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I noticed some things on my recent visit to Germany.

• They really like carbonation.
  If you don’t specify how you want your non-alcoholic drink, it will be fizzy. Mit bubbles.

  Even water.

  If you ask for water, chances are good you’ll get sparkling water. Ask for still water. Shtill vasser.

• They don’t know what lemonade is.
  I ordered a lemonade at a restaurant, because it was on the menu. The “lemonade” came clear and sparkling so I was suspicious, but it had a lemony taste.

  I tried again at the next restaurant:
  “Laymonaddeh, bitteh”
  “Sprite or 7Up?”
  “What…?”
  (my German colleagues try explaining. I should have switched my order to iced tea, but I was so flabbergasted trying to reconcile calling a Sprite a lemonade that I think I ordered a Sprite. Have I mentioned I do not like carbonation?)

  After the waiter left, I explained to my German colleagues what lemonade is – water, squeezed lemons, and sugar. They were amused, as no one around there drinks that. Then they showed me the Bitter Lemon drink that they were familiar with and I had never seen before.

• They don’t eat much chicken.
  It’s the opposite of the United States. Here, every restaurant has chicken and few have ham or pork. There, every restaurant has ham or pork and few have chicken.
• They don’t use top sheets.
  This one could be a European thing. But your hotel bed comes with a comforter/duvet thing and a pillow. A fitted sheet covers the mattress, but you’re either hot with the comforter or cold without it.
• They are friendly and just about everyone knows English.
  We were hard-pressed to find someone there who did not speak English.
• They regard Switzerland as we Michiganders regard Ohio.
  The Swiss know you’re not from there and are very strict about traffic tickets.

  Also, the higher speeding tickets will cost you 1-, 2-, or 3-months salary.

Germany is a fine place to visit. Roads are nice, cars are nice – there was only one car I remember seeing with rust on it. It was memorable because it was such a contrast to the other cars.

Yes, I did go on the Autobahn and made it over 100mph for a short time. There was too much traffic around, and that prevented any other attempts.

Last thing to note – I always pictured Germany as being very old, much older than the US. And that is true for the regions, but Germany the country was formed around the time of the US civil war. So it is a young country, and now I know who and where the Prussians were.

I know I wrote “The End” for the last one, but that was for the travelogue-style blog. Anyone else go to travelogues when they were little?

This blog post is to recollect some of the aspects of the trip that didn’t get photos.

• Cleanliness
  As far as the cities went, I rank Monterey as the cleanest and Seattle as the dirtiest. Santa Cruz was in the middle. I left out Whitefish, MT because it is significantly smaller than the others, but it was quite clean as well.
• Shopping
  At Yellowstone National Park, go to the general store back by the snow lodge. Do not bother buying food or souvenirs at any of the official lodges.

  At Glacier National Park (west side), souvenir shopping is better at Lake McDonald Lodge than anywhere in Apgar Village (inside the park) or West Glacier (outside the park). West Glacier had a wider variety, but the quality was not as good.

• Train
  The Amtrak conductor announced every town or city we were passing through, ahead of time so we would know where to look and what to look for. It took a couple of cities before we realized that he announced that every city as “We are coming up to beautiful [insert city name], also known as the jewel of the northwest.” So now to me, all the cities in Washington are known as the jewels of the northwest.
• Bus Drivers
  There were some good people driving the buses. I don’t know about all of them, but the things that stood out were all positive.

  First bus driver: the Monterey-Salinas Transit bus driver from Monterey to San Jose. It was a two-hour bus ride, an express with very few stops. At one of the stops, Gamma had to go to the bathroom. The only problem was it was a place with no public bathrooms. So she went a few blocks and pulled to the curb near a McDonalds and let us run in there. Gamma appreciated it, but I think not as much as my wife and I appreciated it.

  Second bus driver: the Seattle public transit driver. We were taking her bus from our hotel to a second bus, and that second bus to the train station. So we had all our luggage and naturally looked very touristy. The problem (that we didn’t know was a problem) was that the transfer to the other bus was in the middle of no-man’s-land – somewhere near Pioneer Square where it is nothing but homeless guys.

  When we started to leave – before we even got off the bus – she asked us if we were in the right spot. I explained we were getting on the other bus. She told us that the other bus was down in the transit tunnel, and that to get there we had to go around the corner then down the stairs. We thanked her and set off. The “around the corner” was literally just the next building, but we glanced back and she was watching us, not leaving the bus stop, to make sure we made it with no problem.

  I’m guessing that if it were evening instead of late morning, she would have advised us to stay on her bus and pick a different transfer. Anyway, she went above and beyond her duties simply out of concern for a family.

  Last item in this bus drivers section: the other Seattle bus drivers were fairly laid back. On the larger buses, people just board at the rear doors and the driver assumes they have a ticket. We did that once, because it was a mad rush to get on the bus and we didn’t want to be left to wait for the next bus. We did have valid tickets. One driver rounded down on purpose, which I thought was nice but later I realized he just didn’t want me slowing down his route by feeding single dollar bills into the fare box.

• Helping Strangers
  At Old Faithful, I was standing on the central walkway approaching the geyser viewing area. The kids were playing on logs nearby so I was just people watching. There were dark clouds in the distance (very far, since that’s big sky country there), and we could see lightning occasionally with the thunder coming afterwards.

  As I’m observing all this, some other guy comes walking quickly down the path, holding a fancy camera (DSLR with a larger-than-standard lens) and speaking excitedly and constantly. Just as he gets to where I am, we hear a low rumble of thunder. He starts relatively freaking out “Ahh! It’s starting!! We got here just in time!!!”

  I didn’t want to burst his bubble, but at the same time I wanted him to have correct information (that the rumbling was not Old Faithful starting), so I tell him “That’s actually just the thunder from the storm over there. Old Faithful isn’t due for about 15 more minutes.” Or something like that. He continues speaking to no one in particular and without even looking at me or acknowledging me and says something like “I guess I’m just so excited to be here. I haven’t been here since I was 6, and [wife’s name] and [baby’s name] have never been here at all.”

  I look, and trailing behind him are his wife and child, whom I didn’t name because I don’t remember their names. Also with him is a cameraman, carrying another fancy camera and a tripod and a light. He wasn’t using any of them, just carrying them. I then look back at excited-talker guy, and I see that he is still talking to no one and he always cares where his camera is pointing.

  That’s when I realize I’ve run across a vlogger. He had been, and still was, rolling film. My first thought was that I was a doofus for interrupting his monologue and ruining his video. My second thought was that he must have spent a lot of money on memory cards. If he’s running minutes and minutes of video on a DSLR, he has invested a lot into his equipment.

  Before I could get to a third thought, his wife turned to me with her perfectly white teeth (she looked prepared to be on camera at any time) and asked what time Old Faithful was supposed to erupt. I conveyed the information I saw on the park ranger’s board, something like 8:37. She thanked me and they all headed over to the benches close to Old Faithful.

  Sure enough, Old Faithful erupted right on time – 8:37 or whatever it was I told them. I tried to avoid them, so I didn’t accidentally make another cameo in his YouTube channel. I did see him discussing the next shot with his cameraman, so he wasn’t always filming.

  I have no idea who that guy was, but if anyone out there knows a vlogger/youtuber/van-lifer who was at Yellowstone National Park in late June and whose child would have been just a couple months old or so at the time, that was probably him.

• Rental Car Tips
  We happened to use Enterprise for 2 of the van rentals on our trip. Here is a tip if you have to use Enterprise: when you turn in the vehicle and they ask you how everything was, your answer must be “It was great!” If you do not say “great” – my answer was “it was good” – then they will ask you what they could have done to make it great. And then you must provide an answer which is essentially free process improvement advice for them. Unless you feel like having to answer an extra question (and an open-ended one at that), use their corporate buzzword of “great”.

  Also note: I tried a couple of different options, but the winner was always Costco. Use Costco’s car rental service – better rates than any other membership discounts I could find.

  Lastly: I did what a lot of people say not to do and payed extra for insurance at the rental company. I know my credit card offers to cover damages during my rental, and for all I know Costco might have offered something too. Didn’t matter to me – I paid $20 per day for peace of mind and paperwork avoidance. Sure, the credit card company will probably pay something, but when and how? Does the rental company charge me and then I need to get reimbursed? Do I need to fill out paperwork at the rental company and also with the credit card company? Peace of mind – I could enjoy the vacation and drive without worry, knowing that if anything happened to the car then it would not be my problem. Just drop it off and leave.

• Favorite Spot
  After vacation, some other family members asked me what my favorite part of vacation was. I stopped to think, and they helpfully rephrased the question to “if you could go back to one place, which place would that be?”

  My answer was not one of the places that we stayed, but one of the places through which we drove: the scenic area of Montana. If you need a specific location, either Ennis or Big Sky. Ennis was on the way to Yellowstone and Big Sky was between Yellowstone and Bozeman. They both were set along a river next to a mountain range, with whitewater rafting tours and other adventures available, but with plenty of opportunity for relaxing and enjoying the scenery.

Continued from last week

Day 12

This was a day of sightseeing throughout the park. So we woke up and had breakfast at the lodge’s small restaurant thingy. Not many options, not very good food, and not cheap. But without a fridge in our room, we were at their mercy.

Then we wandered around the visitor’s center of Old Faithful for a while. We watched a short informational movie about Yellowstone and geysers – showtimes are based around Old Faithful eruption times – and then the kids went through the exhibits. It was fairly well done, and they had a room just for kids.

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Continued from last week

Day 11

We slept in a little bit, since this was just a travel day. Breakfast, clean up, pack the van, then go.

We drove for a while to our first destination – lunch at The Notorious P.I.G.

It was a good BBQ, but even better is they had a serve-yourself drink station. They kids were able to mix and match pop and lemonade and iced tea to their hearts’ content. Plus they got to fill up before getting back on the road so they couldn’t complain about being thirsty in the van. Due to that, we made extra sure everyone used the bathroom.

As far as the food goes, it was good. There was some sort of a package that got us a better deal than individual meals. I did not like the brisket as it was too fatty. But they had squeeze bottles of BBQ sauce on each table, along with rolls of paper towels, so it qualified as a standard BBQ joint.

If you do go looking for it, it is a bit off the freeway, more into the heart of downtown. But it’s not too bad to get there. And much better than any fast food that can be found right at the freeway.

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Continued from last week

Day 9

We awoke rather cold, and early. I took a couple of the kids back to the lounge car so we could sit with the huge windows and see the scenery. The problem with the large windows is that there is not as much between you and the weather, so that car was even colder.

The conductor came through the car and made sure we knew our stop was coming up soon, so we gathered our things and made sure everyone was packed up and ready to go. Whitefish was a slightly longer stop, as they had to unload not only our checked bags but others’ as well. But the conductor treats every stop the same – be ready to go or they’ll leave with you (or if you’ve stepped out for fresh air, they’ll leave without you).

Here our first foray onto Montanan soil. Whitefish, MT, in particular.

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Continued from last week

Day 8

This was a day of more travel. We started out with a good breakfast at the hotel. Then we had to pack and make sure we got everything. Then it was the 6 of us with all our luggage off to the street behind the hotel to catch the bus to downtown. Our first destination was the train station.

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Continued from last week

Day 6

This was a day of more bus rides. We started out with a good breakfast at the hotel, albeit very crowded. Then off to the street behind the hotel to catch the bus out to Ballard. We hopped on, rode for a bit, made a transfer, rode for a little while more, and ended up at the entrance to the Ballard Locks and Botanical Garden.

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