripod in so that I could take as many pictures as possible without the flash. That came in handy several times because most of the displays were enclosed in glass and the flash bounced back. My parents also had a custom picture of themselves made with their faces inserted into the two main Shrek character's faces. They even colored them green, so that was pretty fun. My dad lives by the motto "better out than in" ;)

After that we all ate sushi for lunch and then headed to Table Rock Dam and lake to take nature pictures. I was really glad that I finally got them to come out into nature with me so that I could photograph some of the scenery. We also got off a lot of portrait studio quality pictures of the whole family during this trek and I got off about 100 shots! Everybody should now have new pictures to show off of one another now!

We also got the chance to watch Fred Claus in the movie theater that was supposedly IMAX, however, I didn't notice any difference from the regular theater. I guess IMAX is only special when you have a film created with a super wide angle lens and a ton of microphones. The movie was funny and it made me wish that every child everywhere got a present for Christmas, naughty or nice :)

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The Third Day

Today was a little slower because of the rain, but it ended up pretty well! We went to a butterfly exhibit where we were able to walk amongst hundreds of white butterflies and enjoy the calming atmosphere. They also had a fun 3D video about bugs to watch and a display of jungle bugs and amphibians and reptiles. I forgot the name of them, but there were some giant cockroaches that were probably a good 4" long. We should all be very glad that they aren't native to the midwest!

After that fun, we cooked the pork chops that we bought the day before. I finally have my mom's recipe! I brined the pork overnight and it really did make the meat really tender and everybody was glad that they learned a new trick. Everybody helped make a little bit of the lunch too so it was great that it didn't become really chaotic even though the kitchen in the hotel is very cramped! The pork chops were just like I remember from childhood and I was very happy!

After lunch we lounged for awhile while dad got some work done and then everybody went shopping at the local outlet mall. My mom and my sister both bought a bunch of clothes. And if you count the boots my dad bought earlier today, I don't know how we're going to fit it all in the car because the trunk was full on the way down and we had stuff on the floor and in our laps on the way down!

For dinner we went to Lambert's Cafe in Ozark, which they claim is the "home of the throwed roll" We had to check it out because I think we heard about it on TV years before and my sister's co-worker recommended it. They had southern style food and they gave us way too much to eat, but it was delicious! I had the meatloaf with green beans and peaches. Along with that, everybody got "pass arounds" which included fried potatoes, black eyed peas, fried okra, and macaroni and tomatoes. Of course we all had a roll thrown at us from across the restaurant!

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More Ozarks

Today We had a pretty event packed day. First we went go-karting on a wooden roller coaster-style track. We all really enjoyed bumping around so much! That ended up being a random detour on the way to the "Inspiration Tower." The tower is a location where you can see all the way to Arkansas and also view all the scenic mountains and the lake nearby. It was a real trip! I got some really good photos taken there, so that was nice.

After that fun we went to the local Super Wal-Mart with the intention of buying pork chops and cooking them for a late lunch the way my mom used to when I was younger. Unfortunately, by the time we got back to the hotel, it was nearing 4PM and we decided just to skip lunch and just have a small snack. I ate a banana. Para continuar, we then went to The Talking Caverns cave and had an awesome tour. I really appreciate nature much more because of it! Before the tour I bought some Ammonite and Orthocerid fossils that they had for sale because I thought they looked so cool. Neither of them are native fossils in Missouri, but I couldn't help myself, they looked so cool! The Orthocerids are from Morocco. In the cave I thankfully got off a couple good indoor shots with no flash. That was pretty difficult especially since the exposure required was about 4 seconds on average.

We came back from the cave starving for dinner, but instead of eating pork chops, we all decided to go out for dinner because we passed so many good looking restaurants on the way. We ended up choosing a seafood place with a horribly depressed waitress but good food. I ended up having the tilapia with a white wine sauce with mushrooms and lump crab meat. I really enjoyed it.

And now here I am writing this...

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The Ozarks (part 1)

So after leaving home at around 8:30AM and driving to Kansas City to stop at the Stetson Hat Outlet store for the better part of 2 hours to buy 2 very expensive cowboy hats, 2 bathroom breaks (in the first 4 hours), 1 lunch break (at 4PM), and getting lost in the stupid KC highway maze.  We finally arrived in Branson, MO in the heart of the northern Ozarks at 9PM. I had always heard that Branson was like a clean family-oriented version of Las Vegas, but I didn't realize that meant a church every mile and only white people as far as the eye could see! Well, it's not too much different from Iowa, well with all the white people..... I guess that's about the only thing Iowa has in common besides the dirt.

We had a super late dinner at around 10:30-11:00, but I made sure not to eat my whole plate because it was so late, but I still think I ate too much! After that we went to a 50's style club called Club 57 where a band played a bunch of classic rock music. It was pretty entertaining. And now here I sit typing all about it. And I'm beat!