Because the sun was out we decided to take a walk around the strip. We stopped by at a sweets Shop to the delight of the kids and saw the fountains in front of the Bellagio.
The fountains in front of the Bellagio
There was still a lot of scaffolding up from the car race the weekend before so we had to cross the street or bypass through Casinos to get where we wanted to go.
Turkey dinner
In the early afternoon we headed to our friends’ House for Thanksgiving dinner which was excellent as always.
We finished the evening with a Feuerzangenbowle. It’s basically mulled wine with a bit of extra alcohol and sugar. You have to have this special tong which holds a sugar cone. You soak it with rum (at least 54%) and light it on fire so that the caramelized sugar drips in the warm punch. I found this recipe in English if you want to have a closer look. It also has all the links to the ingredients you need. It’s tasty but I haven’t had any this time since I was the designated driver. Funnily enough the sugar cone was eyed with great interest during the security checks at the airport. It was always passed the drug and explosive tests since it is really just sugar. You can also get it here but is much cheaper in Germany. Would you give this a try?
So, what do we do in Las Vegas? Most of the time we come here to visit our friends, but this time we also came because BIL and SIL like going to Las Vegas. There was a visit to the Outlet Mall on request so I and the kids dropped off the rest of the party and made our way to yet another game store in another part of town with a pit stop at the Boba shop. Game stores seem to become a new theme whenever I want to make the kids happy. We also had time visit the Writer’s Block. It’s an awesome bookstore my friend introduced me to and now we come here almost every time. By the time we got back to the hotel it was almost time for heading out to our dinner reservation where we met up with our friends.
Waiting for our dinner time to start
The restaurant Buddy V’s is in the Venetian and with a little extra time we walked through the canal streets. The first time I saw the artificial blue sky I did a double take.
The Sphere experience
The main attraction of the day was a visit to the Sphere. It’s that big dome with projections all over. You probably came across one of the gigantic Smiley faces before? Inside is an event space/movie theatre. We had tickets for Postcards from Earth. It is shown on the world’s largest high Definition Screen and provides an interactive experience. That includes temperature changes, wind, chair vibration and smell. It was really something. I did not care much for the story (humans send in pairs to other planets to populate them because humanity destroyed Planet Earth) but the images were stunning. The entrance area reminded me of a space port in science fiction movies. Everyone left impressed.
It surprises me every single time how long the drive to Las Vegas is. We started in Tehachapi in the morning and arrived in Las Vegas in the dark. To be fair we did do a road stop at the Calico Ghost Town. It does not really feel like a ghost town since a lot of the abandoned buildings in this old silver mining town are occupied by touristy shops now. It’s quite the production.there are parts that still have the abandoned charm of lost places but most of it feels more like a tourist trap. It was a place to stop but one time was enough in my opinion. We walked around, took some pictures and headed back out. The lunch we had at Peggy Sue’s Diner beforehand was way more worth it. It has fun decorations in each dining room and the food was quite good for the price.
When we arrived in Vegas we still had time to try out the hotel pool and the kids got a pizza dinner while the adults took a walk along the strip. This city is a bit crazy, loud and sparkly. I do like looking at all the lights for a bit but don’t care much for the casinos. We missed the Bellagio fountain but had a look at the new Christmas decorations in the botanical gardens. I kept wondering how many poinsettias there might be.
The best thing, that happened so far this week, was that my Secret Santa package arrived. Who knows me, knows that I love surprises, and I honestly already forgot about it. I am thankful that San from the in between is mine organized this again.
Other than that life has been busy with work, getting ready for Christmas including sending out cards, wrapping presents, putting things on various piles to take along on our trip to see family in Germany and in general just make it through the last week of school. I can tell my kids need the break. There is one more concert for each child and then we can breath for two weeks. The only thing left to decide is if we take an Uber to the airport, park there or take public transit (I think it is coming down to Uber since parking for two weeks is not cheap either) and if we are doing a pre-christmas gift exchange at home or if we wait. I kind of like the idea of doing it before. That way I don’t have to pack any of our own presents (except a special one that the kids can use on the way). There will be enough things to bring back as is. I maybe should be making a list of things I want to buy when we are there. I am curious, is there anything you would think a typical souvenir you would bring back with you? For us it’s mostly sweets (the Haribo selection at the supermarkets is insane), tea (herbal and fruit teas mostly), vitamin tablets that dissolve in water (I never understood why in Germany they sell for one Euro for a role of 20, whereas here you can pay $1 for one serving), mustard and maybe some salad dressing powder. The days where we brought back tooth paste and dried sauce packages are over mostly. I always found it interesting that my SIL will buy tooth paste in the US ever since she spend a year as an Au-pair in the country.
How are you doing with your holiday preparations or are you already right in the middle of it?
At least part of my family always feels the urge to do something during vacations. To spend a day just hanging out is not a vacation day apparently. Since the only thing my daughter asked for during the whole trip was a visit to her favorite bookstore in Las Vegas (The Writer’s Block) and a shopping stop at Fergusons, we started with that. The Writer’s Block is a small independent bookstore with a cafe area in the front. It’s a little cramped and has lots of decorations hanging from the ceiling like marionettes, mobiles and bird houses. There is even a bunny. I love it. Fergusons is a shopping area filled with little artsy shops and a cafe. It has a cool truck sculpture at the entrance and the building used to be a hotel back in the day. It’s a quick visit and parking is easy in both locations.
View of Hoover Dam
Next we headed out of the city to visit Hoover Dam. It’s about an hour east of the city and in my opinion worth the drive. We have been a couple of times already but the size of the dam always leaves me breathless. First time we went in 2007 when we did a roadtrip through the National Parks and after that when the kids were maybe 4 and 6. Make sure you get of the highway in time or you end up driving over the very impressive Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge. Especially my husband was very concerned about it since he is not fond of heights. Right before you get to the dam there is a parking lot that leads to a pedestrian access up to the bridge. No-one wanted to come along and I did not want to go alone so this is left for another day. I imagine the view of the dam and the Colorado river being quite magnificent. Parking in the garage is $10. You can also buy your tickets for the dam online and I was a little concerned that we would not get in because it would only let me buy tickets for the following day but it turned out not to be a problem as we were able to buy tickets onsite. Just the visitor center is $10 for an adult and if you add a short movie and dam tour (what is 1 hour total) it is $15. There is also a longer tour but it was already booked out for the day. The movie talks a bit about the history of the dam and the tour takes you a couple stories down inside the dam itself.
30-foot diameter penstock
You get to see one of the pipes which carries the water to the turbines and the turbines on the Nevada side. Afterwards you get to explore the visitor center on your own and walk around the dam outside.
View of the turbines on the Nevada side
It actually sits right at the border of Nevada and Arizona and the time zone line. There is one tower with a clock on the Nevada side and one with a clock that shows an hour later on the Arizona side. The kids were very impressed.
Lake Mead
Water levels in Lake Mead are pretty low currently. It was already low in 2007 when I visited the first time but it is even lower now. I still remember how surprised I was that the color difference in the rock surface is so obvious.
Another view of the dam
Another thing that always surprises me is how openly proud American’s are of their achievements. I don’t mean this in a bad way. It’s just that Germans tend to be more critical of themselves. You definitely leave realizing what an architectural marvel and great achievement the dam was. I love the resources that are so often provided through American sights and parks. I found the kids facts quite interesting myself and there is a whole learning package I only discovered after the fact.
View of the Colorado river and the Mike O’Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge
In the end we all had a really good dam day (with lots of dam jokes). I was almost a little sad driving back to Las Vegas. I love roadtrips and was ready to head further but that has to wait until the next vacation.
How do you feel about roadtrips? Any places you visited multiple times?
I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. Come join me. You can find the full list of participants over on San’s blog here #nablopomo2023
On the road
Today we drove halfway to Las Vegas (visiting our good friends). Nothing much happened. The drive on I-5 from the Bay Area is pretty boring but it is the fastest. It was raining most of the way anyway so not much to do outside. The upside: there were clouds! Do you like clouds as much as I do? But now back to answering questions.
On day one of NaBloPoMo I did a little introduction round and asked if you had questions. You can still fill out the form if you like. This is the second round of answers on this. You can find round one here and one about why I live in the US in more detail here.
What’s your favorite book? If you would have asked me in High-school I would have answered “Siddharta” by Herman Hesse. We read it in school and it really got my teenage brain thinking. Honestly I don’t remember much now. Later came Harry Potter. I think that is the one book I would like to be able to read again for the first time.I also like the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon and am contemplating re-reading it. I just don’t have that much time to read, sigh. A little magic is always good and I enjoyed the “Rivers of London” books from Ben Aaronovitch. My taste is a bit all over the place and there is not one specific book I can’t live without. I do prefer fantasy, historic fiction or YA but I am not too picky. I wish I had more time to read but I do listen to books whenever I can. Do you have a book you think I should try? Any special one you can’t imagine life without?
What is a hobby you do? This is probably already answered when you followed along. I do like to do things with my hands – no matter if it is pottery, knitting, crochet, sewing, drawing, painting, gardening, baking. How can you pick just one?
What role does blogging play in your life? I am a little sad to say not a very big one unless it is November. My family wants to stay out of it so I am trying to stay vague about them as much as possible but it is hard as they are always on my mind. I love the community that came with it and I was hoping to keep up after last November. It proved really hard. I missed everyone and was still checking in occasionally but mostly followed quietly along. I am doing the #project365 on Instagram where I try to post a picture every day what I enjoyed. I don’t do it for the followers but for the connections and for myself. Being an introvert is not easy sometimes and working and family and other hobbies and friends – something got to give. It gets easier as the kids get older – at least mostly.
And last but not least: How do you find parenting? What’s it like to be a parent to tweens and teenagers? I love my kids dearly but I sometimes find it challenging to balance them and myself. There is quite a few things I don’t do right now because it would take time away from parenting. I am sure I am not alone with that? Honestly my kids make it mostly easy. They turned into very responsible tweens/teenagers. I don’t think I can credit myself for all of it. My husband and I make a good team and they had an awesome aftercare in elementary school. The teachers there were kind and helped them keep their homework organized. I think it really carried over. The emotionally ups and downs are harder. I see more of myself in my daughter what is good and bad. It brought up quite a few insecurities I had when I was growing up. I would say so far so good. I keep checking in with them every day and make it a point to know who their friends are. Try to get them to bring them home. I volunteered quite a bit in the lower grades and am glad I know most of the parents and the other kids they hang out with. The very big drama passed us by so far and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it stays this way. It feels like social media and the pandemic really elevated all the usual issues that were already around during my time like eating disorders and other instabilities brought it to a whole new level and it’s heart breaking to hear about. The hardest thing for me really is that my mom passed away a couple of years ago and I can’t ask her for advice or how it was when I was growing up.
One last thing outstanding: Christmas in Germany I will get back to that in December when we are there.
I was really glad for this Veteran’s Day Friday. I went back to work yesterday after getting back home Wednesday late afternoon. Everyone was surprised to see me since they were thinking I would only be back Monday. But since I did go back Thursday I did not have a whole lot of time to sort everything away, so I finished that up today.
Before getting started on the sorting I made breakfast for the kids since they had the day off, too. We had pancakes with apples. My husband did have to work today. I also fed my sourdough which was luckily still alive. It’s at that stage where it does not need to be refreshed every week what really helps. After all this I cleaned up the kitchen and took care of the dishes. We don’t have a dishwasher so hand washing it is for me. We have an old kitchen with shallow countertops so it would require some more extensive work to make room for one – I just don’t want to deal with it right now.
Unpacking round one took care of the suitcase contents. I already put away clothing on Wednesday night but the extra sweets and other goodies had find a home, too. Haribo Pico Balla is the family favorite and always has to be brought back. I found some paint brushes that were basically brand new, other small craft supplies, small pliers a pink leather satchel, a sponge, muffin pan liners, an ocarina someone in the household is playing nonstop (I regretted bringing it for a short moment but it’s also very sweet listening to the playing) – it’s really weird what stays behind after all these years. My sister gave us an advent calendar that I took of course. I can’t believe we are so close to december. I found another book that I thought my kids might like. My mother in law bought me a magazine that had some cookie recipes I might try out in the coming weeks and I also ordered a calendar that I may keep or may give away for Christmas.
Since I fed the sourdough I had some extra and decided to bake bread. It was ready just in time for lunch. There is nothing better than the smell (and taste) of bread fresh out of the oven in my opinion.
Unpacking round two involved the unpacking the three boxes I shipped. A former colleague who moved to France recommended ‘Send My Bag’ and since I did not want to deal with the boxes at the airport I gave it a try. DHL picked the boxes up and provided tracking throughout. It actually worked really well. The only downside was that they don’t recommend the service for anything fragile – I guess the pictures already tell you what I shipped. Most things made it but one of the boxes took a beating and some of its contents was broken. I see some mosaic making in my future but I was actually surprised that most of the china made it. The white one with the blue flowers I picked out with my mom and I am seriously sentimental about it (besides having a thing for nice china). Then I had to make room for it somehow and sorted and cleaned out the kitchen cabinets – one more box for a garage sale went into storage. Everything found a place and I vacuumed up the whole kitchen/dining/living room and hopefully got all the little china chips that I did not catch when pulling out the broken pieces. That pretty much filled the rest of the afternoon.
This was my Friday and now it’s almost time for bed. I don’t have specific weekend plans but I am sure we will fill it up with something. Do you usually plan out your weekend or just enjoy not having any plans?
One reason I was reluctant to sign up for NaBloPoMo was that I already knew I would be traveling to Germany for a week. My dad is getting ready to move out of my childhood home and his home for over 50 years and I promised I help a bit. So the next days will be filled with sorting, deciding what will be packed to go with him, Sorting through the last remaining things I want to keep and saying good bye to my home town (more on this to come in another post).
Solo travel feels very special to me as I usually never get to do it these days. It involves quite a bit of planning ahead since I am the family organizer. I keep telling myself they will manage without me.
Back to travel day: Bags were packed the day before so everything was ready to go besides the last chargers and some food in case the airline falls short. I left the house at 10am to be driven to the Bart station. Luckily the next train went straight to SFO so I did not have to change. I got there at 11:30am and only had to drop of my checked bags. Isn’t it amazing you can do most everything online now? It’s a nightmare for my 80 year old dad but I do appreciate not having to stay in line for an hour (or longer) to check in. By noon I was through security and went on a search for some lunch. At SFO we somehow always end up at the domestic terminal for that even flying internationally. Boarding started on time at 1:50pm. The flight was supposed to leave at 2:40pm but to no big surprise it took a little longer as we were still waiting for some passengers.
The flight itself was pretty uneventful. I am not very hopeful about food on United flights but this time the chicken curry was edible. I always wonder why they even bother with the roles as I think they are pretty disgusting (sorry). The flight to Munich takes about 10 hours and I spend my time knitting, reading,watching movies and writing back and forth with my family about a lost ID card I was sure I saw in the living room the day before. Unfortunately sleep was a short hour or so. Arrival in Munich was at ~9:50am the following day (Nov. 3rd) and everything worked like a charm. Passport control was a breeze, the new gate was posted and it was not to far and after another hour sleep on the plane to Hannover we touched down at 12:55pm. The bag was collected and my dad picked me up from the airport, hurray.
The drive to my hometown Wietzen takes another hour and we stopped for a late lunch on the way.
Jaegerschnitzel mit Pommes (Schnitzel with a mushroom gravy and fries)
We were back in the door at around 3:40pm German and currently 7:40am West Coast time. If my calculation is correct it was 21 hours, 40 minutes this time with no special surprises.
I did take a quick nap because 2 hours of sleep and fell asleep again on the couch after dinner. Wish me luck I can sleep tonight because I don’t handle jetlag very well. Any advice on that? Maybe there is something I have not tried yet but mostly I go with the flow these days.
Do you often get to travel solo and do you manage to pack light?
Any advice on how to deal with saying goodbye to your childhood home?
I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. You can read more about it on San’s blog the in between is mine. #nablopomo2022
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday!? In anticipation of the big Thanksgiving meal we took the kids on a short ‘walk’ to work up an appetite. Calling anything a hike is always a gamble and will trigger a string of complaints but we have been in the same spot before. Apparently a hike is anything above 2 miles according to my son and just too much effort (that does not mean we don’t do it anyway, we just deal with the complaints for half an hour and after that it suddenly subsides and everyone is having a good time).
Our friends live really close to Red Rock Canyon which is a State Park right next to Las Vegas. It features a scenic drive and beautiful hikes. We parked the car at the Calico Basin parking lot and walked up to the big red rock formations you see from there. We did the same walk/hike before but in a loop. Since we did not have as much time until the turkey was ready, we just went a little up the hill and then turned around.
There were a lot of rock climbers to watch what was really fun. We are not climbers but made our way up the hill what involves climbing over quite a few boulders. Ther are also plenty of different rock patterns to observe.
I did not get as far up as the rest of my family because I got a little dizzy. The air in Las Vegas is very dry and that combined with the altitude was a little much that day. The view was beautiful nonetheless. On the left in the distance you can see a little of the Las Vegas strip.
I am happy to report everyone made it back home without injuries. It was interesting to watch the other hikers climbing up while I was waiting for the others to come back down the hill. There was a family with two little kids and the expression on the mom’s face was exactly how I must look like watching my kids climb up a rockface (terrified and nervous). There was a couple where the woman was grumbling about ‘just a short Thanksgiving hike’. It all sounded very familiar (my husband has a reputation for coming up with interesting ‘short cuts’).
This is Las Vegas, too. It’s not all the strip with its casinos and glitter.
I am doing NaBloPoMo this month. 30 blog posts in 30 days. You can read more about it on San’s blog the in between is mine. #nablopomo2022
Our Elementary School PTA is financing art classes and their teacher is amazing. She introduces the classes to a new artist every couple weeks. During one of the classes she showed them a video about Numina the Meow Wolf art exhibit in Denver. He came home so excited and was asking how far Denver is. I looked up the exhibition and realized that Denver might be a bit far, but that there is the Omega Mart also by Meow Wolf in Las Vegas. So today was the day he was looking forward to.
You enter the exhibition through the Omega Mart which is set up like a super market with all kinds of weird products. Through the freezer we went into the main exhibition area.
There is a whole backstory to the Omega Mart you can find online according to the kids. Because I don’t want to hit publish I am trying hard not to get sucked into that right now but I am sure you can find it online if it interests you.
It all feels like a wild dream with many sounds, colors and patterns. There are all these walkways and stairs you can explore. It’s called an immersive art experience for a reason.
The pictures really don’t do it justice. Behind every corner you end up in a new room or walkway.
It’s a very different art experience to a regular museum but if it helps to get the kids interested I approve. And honestly we all had so much fun. So much so that we are already thinking of visiting another one. I know it’s not for everyone but do you think you would go?
The exhibit is located in Area 15 in Las Vegas. It’s a big warehouse space filled with exhibits, experiences, food and stores. It’s loud, dark and colorful. It was fun to wonder around for a while and take it all in.
Inside you are greeted by this giant skull. Projections change its appearance every so often.
Outside you will find more art installations, too. After seeing all this part of me would be interested in going to burning man one year but I think I could not stomach the heat and the dirt (not to mention the required organization beforehand).
We ended the day with a cooking class in ‘how to make cheese spaetzle’. My husbands family is from the Black Forest originally an and this is one of our most loved recipes. There are multiple ways to make spaetzle but we opted to get our friends a spaetzle press and I chose a German cook book in English that has the recipe. Even though my husband was not convinced that it was a very good interpretation of the original. We made do and according to him the result was 8/10. Not too bad…
Home here and there 