Trip Report 50 Nifty United States....or at least 5 of them

Disclaimer: I have never done a trip report before. This may not be interesting to anyone. This might be ridiculously long and rambly. This might just be plain old ridiculous. So if you absolutely hate it...why are you still reading??

This trip was a long time in the planning. You don't go overseas for a month without a LOT of planning. At least -I- don't. I made lists. I made more lists. I read blogs. I studied menus. I made more lists. I bought books. I made more lists. Because that's what I do.
The first half of our trip was for me to go "home" to visit family. The 2nd half was to do Disney.
So we drove to my in-laws' house and spent the night there since they would be driving us to the airport in the morning.

We started out early in the morning on July 10th, with the in-laws and 2 cars to take us to the airport. Within 15 minutes, we were at a gas station fixing a flat tire. Good start. But, if that's the worst thing to happen, we're doing well, and we had allowed plenty of time for just such an occurrence. (Didn't I say I was a planner??) Good thing one of said in-laws used to be a mechanic...we weren't stopped long.

So we were off to see the wizard....er...the airport. Not exactly a yellow brick road, but we followed it anyway. We got checked in to our flight (with an upgrade to economy plus because the kids are not old enough to sit by themselves. Thanks, kids...stop growing. I want more of these upgrades.) While we were waiting for our flight, we went to McDonalds for breakfast and let the kids play on the interactive floor.

And this is where it gets boring and rambly because we had several flights, because otherwise we couldn't do both Disney AND home. So...we went Amsterdam to Chicago and Chicago to Orlando, Got a hotel room for a few hours of sleep and headed back to the airport to fly to Denver, then drove about 6 hours from Denver to Gillette, Wyoming where we were staying with friends. Just in case you were wondering (which if you were, I have to wonder about your sanity, because really, how could we NOT be exhausted?) we were SHOT after this and I would not recommend 36 hours of pretty much non-stop traveling by air and THEN have to get in a car. But...we made it. Yay.

 

[Songbird76]

Boy! I feel for you 2 as parents. My kids did Tough to be a Bug from young and loved and yet yours loved Indiana with all that action and stuff. All of the guessing has to be difficult for you. My DD was 4 years old the first trip on Tower. We bought the photo because I've never since seen that awful terrified look on her face that the photo captured. My shock, they turned around, got back in line and did it again. I can only do Tower once these days unlike years ago when I could do it multiple times in a row. Early on you dropped only once, pretty much straight down or a slight drop and then down. All this yo you up and down now limits me to once. Actually I liked the one big drop better, I found it far more exillerating.

And yes, Prime Time is pretty much an all or nothing type of stick it is a busy restaurant and trying to keep track of what each person wants at an individual table is kinda impossible to they flag tables with concerns. We also ate here this time and ate the samplier and it was so yummy. Actually we all got it. I feel for you with the lack of pot roast. Do you have COW over there on your side of the pond? There are so many cuts that work for Pot Roast you just have to adjust the cooking a bit as not to dry out the meat. The key is the steam.
If you have COW available just about any cut will do, let me know I can shoot you a PM sometime and give you some pointers. Life without potroast is sad.

We have beef, but not much in the line of large cuts, because most Dutch people do not have ovens. Baking is not something the Dutch do for themselves. So anything like a Roasted Chicken, or a turkey, or a baked ham just doesn't exist in the grocery stores. If you go to a deli, they will have pre-roasted chicken for sale. My first year here, I was determined to do Thanksgiving. I went EVERYWHERE looking for a turkey. There was only one store that had them, and it was a membership store like Sam's club. My FIL had a membership through his school, so I was able to get one there. But, my in-laws (we lived with them until we could find affordable housing) didn't have an oven. They had a magnatron, which is like a microwave that also has an oven setting. First, I had to measure the inside, then I had to find a roasting pan and I had to make sure that roasting pan would also fit INSIDE the magnatron. And then I had to find a Turkey small enough to fit inside that roasting pan. There I am with my tape measurer, checking Turkeys. I bought the smallest one they had...a 9 lb. Turkey, and it still didn't fit with the lid on, so I had to improvise by covering the pan with tin foil and put the lid over that to keep the tin foil on. Thank goodness my mother's recipe for turkey does not require basting! Now, I can't find a turkey to save my life. And a ham....nope...it comes precooked and sliced in plastic packets that you boil in water and when it's done, it has the consistency of shoe leather. No moist ham with pineapple and cherry glaze like my mom used to make. No pot roast with carrots and onions and potatoes.

 

[Figgy1]

We have beef, but not much in the line of large cuts, because most Dutch people do not have ovens. Baking is not something the Dutch do for themselves. So anything like a Roasted Chicken, or a turkey, or a baked ham just doesn't exist in the grocery stores. If you go to a deli, they will have pre-roasted chicken for sale. My first year here, I was determined to do Thanksgiving. I went EVERYWHERE looking for a turkey. There was only one store that had them, and it was a membership store like Sam's club. My FIL had a membership through his school, so I was able to get one there. But, my in-laws (we lived with them until we could find affordable housing) didn't have an oven. They had a magnatron, which is like a microwave that also has an oven setting. First, I had to measure the inside, then I had to find a roasting pan and I had to make sure that roasting pan would also fit INSIDE the magnatron. And then I had to find a Turkey small enough to fit inside that roasting pan. There I am with my tape measurer, checking Turkeys. I bought the smallest one they had...a 9 lb. Turkey, and it still didn't fit with the lid on, so I had to improvise by covering the pan with tin foil and put the lid over that to keep the tin foil on. Thank goodness my mother's recipe for turkey does not require basting! Now, I can't find a turkey to save my life. And a ham....nope...it comes precooked and sliced in plastic packets that you boil in water and when it's done, it has the consistency of shoe leather. No moist ham with pineapple and cherry glaze like my mom used to make. No pot roast with carrots and onions and potatoes.

Sympathy like

 

[Cesar R M]

Well at least you got some real cute pictures. *bright side*

You lost me at garbage bags? I never saw a garbage bag thing. We put all of our stuff in the free Kali Rapids lockers, we actually got two.
Animal Kingdom is my least favorite park. If I lived down there or frequented Disney more often I might enjoy it more cause I would approach it differently. We went only once on this trip. We were out in under 3 hours and that included lunch at Flame which was so yummy and it wasn't all that hot that day and in the shade we were very comfortable. And @Cesar R M the bird did come to visit me.

that thief bird! always looking for ribs!!

 

[Gabe1]

that thief bird! always looking for ribs!!

I have a soft spot for that bird and I'm not a big fan of most birds though I do have a soft spot for ducks. Ducks have only found me at the Coronado Resort and Epcot.

 

[Gabe1]

We have beef, but not much in the line of large cuts, because most Dutch people do not have ovens. Baking is not something the Dutch do for themselves. So anything like a Roasted Chicken, or a turkey, or a baked ham just doesn't exist in the grocery stores. If you go to a deli, they will have pre-roasted chicken for sale. My first year here, I was determined to do Thanksgiving. I went EVERYWHERE looking for a turkey. There was only one store that had them, and it was a membership store like Sam's club. My FIL had a membership through his school, so I was able to get one there. But, my in-laws (we lived with them until we could find affordable housing) didn't have an oven. They had a magnatron, which is like a microwave that also has an oven setting. First, I had to measure the inside, then I had to find a roasting pan and I had to make sure that roasting pan would also fit INSIDE the magnatron. And then I had to find a Turkey small enough to fit inside that roasting pan. There I am with my tape measurer, checking Turkeys. I bought the smallest one they had...a 9 lb. Turkey, and it still didn't fit with the lid on, so I had to improvise by covering the pan with tin foil and put the lid over that to keep the tin foil on. Thank goodness my mother's recipe for turkey does not require basting! Now, I can't find a turkey to save my life. And a ham....nope...it comes precooked and sliced in plastic packets that you boil in water and when it's done, it has the consistency of shoe leather. No moist ham with pineapple and cherry glaze like my mom used to make. No pot roast with carrots and onions and potatoes.

Do the supermarkets have butchers? It all comes from the same arena so they could just make a larger portion??? My Gran did not put her pot roast in oven, she put it on a burner covered for steam on the lowest setting. Dang, if I close my eyes I can still smell it.

Also I talked to my Sis. She lived in Duesseldorf for a while and then on and off. She said she ordered online the American foods she could not get in local areas online and the delivery charges to door were reasonable. It included so many choices from cereals, cookies and she said even marshmallows and fluff plus Jello. She also said a few supermarkets in both Duesseldorf and in Ansterdam carried American branded foods.

 

[Cesar R M]

After Wind Cave, we headed to Evans Plunge to swim. I mostly just shivered...I remembered the water being much warmer!! But the kids had a blast on the curvy waterslide, so it was all good. We were pretty tired, DS was cranky, and we still had an hour drive back to our cabin, so we headed out after getting some grub. Again, I forgot to take pictures, but since it was just a run-o-the-mill hamburger (It might have been bison...I don't remember), it wasn't anything special to make you go "wow!!!". So you aren't really missing much as far as the pictures go...it was a good burger, but didn't look spectacular.
The next day, we drove over to the Rapid City/Hill City/Custer area. This is where we got our first view of Mount Rushmore, as well as some gorgeous scenery.
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We drove through Custer State Park, which was somewhat disappointing. We were hoping to see a lot of different animals, but not many were out and about near the roads. We saw a few Bison from far away, some prairie dogs, a few donkeys, and some antelope, but the big horn sheep remained elusive.
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gorgeous scenary!

 

[Cesar R M]

This was also the day where it got up over 100 degrees and I felt miserable. My head was pounding, I felt nauseated and just overheated. My kids weren't enjoying the park nearly as much as my niece (3) and our Iowa cousin's daughter (5) but they were so good about making it fun for them even though they didn't really like it themselves. We had a big picnic lunch and my Illinois Cousin's girlfriend had brought Suzy Qs, which I had been looking for the whole trip. So she gave me what was left of the box and I bit into one and it was HORRIBLE...I looked at it and there was mold. HOW? I thought those things were supposed to be able to survive a nuclear war! Not pleasant.
After Story Book, we headed up to Dinosaur Park, which really isn't much..just some statues of a few Dinos and a gift shop. We didn't spend much time there, it was more for nostalgia that we went.
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Then we made our traditional drive through Deerfield over to Spearfish to have dinner. South Dakota is full of pretty drives.
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And that's pretty much it for South Dakota. We said goodbye to the cousins and went to sleep and headed back to Wyoming the next day where we stopped at Devil's Tower to take a quick picture.
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I actually took lots of pictures of landscapes, and we'll get to those, but this cracked me up. We stopped at a gas station and there was this guy at the pump, leg hanging out the window, reading a book. Only in Wyoming.
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Devils tower?

Im not saying its aliens but...its

 

[Cesar R M]

My cousins live in a beautiful house in Denver. We got there at about bed time for the kiddos, so they just brought us straight to the guest rooms to let the kids pick out where they wanted to sleep. You would think they decorated these rooms specifically for my children. One room was decorated with sheep, which for inexplicable reasons is my son's favorite favorite animal. (which was why we tried so hard, in vain, to find big horn sheep in Custer State Park) He immediately chose that room. One of the others had light purple walls (DD's favorite color) with clouds splashed across them, and a 4 poster bed with frills and lace. She claimed that room. After a great night's sleep, we ventured out for breakfast to a place called Pete's Kitchen, which has been voted People's Choice for best breakfast in Denver, which is within walking distance of my cousin's house. My cousin is not really fond of it, but her husband LOVES it, and it was close and it's an experience, so we went there. I actually remembered food pics here. (I know, you're amazed! Let the ooooing and aaaaahing begin!!) The first thing I noticed cracked me up. Don't believe I'd have chosen that name for my business:
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Hubby got the breakfast burrito, DD got french toast, DS got pancakes, and I had biscuits and gravy.
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Then my cousin's husband took us to a museum, I can't remember the name of it, but it has something to do with science and there were a bunch of wildlife displays as well. I've been there before and I've watched IMAX movies there...it's a fantastic museum. We were only there for the Robot exhibit. However, we had a bit of time before our tickets were valid, so we looked around a bit first and the kids quickly discovered that there were pokey stops there, and while our devices don't support it, the cousin's did and he was all about pokemon go, so they played. Here's a 60-something year old running around with my two monkeys...I don't know who had more fun...him or them. Here are some pictures of the displays before we got into the robot exhibit.
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Believe it or not. Bimbo is a Mexican brand and the biggest bakery company in latin america. The bimbo word doesn't mean anything sexual or related to girl stereotypes in spanish. Theres news about the "hardships" of the company, trying to show that Bimbo isnt a what they think it is.
They have a cute bear mascot too.

We met up with our friends, who live in Florida, but do not have APs this year. But they didn't need tickets to get to the Whispering Canyon, so they decided to join us for our ADR. (I had added them to all our ADRs, just in case. I did not just show up with 2 extra people and expect to be accommodated) I had been waiting for this ADR because it seemed like it would be soooo much fun and it did not disappoint. Although, I would suggest that, if someone in your party has problems with noise, it may not be the best place. Looking back, I would have done this one without our friends because it was obviously not the best experience for one of them, who also happens to have a service dog in training and they did not handle it very well. I can only imagine the CMs were glad to see the back of us. We had placed our coaster on Green because I was NOT going to miss out on the antics, and at this point I didn't really know how badly my friend was doing healthwise. Last time she had been fine. Hind-sight, right? So first, it rained napkins and straws, which the kids thought was AWESOME...they were totally up for some shenanigans and this was right up their alley. We got our drinks and DH drank his coke really quickly, being a bit dehydrated from BB without much to drink during the day. So the server asked if he'd like a refill...yes please! And she comes back with this:
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DS thought this was HILARIOUS and wanted one, too. So he drank his drink as quickly as he could and asked for a refill, giggling fit to burst, as though she couldn't tell what he was up to. So she brought him this:
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And she told him that's all he was getting! He laughed and guzzled it, at which point she came back with a barred window that said "Trouble maker" on it to put him in jail. (he did not appreciate this joke as much) Our food came, and unfortunately, the service dog in training was not a happy camper about something, and lunged at the guy serving our food. He jumped out of the way and was fine, but it rattled us all a little bit and I can't help think we were probably a topic of conversation in the kitchen that night. They handled it EXTREMELY well, but I was mortified.
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3 of us got the skillet, pictured above, and DD and my friend both got the steak.
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It looked fantastic, but for some reason DD didn't like it, so we sent it home with the friends for the dog. I don't even remember what DS ordered, but probably something resembling chicken nuggets, which he probably didn't eat. Most of the trip, he ate nothing but french fries because even the chicken nuggets they had, which I thought were fantastic, he turned his nose up at and wouldn't eat them. The only thing I can remember him eating was the hotdog at blizzard beach the first day. Wait...not true. He ate a bread roll at Biergarten. Didn't I say my son was the pickiest eater on the planet?
The kids did stick horse races around the joint, which DS had a blast with. He took his racing very seriously and I could NOT get a good picture.
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Somewhere around this time, Hubby had finished the uber-coke and asked for a refill, which the server brought along with this:
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This was my favorite meal of our Disney trip. The kids were kept entertained, the food was pretty good, and we laughed a lot.
I had gotten fast passes for Soarin' for after dinner because I wanted to use our tier 1 fast passes on Epcot days for Frozen. I was really nervous because I am afraid of heights and I don't particularly like flying, but I REALLY wanted to see the places in the film. So I decided to be brave and I tried it, assured by my friends here that it does not go particularly high, especially if you are in line 3, which we were, and you are belted in, so you can't fall out. And I loved it. I think I ended up doing it 6 times over the course of our trip. I love that they pipe in the scents associated with each place. The one thing I DIDN'T like was the things that startle you....I know it's a transition, but the last thing you need when you are already apprehensive about heights, is something coming at you full speed like it's going to hit you. We came out of Soarin' and headed for The Land, which DD was dying to do for some reason. It was not on my "must do" list, but we were right there, we had plenty of time, and DD wanted to go, so we went. It was better than I remembered it being. I didn't remember it being very exciting, but it was pretty interesting. And then we went to see the Circle of Life film, since it was there and now DS was begging. It was about 9 pm, but I wasn't worried about Illuminations as I had a fastpass for it after our 2nd waterpark day. So we also headed over to Spaceship Earth.
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It was evening EMH for Epcot, so we had plenty of time. The ride got stuck briefly, right before the end where they show you your future. When they showed us our futures, it was the generic animated version of the people, and I was pretty sure I remembered that they pasted your pictures on the people in the film...and why else would they have taken our picture at the beginning? So we get out and go to the postcard consoles and sure enough, our pictures were missing. Whatever glitch stopped the ride apparently also lost the pictures. No problem...we'd just do it the next day. We ended up having to do it FIVE times before we finally got our pictures. DD was not amused. We were pretty bushed, so we headed back to the resort to sleep.

oh my god, your server was a riot!
cant believe he even gave him that hilarious bathroom fastpass! XD

 

[Songbird76]

Do the supermarkets have butchers? It all comes from the same arena so they could just make a larger portion??? My Gran did not put her pot roast in oven, she put it on a burner covered for steam on the lowest setting. Dang, if I close my eyes I can still smell it.

Also I talked to my Sis. She lived in Duesseldorf for a while and then on and off. She said she ordered online the American foods she could not get in local areas online and the delivery charges to door were reasonable. It included so many choices from cereals, cookies and she said even marshmallows and fluff plus Jello. She also said a few supermarkets in both Duesseldorf and in Ansterdam carried American branded foods.

No, the supermarkets don't have butchers in them anymore...at least ours doesn't. They used to, but they closed that down and now it all comes from someplace else.

Yeah, there are various shops here that sell American goods. There's a grocery store in Arnhem with a foreign food section. They have rootbeer, cream soda, marshmallows, cheetos, and mac and cheese. Arnhem is about 40 minutes away. In my town, there's a candy store that has Butterfingers, reeses, hot tomales, oreos, and a few other candies. They used to have crisco and pop tarts, but they discontinued those, though there's a cake shop in town where I can get crisco, and the candy store from the same chain does sell pop tarts in Arnhem. There's also an American and UK shop in Utrecht (about an hour and a half away by train?) and they sell cereal, Jello, Old Bay seasoning I think it's called?, and maple syrup. My grocery store started carrying marshmallow fluff this year! And then there's an American store in Amsterdam and one in Den Haag (The Hague). I pick up stuff if we're ever in those places...I just stocked up on mac and cheese this weekend while we were near Arnhem, and Rootbeer. There are more and more things coming here steadily. When I moved here, it was horrible trying to find anything, but the last 3 years or so, there has been more of a market for certain American products, so I've been able to get more and more things. Bakeries are starting to carry brownies (though they aren't as good as mine) and there have been a couple of restaurants that have had cheesecake (also not as good as mine), so it's getting there. And there IS an online ordering service, but they order from the US and wait until enough people have ordered to fill a shipping container, so it can take months to get here and I think there's a minimum amount you have to spend and the shipping charges are also really expensive. They are also somewhat limited. They had cereal, but not Peanut Butter Cap'n crunch, for example. Or they have oreos, but not the double stuff. But I've been here long enough now to know where to get certain things. And some things have disappeared...like I used to be able to get campbells soup at one store, but they discontinued it YEARS ago. And when we lived in Arnhem, there was a chinese Toko around the corner that sold cake mixes, but they don't anymore. But now I don't need them, because I learned to make it all from scratch. For the most part, I do well here. But I do miss my pot roast!! And Turkey with stuffing. (also non-existent)

 

[Songbird76]

Devils tower?

Im not saying its aliens but...its
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The Native American legend says that there were some children playing and gathering food when they were set upon by a bear. They prayed to the spirit Gods to protect them and the rock they were standing on suddenly grew. As it got taller and taller, the bear scratched at the rocks, trying to reach the children, and those scratches are why the "tower" looks kind of striped...those crevices are his claw marks. I think in one legend, it was 7 girls and the rock pushed them up into the sky where they stayed and make the constellation the Pleiades.

 

[Songbird76]

Believe it or not. Bimbo is a Mexican brand and the biggest bakery company in latin america. The bimbo word doesn't mean anything sexual or related to girl stereotypes in spanish. Theres news about the "hardships" of the company, trying to show that Bimbo isnt a what they think it is.
They have a cute bear mascot too.



oh my god, your server was a riot!
cant believe he even gave him that hilarious bathroom fastpass! XD

Yes, this was my favorite meal of our Disney trip. We had SO much fun and our server really was awesome. That experience is a hard one to top!!