SoDak July 2026

We took our annual “run back to South Dakota over the 4th” trip this year and it was a little different because we ended up having a very large family gathering too.

We were staying up in the hills near deadwood / lead and had a fabulous time. The most amazing things:

A giant solar flair, an M-class and strong X1.3, whatever that means, hit the earth and showed us beautiful, but faint, northern lights. This is my first time seeing northern lights in South Dakota!
The galactic core of the Milkyway was out!!! I don’t see the Milkyway any more since I live in a large urban area, and, the Rapid City area has grown enough such that it’s not easy to see the Milkyway in town anymore. It was definitely a treat! One of the photos of the northern lights has part of the Milkyway; it was a rare treat to see both and not have clouds, the moon, city lights, and whatever else ruining the view.
It’s still wet enough to grow wild rose, wild raspberries, serviceberries, and other neat fruits / plants in the wild. I don’t recall seeing a lot of this growing up in the hills and it’s definitely a treat whenever I get to see them.
We had an unobstructed view of the fireworks over the Homestake open cut pit. It was super neat to see!

All in all, it was another fantastic trip :). Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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Winter/Spring/Early Summer 2026

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Winter in Minnesota was pretty OK; it was gloomy like usual but we had a whole lot of sun dogs and sun halos to stare at. It was neat to see the full rainbow, and, it’s not very often I get to see a full sun halo. We also had a nice treat with the northern lights again; it’s wild to me that I could see the aurora from my driveway when I’m near the city center. I’d love to say that this makes up for living in Minnesota during winter but it doesn’t – not even close.

This winter was different because of what happened in the cities; ICE was out in full force and there were quite a few disruptions including accidentally driving to where a protest was occurring. I had quite a few friends and family contact me to see how things were going and I couldn’t help but compare what was happening with ICE to the George Floyd riots during COVID. I felt the place was coming unglued during the riots, it’s the closest to anarchy I’ve been, and comparatively, the ICE events were pretty tame – for us. We’re not in the class or group of people who would be affected by ICE, we didn’t and wouldn’t join protests (on purpose), and, we live in an area without a whole lot of immigrants. It wasn’t great to see all the ICE agents around, going to our nearest Home Depot was a bit weird, and, seeing children in the restaurants we love during the school day was heartbreaking. The cities has a lot to offer, it’s a wonderful place to live, and, it’s too bad there is ANOTHER very black mark on the area.

Spring though, spring was amazing. We had a full month of apple blossoms. It was incredible to smell the blooms throughout the city and enjoy the blooms in so many places. I can’t recall having apple blossoms for so long; usually the wind, rain, and/or, snow rip the petals off the flowers quickly after blooming. Never has the spring in Minnesota been so mild and so temperate that the blooms lasted all spring. Besides the blooms, it was just a gorgeous spring unlike any other spring I’ve had in Minnesota. Let’s hope this phenomena becomes the norm.

We had a trip out to Rapid City and I, once again, was shocked to see something growing – plum trees growing in the wild not too far from where I grew up. I was also surprised to see the various fruit trees bloomed a whole month sooner than Minnesota. The weather is just so beautiful in SoDak.

We had a chance to go hiking in Red Wing, part of the driftless area, along the Mississippi and it was beautiful. I can’t believe so many people do not visit or do not care about the driftless. We’ve spent a lot of time in the area and we love it; we get to get away from people, it’s a fantastic deal, and, the hiking is decent. Far better than the north shore since the north shore is crammed with people and stupid expensive.

In the late spring we had a trip out to Mobridge, SD, a town in the middle of the state near North Dakota. It’s a long drive without a whole lot of traffic, and, it’s possible to see a dog run away for days since it’s so flat. We did get a treat with nature; the weather to and from Mobridge was very bad in some places and it was fun to watch.

The spring harvest in yard was mostly bountiful. The raspberries were devastated over the winter by the bunnies so we missed the first fruiting but the honeyberries and the mulberries came out in full force. All told, I canned 15 pints of honeyberries and 20 some cans of mulberry. There was still a lot of mulberry to go I just stopped because – who needs that much mulberry!? All those berries will go into pies, kolaches, and, other treats throughout the year.

This is the first year I started going for early morning walks in the neighborhood. The days around solstice turned out to be incredible – no wind, no rain, not hot, not cold. Very un-Minnesotan. During this time I found out the local sports field is left unlocked sometimes, and, downtown Minneapolis can be seen from the top bleachers! Bob Ross would call this revelation an happy accident :). The featured image for this post is the solstice sunrise from the sports field; it was a stunning sunrise!

All in all, I’m super happy winter is over, spring was AMAZING, and, summer has started off pretty OK.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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Florida 2026

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Florida, like last year, was pretty incredible. It was awesome to have warm weather, people smiling, the ability to see the sun, Disney, and, all the fantastic food.

Winter wasn’t great in Minnesota this year. We left for Florida toward the end of February so the worst of the bad weather in Minnesota was largely over. However, it’s still cold, it’s still windy, it’s still snowy, and, we still don’t see a whole lot of the sun in winter in Minnesota – unlike Florida.

We flew in and out of Tampa and made a short trip to Disney. This year we went to Magic Kingdom and it was as incredible as one expects. The fireworks show was spectacular too. We saved some of the rides for after the fireworks when Disney was clearing out; farrrrrrr better to skip the lines. I was surprised with how mediocre the rides were at Magic Kingdom. While they were neat, in general, they were just that, neat. I think of the lines and the heat and I think of how “not worth it” it is for me. But, we were able to see Elsa a couple of times and a bunch of other princesses, it was fantastic for everyone :).

One of the bigger surprises was the strawberry ‘stand’ we stumbled across between Tampa and Orlando. We learned that lots of strawberries are grown in Florida and we hit the peak time. There was a small shop on the side of the highway with some picnic tables and they were selling gargantuan strawberry shortcakes for an extremely reasonable price.

One of the most novel events was celebrating Chinese New Year in a massage parlor converted to a law firm. There were dragon dances and super loud drumming inside this tiny little law office. It was a 10/10 experience! The dragon dance troupe was a high school troupe and they were visiting various businesses in the Tampa Chinatown area throughout the day. The timing worked out for us to visit the law firm and I’m very glad we did – such a unique experience.

The Gulf of Mexico was great and we found a ton of shells. The weather was great for the beach and we had a fabulous time in our rented cabana.

The food is always great: fried shrimp at the various places and char kway teow at Hawkers. I felt like I ate my body weight in extremely unhealthy food and it wouldn’t have been nearly as good of a vacation otherwise.

Some other big surprises:

We had a chance to hang with the pilot before flying!
We were able to see the stars in Tampa on the beach – Tampa is BRIGHT. It surprised us we could see anything in the sky at night.
We had a chance to see an alligator again! This one was kind of a ‘pet’ and was fed by a local restaurant.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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Fall 2025

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We had an incredibly beautiful fall. Like, this is probably the most amazing fall I’ve had in Minnesota. It reminded me a lot of fall in the black hills. Here is why:

– complete lack of wind

– lower humidity

– no rain

– stayed warm

Minnesota is a very windy place. The fall color season is usually pretty short because the wind usually rips the leaves off the trees in short order. One of the photos has a boat driving up the Mississippi on a completely still day – it is a very rare day for there to be zero waves / ripples in the Mississippi.

Minnesota is a very cold place. We have had years with a hard frost starting in early October and all the leaves, regardless of color, turn brown and fall off the trees.

Minnesota is a stupidly humid place. All these freaking lakes make it very humid which means the cold is really cold unless a person is wearing moisture blocking clothes / gear.

It was awesome driving around the cities with my windows down around November 20th, the warm weather had been incredible.

Alas, it couldn’t keep up. Frost and snow have started and true late fall / early winter has started.

I made sure to enjoy as much of the beautiful weather as possible. It was wild to see our raspberries fruiting until mid-November, our clematis flowering until early / mid November, and our grapes mature / fruit so late into the year. I’m not complaining, it was beautiful and delicious :).

This year we also had the most amazing northern lights I’ve seen. The northern lights were so bright we could see them from our driveway in the core / center of the twin cities metro. It was truly stunning.

Outside of the weather, we enjoyed a lot of fun fall activities like cider making and a Day of the Dead celebration. Fall events are the best events – the celebrations and traditions different cultures have made for the fall are absolutely the best because of the color, the sounds, the smells, and, the tastes. The twin cities is a fabulous place to experience allllllll the different traditions often for free or very low cost.

All in all, it was an amazing fall. I hope our falls continue to be so beautiful. It made Minnesota be that much more tolerable 🙂

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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SoDak – Fall 2025

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We made an impromptu trip to South Dakota and had an amazing time. The company was great, the weather was great, and, the scenery was great.

We actually drove this time, first time in a very long time, and it turned out wonderful. Usually, the drive is horrifically boring and extremely long. We broke up the trip a little and we had amazing scenery along the way – many rainbows and we actually spent a little time in the badlands! We also had a chance to stop at some of my favorite places like the Blue Line Truck Stop in Worthington, MN to get some of their amazing baked treats like Elephant Ears; there are places I’ve found and visited over the years that I was able to share on this trip – it was a lot of fun!

The government shutdown meant no one was collecting fees for the park and no rangers were out. Despite this, people were still being respectful and courteous in the park.

While I don’t ever want to drive to Rapid City from the twin cities again, I am glad this trip went the way it did!

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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Colorado 2025

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Colorado is an amazing place.

Once again I continued the tradition of going to Colorado to go hiking. This year was a bit different: I did multiple hikes, I hiked earlier in the year so I saw more mountain flowers, and, I went to bu-cee’s!

This year I hiked: to the top of the Flat Irons from Realization Point, around Panorama Point in Golden Gate State Park, and, hiked Mohawk Lakes. All-in-all, it was an amazing experience and hiking the Mohawk Lakes was one of the better hikes I’ve done – ever.

We had perfect weather from when I landed to when I left. My flight to Denver arrived a bit earlier than usual so much of Friday was open. It was decided we’d visit Bu-cee’s in Fort Collins and then hike to the back of the Flat Irons from Panorama Point. Bu-cee’s was amazing, like usual. Truly, it makes sense, Bu-cee’s is the Costco of gas stations and everything there is curated for a wonderful experience.

Driving to Realization Point and finding a parking spot was pretty straight forward. A lot of places in Colorado are overrun with people but a mid-day hike on a Friday proved to be a pretty good time to go. There was a brand new trail built by the City of Boulder to go from Realization Point to the back of the Flat Irons, Alltrails didn’t even have the trail on their app. Fortunately, Colorado state has an amazing hiking app called COTREX and the trail was on their. The hike was super easy and was mostly flat. We arrived to the Flat Irons to see multiple people hiking up from the bottom and even saw one dude hiking up the actual Flat Iron rock – without ropes, helmets, or any gear. It was insane. It was wild looking east from the Flat Irons; the incredible drop made for a fantastic view to the plains of Colorado.

Panorama Point and the hike around the area was stunningly beautiful. There were tons, absolutely tons, of flowers. It was a special treat to see so many flowers and hike in quiet solitude. We even saw some screwball pollinators I’ve never seen before. Golden Gate State Park is super close to Denver but doesn’t have any of the super tall peaks in the park. It does have some beautiful views of the mountains and is a very green, very lush, place.

Mohawk lakes hike was one of the better hikes I’ve ever done. We arrived right before sunrise and had a fantastic walk to a wonderful view of the sunrise. The first part of the hike was super hard; the hike started at 11,000ft so it was a bit difficult for this flatlander to get going. Unfortunately, the photos don’t do the area justice – the Mohawk Lakes and the hike up the valley was one of the more stunning hikes I’ve ever done; the mix between forest, alpine, lakes, flowers, mountain peaks, and, grasslands was just right. We started so early that we saw very few people until we started the return hike. The shear number of flowers on the hike was incredible, there were areas where tiny little purple flowers blanketed the grasslands, and, giant clumps of paintbrush flowers and sometimes even lupine. Like all other years, we hiked some donuts up and enjoyed a delicious treat in a tranquil area. All in all, it was a 10/10.

Like all other trips to Colorado, this trip was amazing. I can’t wait for next year 😊.

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Portland 2025

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We went out to Portland again this year! We had such a fun time in 2023 that we wanted to repeat the magic; it was fabulous, we found soooooo much to do.

We did a lot:

We toured a nuclear reactor at Reed College!
We hiked!
We visited the ocean!
We hiked through a lava tube!
We ate a ton of good food!
We ate an immense amount of fresh fruit from stores, stands, and, farms!
We went to multiple festivals including chalk art!
We saw a circus with no animals, just incredible human talent!
We saw a forest fire including tanker plans dropping Columbia river water on the fire!
We finally visited Mt. Hood!

There is so much to do in Portland it’s unreal. I feel like we could spend a few years out there doing new things every day. There aren’t a lot of places in the US that have the ocean, wonderful hiking, city stuff, wonderful restaurants, children’s activities, and, agriculture / orchards near a major metro area.

I spent a little more time trying to find the rare things to do and wrangled a trip to see the Reed College nuclear reactor. It was AWESOME. The director gave us a personalized tour and it was an incredible experience seeing everything first hand. The biggest surprise was that the reactor had a whole lot of stuff that looked original so it was like stepping back into the 1960s/1970s. Super cool experience.

We visited when Rainier cherries, peaches, and, other fruit was in season. We found out the peach season in the area is about three to four months long due to all the different varieties grown. We probably ate our weight in fruit and it was absolutely amazing. We hiked through a lava tube, which was a very fun experience, and stopped by a random fruit stand on the way back only to find deer eating fruit right next to the stand. The deer had impeccable taste – the fruit was amazing!

The Portland area is known for food. We ended up finding and visiting the very first Pronto Pup restaurant, it was good but I was told “it’s not the same as the pronto pups at the state fair”, and, we had an incredible amount of delicious meals. We even visited the Frying Scotsman, a place we visited the very first time we went to Portland 15 or so years ago. The same guy is running the food cart and the fish and chips are just as delicious as they were 15 years ago. It’s such a neat experience to say in downtown Portland and be within walking distance to multiple food truck corrals. The variety of foods offered was insane, I’m not sure it’s possible to go to one city block to get chicken katsu, tamales, and, something like shwarma anywhere else in the country.

The other activities / sights were just so much fun. It was wonderful to see a circus where no animals were used. I’ve seen a lot of things over the years but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that level of human talent all in one place. The incredible skill and strength needed to perform all the tricks was nothing short of amazing. The outdoors were wonderful, it was fantastic to smell the ocean, the forests, and, the mountains. Going up to Mt. Hood ended up being fairly interesting and it was fun to throw snowballs at each other in the middle of summer.

We had a chance to safely see a forest fire and watched two tanker planes make loops between picking up water in the Columbia River and dumping water on the fire. It was a lot of fun to watch the forest fire and watch the tanker planes. Unfortunately, the forest fire was bad for those who lived near / in the fire, but for us visitors, it was pretty cool.

One of the bigger surprises was our lodging: we stayed at a hotel in the Pearl District and it went perfectly. Portland still doesn’t have the best reputation right now and some groups report roaming bands of drugged out zombie people creating mayhem wherever they go all day long in the Portland area. We found peacefulness and quietness in a typical downtown setting. We were surprised at what happened at night – we stayed near a boulevard where the roads were separated by a nice green space. Toward the evenings homeless people would set up places to sleep in the green spaces and rest for the night. This was extremely similar to our experiences in Cape Town, South Africa about a decade ago. At the time, I found the juxtaposition between our extremely comfortable lodging and people sleeping in a grassy field quite jarring and, ten years later, it’s still quite jarring.

We found most things weren’t too crowded. Hiking in Beacon Rock State Park on their most popular trail wasn’t too busy, going to the sidewalk chalk art show in Hillsboro wasn’t too busy even though it was a weekend, we were pretty much the only people at Bonneville Dam, and, even the random places we stopped for fruit were not busy. I went up to Pittock Mansion one morning for sunrise and was warned there were would be a bunch of people there with me. After a very peaceful walk to the mansion I found myself entirely alone for the entire time. The only place that really seemed packed to the gills was Tillamook Creamery in Tillamook. People were lined up to visit that place before it opened for some reason.

Overall, it was a 10/10 experience. I love Portland and I’d love to go back.

Enjoy the photos!

Chris W.

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San Francisco 2025

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What a trip. What a fabulous time. What an incredible area to explore!

I visited the San Francisco area about four / five months ago. I went back because I loved the first visit and wanted to spend more time in the area. Long ago, I went there and we just ‘visited the area wrong’ and left with a fairly poor impression of the area. My visit in fall 2024 made me think we traveled the area incorrectly long ago and this recent trip confirmed it. I also had the unique privilege of being confused as a homeless person, or, at the very least casting doubt on whether I was a productive member of society which was a hilarious experience.

I really wanted to spend time around the big trees. There are redwood groves all around San Francisco, to the north, south, west, and some to the east, all within 30min to two hour drive from downtown. Last time I went north to Armstrong State Park so this time I went south this time into the Felton to visit Henry Cowell State Park, Big Basin State Park, immediately after landing in San Francisco and found myself largely alone in redwood forests – it was incredible.

I was treated to a pretty big surprise – the area had some horrible fires and hiking around the burned forests and slightly recovered forests was amazing. It was wild seeing how redwoods recovered from such horrible fires and I was able to see my very first wild azalea in Big Basin State Park! The non-burned areas were amazing too, I loved my time in Henry Cowell State Park and greatly enjoyed meandering on the trail along a babbling creek as the winds rocked the towering redwoods wayyyy above back and forth. It was truly a treat.

The trip just got better. I’m an early riser so I found myself alone on the highway in the early morning the next day on the way to Santa Cruz. Normally this doesn’t matter but I was surrounded by MASSIVE redwoods so I dropped the convertible top down and putz slowly thru the forest. I visited the pier in Santa Cruz and then headed north along Highway 1. Last time I drove Highway 1 between LA and Monterrey Bay it kind of sucked – lots of cars, pretty drab, lots of winding roads, repetitive scenery for hours. This time was different because all the parks / areas I visited were flowering and super colorful, no one was really on the road since it’s not tourist season, and, it’s a rather short drive between Santa Cruz and San Francisco. This was a far better Highway 1 experience!

The state parks and stopping points I visited along the way to San Francisco had very few people. I found myself a long for quite a few of the visits in Natural Bridge State Park, Wilder Ranch State Park, Butano State Park, and, the numerous stops along the way. It’s strawberry season out there so I stopped by a farm stand and bought some freshly picked strawberries to eat in Butano. I had quite the surprise when I was the only person in Butano and had a chance to eat the the strawberries in solitude while sitting on a fallen redwood straddling a creek in an old growth area of Butano.

I think state parks are where it’s at. National parks are over run by people and my trips to state parks over the last couple years have been nothing but wonderful – far fewer people, decent enough facilities, reasonable admission fees. No one goes to visit state parks in areas with national parks!

San Francisco was a ton of fun too. Once again, I had perfect weather – sunny and 60-70 degrees every day, it was fabulous. The rest of the activities were fun:

Walking from Sausalito to Chinatown along the Golden Gate Bridge and Prominade was a cool experience – I had a lot of fun watching other people over the super long journey, and, it was nice to get the ocean breeze nearly the entire way.
Early morning walking in Nob Hill, Chinatown, Coit Tower, and, the pier areas of San Francisco was great. Eating a freshly made donut in a park in Chinatown during sunrise was 10/10. Seeing the sun rise through the buildings was fantastic and catching the Transamerican Pyramid shadow was super cool. I have a litmus test for whether I am in a safe area and it was clear the Nob Hill and Coit Tower area were safe.
I had a chance to walk some of the stairs and see the parrots! The parrots are LOUD. I heard them long before I saw them!
The cable car was made a lot more fun because I struck up a conversation with the car operator. She answered a ton of my questions about the cable car and life in San Francisco. She even asked me, “So, are you going to move here?”
It was a surprising amount of fun to take an autonomous Waymo and get a ride to the Golden Gate Bridge, there’s something a bit odd about being a passenger in a moving vehicle with no driver.
Overall, I walked ~15.3 miles in the Nob Hill – Chinatown – Pier 33 – Golden Gate – Promenade – Lombard – Chinatown walk only taking a waymo to get from Pier 33 to Golden Gate and a cable car from Chinatown to my hotel in the afternoon. I put an image of the journey in the album.
I also found out, quite hilariously, if a person is wearing hiking shoes, a big floppy sun hat, a sunshirt, long pants, and, wearing a backpack filled with extra layers of clothes and water (San Francisco has some wild temperature differences and there are very few public fountains), then, one can be confused for a local homeless person.

I found a few activities I’d never do again: Alcatraz wasn’t that great, and, the gardens in Golden Gate Park are nice but really small. Overall, the trip was a 10/10 and I walked around 45 miles over three days. On flat ground, that’s not too much but San Francisco and the surrounding mountains in state parks definitely aren’t flat but I would happily do it again 😊.

I have added a bunch of photos below including a lot of wild flowers. I cannot believe the shear amount of flowers I saw during my travels. It was absolutely fantastic.

Enjoy!

Chris W.

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Spring 2025

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Spring 2025 has been great! We have had quite a few fun activities and it’s been wonderful to see the end of winter and the start of flowers and green.

For as much as I complain about Minnesota, there sure is a lot of to love. This is a wonderful play to raise children because there’s so much to do!

One of the neat experiences was visiting a local park to learn how maple syrup is made. We had the opportunity to tap a tree and watch the sap boil down in a specially-made maple syrup boiling room.

We had a chance to go to a Diwali celebration and Saint Patrick’s Day event in the same weekend. The juxtaposition was hilarious, one dancing style uses only feet and legs and the other dancing style has an immense amount of gyrations using all parts and limbs of a persons body.

The spring has been eminently beautiful – overall it’s an actual ‘spring’ and not the very short period of nice weather before summer starts. We have had a surplus of upper 50s to low 70s days which makes having a campfire in the backyard a wonderful treat. The last few years have been tough, we’ve had some pretty hot weather right out of the gate once winter ends and this spring is not that. 10/10 spring!

I made two trips to South Dakota and saw a parahelia on one of the trips – I had absolutely no idea parahelias happened in South Dakota; in all the years living there I had never seen one! I was also lucky to see a “lucky charms rainbow” that was so vivid ALL colors of the rainbow were easily seen. It was fun to visit the hills twice! I also visited Mt. Rushmore and it was fun to see the snow melt on the faces.

Lastly, I had a chance to participate in DoorsOpen; we went to the Star Tribune, the Light Rail service center, and, a metal recycling plant. It was a 10/10 experience! It is so wonderful to see how the world works, learn how things are made / get done, and, learn why things are the way they are.

Overall, it’s been a wonderful spring!

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Brno, Czechia 2025

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I was in this area was a little under 10 years ago during our world trip but I don’t recall learning about Brno and I don’t recall meeting anyone who has traveled to Brno. I think it’s because Brno is centrally located between Prague, Budapest, Vienna, and, Bratislava. It’s unsurprising Brno is overlooked given that line up. I had a wonderful time playing tourist and I want to bring Jac and Miriam to the area sometime soon.

Brno has all the quintessential ‘Old European City’ features like: a castle, a river, at least one cathedral with many churches, and, at least one public square. I’m glad I was mailed here because the city was neat, the countryside was beautiful, and, the tourist activities were quite a bit of fun. I often found myself alone or one of a few people at the different tourist activities. Despite the solitude, I was told repeatedly ‘a lot of tourists come to Brno’.

Just like my trip to China a bit over a year ago, I was surprised with how much things have changed in the decade since I’ve visited the area:

Traveling was easier. I did zero planning due to my season of life and the short notice for this trip. The ratings feature Google maps, ‘open hours’ feature, and, step by step walking / driving directions in parts of rural areas simply didn’t exist last time. The younger American coworker I was traveling with was dumbfounded Jac and I somehow managed to travel AND have a good time without knowing exactly where things were located, what their hours were, or how much fun the activity / site may be.
There are wayyyyy more American brands around beyond McDonalds and Starbucks. I was surprised to see Popeyes in the Brno old city center and even stopped at a food truck selling “South Carolina Beef” which was neither beef nor tasted like anything I have had in South Carolina.
I was able to buy tickets online for the various tourist activities so I don’t have to wait or be surprised with which tour I purchased due a lack of translated tour information.
Cellular data and my mobile phones worked seamlessly. Setting up an esim took two seconds and was super easy.
I was mistaken for German more often than not and quite a few people seemed surprised I was an American. I wondered if it’s because Brno isn’t a common destination for Americans or if it’s because I’m quite a few pounds lighter than the last time I was in this part of the world and look more European-ish.

A handful of items remained the same:

People are still people despite the cultural differences. Americans can be a lot warmer / kinder to random people on the street than most places in the world but everyone everywhere is helpful to those in need (for directions, suggestions, chit-chat, whatever) and are warm / kind to strangers once an actual conversation starts.
Germanic orderliness is still present – I was in a hurry and tried to order my dessert with my meal in Vienna only to be told “no, you will order dessert after you eat your meal” by the waiter. I thought nothing of the comment but my younger American coworker was surprised since we’d never hear something like that in the US. Even crossing crosswalks out of turn is still quite the faux pas.
I, just like last time when I was a tourist, still did things that do not happen in other parts of the developed world, like, manually ring a 15,000lb bell in a cathedral tower for all the citizens of Brno to hear during a tour at 1:27pm, or, touch bats in a cave while on a tour in the Moravian Karsts. I’m not sure if ringing cathedral bells or touching bats are common tour activities, I just asked the guides and they said “sure”. These ‘extras’ make being a tourist in places like the Czech Republic even more fun.
The food was great and the costs were lower than the US. I was introduced to an amazing dessert called venecek which is sorta like a donut sliced like a bagel with a light whipped frosting between the top and bottom. I was very happy to see the Czech Republic is still a good deal.
Most processes are still hot garbage – getting rental cars, checking into / out of hotels, going through airports are still needlessly complex and time consuming. The various big companies in USA have streamlined sooooo much of those processes which makes traveling / checkin / check out / checking of luggage / rental cars 1,000% easier. We are spoiled in the US.

Overall, it was a great trip and I was happy I was mailed to Brno even though it was on fairly short notice. It was amazing to experience the differences and see what’s the same. I am excited to go back but this time with my family 🙂.

Enjoy the photos!

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