The Moist Exhausting Free Trip Ever - Link to Part II Thread pg. 244

[KatMark]

Glad to hear everyone is feeling better. Can't wait to see the pics and review of the restaurant.

Be sure to go read at least Dan's report for the "news."

 

[glennbo123]

Merry Christmas to you and yours too!!!

Merry Christmas, Glen, to you and all of your beautiful family.

Merry Christmas Glenn & Family! ​

Merry Christmas Glen & Family.

MERRY CHRISTMAS GLENN AND FAMILY

Super MERRY Christmas!

Merry Christmas to the glennbo123 family

Merry Christmas to you and your family Glen!

I hope you had a great Christmas!

Thank you! We did have a wonderful Christmas. We had our own "nuclear family" Christmas gift opening before the actual Christmas day, and then traveled to Judy's parents' house and shuttled between her parents and mine on Christmas day. Lots of cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents, gifts, and food!

I am now caught up. Took the short cut.

I don't do Everest but every time I do I get nervous that the kids will get stuck up there. My grandson went on in July (he is 5) and my daughter touched the top of his head when they got by the Yetti so now he thinks the Yetti got him.

Loved the pics of the artifacts and masks. Some of the masks are kind of cool and creepy at the same time to me.

Love the giraffe pic.

Great updates.

Thanks DD50. Short-cuts are fine...that's why they're there.

That's a great story about the yeti. I'd love to try that, but my kids are probably too old to fall for that, plus they've been on the ride so know what to expect.

I'm glad you liked the pictures of the artifacts and the giraffe!

 

[glennbo123]

Hope Everyone had a Wonderful Christmas and have

Thanks Rosie, we did. Oh my, I'm not ready to start on New Year's wishes yet.

I hope you and your fam had a wonderful Christmas!

I've finally begun the (let's admit it, slightly arduous!) process of catching up on a month's worth of trip reports, so I'm just popping in to say your last...um...four? updates were great. I especially loved all the Nemo pics -- such an amazing show!

Thanks Nory. I've been out of the loop for about a week and know I'm waaay behind on a bunch. I can't imagine a months-worth, but you've done well to get caught up . Glad you liked the Nemo pictures.

I'm back and I have some serious catching up to do. Thank goodness for that TOC in the front.

Do my eyes deceive me?

What a wonderful surprise! I was hoping you'd be back someday.

Missed you, Glenny.

I've missed you mucho Hucey. Did you take your trip to Hawaii?

ETA: I'm all caught up! That only took me 6 hours. On work's dime, no less. Shhhhh.

You can't beat that! What did you do with the other 2 hours of the workday? I'm sure bathroom and coffee breaks had to figure in there somewhere.

When do you predict this TR will end? 2012?

Oh my gosh! Pot and kettle! Don't make me go look at how long it took for your TR to be written.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it will end sometime before 2012 begins.

The next time we paint our bedroom, I'm going to recommend "Baboon Butt Blue."

Dan's gonna love it!

well I skipped lots of chatter but thankfully made it back here and got caught up before you hit 250 pages and have to start a new thread. Yikes!

Letseee...

Works for me! I saw you have a new update posted...I'll get over there soon.

Gorilla bums

Check.

Headless Monkey's

We got 'em.

Really amazing nemo shots

Thank you.

interesting what sticks in your mind when you blitz through updates!

Yes it is. There's something Freudian there, I'm sure.

Happy to have made it in time to read about your DISmeet with Blue.

It was great to meet her and her family!

 

[glennbo123]

Again, thanks for the well-wishes everyone!

Sorry you have all been sick !!I was sick for the holidays too but not the stomach flu !!All upper respiratory and super tired !I slept most of the time !! Still far frome right but can at least function now !!! Have been working my second job but tomorrow it is back to the grindstone for 3 days and then OFF another 4

Sorry to hear you've been sick too Rosie. Well, get through the week and then enjoy a few more days off.

Feel Better glennbo famiily!!!
Nothing is worse than being on the road and sick. ( right Liesa?)

So sorry you all got the gift that keeps on giving, and giving, and giving

I know. We were wishing we were already home, and were not looking forward to a long drive.

Oh man, that really heaves!! So, so sorry!! And totally know exactly what you're going through! Are you sure you didn't all eat something that was undercooked- or sat out too long?? Was the turkey stuffed and not done?

I really hope you ALL feel better soon, so you can travel and get home!

No turkey. Prime rib...maybe undercooked?

Glenn, so sorry you are all sick. I hope you feel better tomorrow! And yes, when the whole family gets it at the same time it is usually something you ate. Otherwise viruses tend to incubate for 5-7 days and people get it in waves, not all at once. So Sorry.

Thanks Tammie. We also seem to be getting over it pretty quickly, which doesn't seem like the flu.

Glenn, I hope you and your family will feel better soon! What a horrible way to end Christmas!

What a shame that you might have to pass on the Austrian restaurant, I remember how excited you were to try it. But I agree, Austrian food is not what comes to my mind when I think about stomach bugs. I don't think they go that well together...

We braved it! I'll post pictures in a day or two.

im also thinking it was some bad food...that happened to the 3 of us about 2 months ago, we had some bad tomatoes, and we all got it for a about a day at exactly the same time overnight.

It does sound like that could have been it, but we can't figure out what food exactly was the culprit.

Glen, so sorry to hear that most of hte family is sick and has delayed your travel time. I was sick Christmas Eve night (as was my husband and our youngest son...it was DEFINITELY my mother's cooking).

I hope you are all better soon and get home safely.

Sorry to hear that you were sick recently too Kathy.

It didn't really delay us. When we arrived, my mother-in-law asked Judy if we could stay an extra day than we'd planned (I guess she wanted to see us!) and we agreed, then with the storm predictions it really looked like a good idea to delay a day and let it blow over. And finally, the sickness sealed the deal!

Ooo..so sorry! Thankfully, it sounds as though no one got sick until after Christmas. We had a Christmas like that a couple of years ago; husband got sick on the 23rd, I followed suit, and then we ended up getting everyone in our family sick and it was the unpleasant, stomach, needing a bucket kind of sick. Prayers that it passes quickly and you're all feeling better!:

Thanks Tina. We're all doing a LOT better! And with all the eating we'd done over the weekend, I guess we needed a day without food to even it all out.

Ugh!! Sick for Christmas? There ought to be a law against that!

Hope everyone is feeling better soon.

Thanks Captain. Fortunately, it wasn't Christmas day...but a couple of days later. We're doing much better.

Oh wow! Sorry you all got sick. That's a real Holiday bummer!!! Glad you guys didn't end up on the road when it all hit. I'm with some of the others...maybe it was a food thing?? Maybe James didn't get it because he didn't eat enough of whatever it was. Hope you guys all feel better soon!

Oh man, if we'd have been on the road, we wouldn't have gotten very far! Drive a mile, pull over. Drive another mile, pull over.

I'm sorry to see you all are dealing with the punies. I'm fighting a head-cold now - but it seems to be all sinus drainage and a lot of sneezing. I'll think I'll take that over whatever it is you all got.

Feel better soon!

Thanks Tanya. Sorry to hear about your head cold. Those can be a nuisance.

Hi Glenn! I'm sorry the Glennbos are sick, I hope you all feel better soon!

Thanks Katharina. We're doing much better.

A belated Merry Christmas!

So sorry you've all been sick. My husband had the flu. We had to leave him at home when we visited the folks on Christmas day. So far, no one else in the family has gotten sick. Now if we can only make it through the New Year without anyone coming down with something.

Hope everyone's better! Happy New Year!

Thanks Rozz. I'm glad to hear you and the rest of the family have avoided catching your husband's bug.

Gosh, I was just thinking about you and whether the big snow storm had affected you. Seems like more than that has gotten to your family! Yikes. I hope you are all feeling much better very soon. I've been avoiding my DBF like the plague because he came down with the flu (influenza) just before Christmas. I was NOT about to go through the holidays with a stuffy nose and a hacking cough! Feel better soon

Thanks Jen. The storm didn't affect us too badly. We had to shovel and snowblow a few inches of snow out of the driveway before we could pull in this evening. We're happy to be home and feeling a hundred percent better than yesterday at this time.

Good luck avoiding your DBF's bug.

 

[glennbo123]

Glad to hear everyone is feeling better. Can't wait to see the pics and review of the restaurant.

Be sure to go read at least Dan's report for the "news."

Ooo! Thanks for the heads-up! Could it be what I think it could be?

 

[englishrose47]

Evening Glen !! Well I am much if not fully better !! I sent out early NewYears wishes in case I got sick again and missed people !! I will resend if I am healthy !!!I have booked our August trip !!Able to get in on the Free dining !! Of course coming up with the deposit the week before Christmas was awful !! But I should be able to blow out the candles and gets the lights on soon

 

[Flossbolna]

Good to hear that you are feeling better! And I am looking forward to your Austrian food review!

 

[hucifer]

Do my eyes deceive me?

What a wonderful surprise! I was hoping you'd be back someday.

Aw shucks. I bet you say that to all the TR readers who take a long hiatus and come back a few months later to find out that the writer is still on Day 2.

I've missed you mucho Hucey. Did you take your trip to Hawaii?

Oh no, sir. That trip isn't until Sept 2011. Just before your trip report gets to Day 6.

You can't beat that! What did you do with the other 2 hours of the workday? I'm sure bathroom and coffee breaks had to figure in there somewhere.

Bingo. Plus I had other internet surfing to do.

Oh my gosh! Pot and kettle! Don't make me go look at how long it took for your TR to be written.

Ouch. Guess I deserved that one. Maybe I feel that because I do the same thing I can openly ridicule others that do it. I probably lose a lot of readers because I take so dang long to finish. Doesn't seem to be a problem here, however.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it will end sometime before 2012 begins.

Good to know.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Oh Pooh! Sorry about the sickies! Glad to hear it didn't last long. My girls both had bad sore throats and sniffles the couple days before Christmas. But, they sprang back in time for the big day. Course now they've passed it to me, and my gimpy old immune system will probably take three weeks to beat it back.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Hi Glenn! Glad to hear you are all feeling better, and are home safely!

Just wanted to give Judy a shout out here -Cynthia and I were both saying on her thread how much we enjoyed using the Pampered Chef tools for our holiday cooking!

 

[glennbo123]

Evening Glen !! Well I am much if not fully better !! I sent out early NewYears wishes in case I got sick again and missed people !! I will resend if I am healthy !!!I have booked our August trip !!Able to get in on the Free dining !! Of course coming up with the deposit the week before Christmas was awful !! But I should be able to blow out the candles and gets the lights on soon

That's thinking ahead Rosie! Glad you're feeling better. for getting your trip booked...and free dining!

Good to hear that you are feeling better! And I am looking forward to your Austrian food review!

Thanks! Review coming up soon!

Aw shucks. I bet you say that to all the TR readers who take a long hiatus and come back a few months later to find out that the writer is still on Day 2.

Well, probably...but you're the first to actually come back.

Oh no, sir. That trip isn't until Sept 2011. Just before your trip report gets to Day 6.

I'm almost done with Day 6. Hmmmf.

Bingo. Plus I had other internet surfing to do.

Well of course.

Ouch. Guess I deserved that one. Maybe I feel that because I do the same thing I can openly ridicule others that do it. I probably lose a lot of readers because I take so dang long to finish. Doesn't seem to be a problem here, however.

You thought I'd forget how you kept us salivating for the next Hucipost.

Hey, did you notice the Seinfeld reference I threw in there for you during the bat segment of the Maharajah Jungle Trek chapter?

Oh Pooh! Sorry about the sickies! Glad to hear it didn't last long. My girls both had bad sore throats and sniffles the couple days before Christmas. But, they sprang back in time for the big day. Course now they've passed it to me, and my gimpy old immune system will probably take three weeks to beat it back.

Yes, the kiddos kick it quick, but we old people like to hold onto a sickness for a good long while.

Hi Glenn! Glad to hear you are all feeling better, and are home safely!

Just wanted to give Judy a shout out here -Cynthia and I were both saying on her thread how much we enjoyed using the Pampered Chef tools for our holiday cooking!

Thanks Tammie. Oh, that's good to hear! I know, I need to get over to her thread (and a bunch of others). I've got a post to put up, then we're having a family movie night...so hopefully tomorrow I can check it out.

 

[glennbo123]

If you’ve followed some of the between-chapter banter, you may recall me mentioning that during a broadcast of a Penn State football game this past year I saw a segment on an Austrian restaurant in State College that I had not known existed. And since Judy and I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Austria back in 2006 (a mini-TR is available here, in the PTR for this TR, in chapters 10-18), I really wanted to try this restaurant as we traveled through the area on our return home after visiting family over Christmas.

You may also recall that we had all been recently sick before traveling home. As in the day before…and still not feeling so hot on this particular day. Our last true "meal" had been Sunday night and then we all got sick on Monday, except James who took a little longer, so we pretty much hadn’t eaten anything other than toast and some cereal since Sunday night. This was now Tuesday. But I really wanted to try this restaurant, didn’t know when we’d be coming through again, and I was beginning to feel hungry enough to eat as we drove.

About an hour before we hit State College I called my niece Sarah, who is now living in State College and working with a group called “Disciplemakers”. I know, I should have planned better, and given her more notice, but spontaneity can be good sometimes, right? Fortunately, she was free and could join us.

We picked her up at her apartment and then arrived at the restaurant at about 12:30 pm.

We walked up to the counter and Gundi (Herwig’s wife) said, “there’s the menu”, pointing to the blackboard. “You order and pay here, then sit down and your food will be brought to you. You’re at table 10.” Fortunately there was no one behind us since it took a while for us to figure out what we wanted to order.

Note to Capt. Oblivious: I’m not sure if you can see it, but there’s a movie reference in the middle of the board. Look at the cutout character.

Judy and Marlene’s stomachs still weren’t feeling very well, so they just wanted soup. I pointed out there was a “soup of the day”, and they ordered that. James wanted the bratwurst plate, and I ordered a pork wienerschnitzel.

Lauren said “I’m kind of lost. I’m overwhelmed from this menu!” I told her, “Just order a wienerschnitzel…you can’t go wrong.” So she ordered that, and Sarah ordered a chicken wienerschnitzel.

I paid while they went to get their fountain drinks. Out of the corner of my eye I could see some commotion going on, with Bernd, the son of the owner, delivering a Styrofoam take-out box on the end of a stick to a customer, but I couldn’t hear what he said. When I got over to the drinks, Judy said, “Did you hear what he said? ‘Here’s your box of shame!’”

I had ordered coffee and was told it was self-serve but I didn’t see where to get it. The owners son walked by and I said, “Excuse me, where’s the coffee?” He said, “It’s cleverly hidden in the urn sir.” I laughed because I knew we were in for it during this lunch. It was going to be “50’s Prime Time meets Biergarten”.

We went to our table, near the front window, and I took some pictures of the restaurant.

While we waited, we noticed small signs on the tables that listed several choices that you had if you couldn’t finish your meal. I didn’t think to take a picture of it, but some were “wash dishes with ‘scrubby bubbles’”, “be beaten with a large wooden stick, according to Austrian culinary law”, and “be charged more and served less on your next visit”.

After a few minutes our food arrived. Here’s James’ bratwurst plate. He loved it and ate almost all of it. I got to try his sauerkraut - it wasn't sour, but more of a savory taste. It reminded me of a sauce that Judy makes out of a cookbook by Lidia Bastianch, which uses savoy cabbage and mushrooms.

Lauren’s wienerschnitzel.

My wienerschnitzel, potato salad, and some garden lettuce.

Judy’s soup. I love how this photo captured the steam coming off of it.

We all loved our food. The soup hit the spot for Judy and Marlene. My wienerschnitzel was good and so were the other items on the plate. The potato salad was kind of tangy, different than I’m used to, but good, and dressing on the greens was good too.

Here’s Marlene enjoying her soup.

And James and Sarah.

Around 1 o’clock the restaurant began to clear out and Herwig came over to talk to us. He told me, “You don’t have to eat your greens. They’re for girls!”

I went up and ordered an apfelstrudel. I felt I had to – for comparison purposes, of course.

Judy asked if they had anything for her to use to take her soup with her, and that we’d need a couple of “to go” boxes since a few of us couldn’t finish our schnitzel. Herwig was appalled (jokingly) but talked with us for quite a bit.

He said he is from the same part of Austria as Arnold Schwarzenegger and I told him I noticed the resemblance. Then he went on to tell us how they ended up in State College. They were actually heading to Australia to open a business and stopped briefly in State College and fell in love with the area. They had a restaurant outside of town, then moved into town, and then moved again to this location, which is a prime spot right on College Avenue. He said that in the summertime they can open the window area where we were sitting and set up tables on the sidewalk, like a true bistro. This got him talking about dogs because in Austria people bring dogs into restaurants. If somebody does that here, he can seat them at a sidewalk table and not violate any board of health rules.

He told us about a dachshund he used to have that was rather mischievous and one time at a restaurant the dog was quiet, and after a while he realized that he had eaten the sleeve of his coat that he had hung on the back of his chair.

Somehow he got to talking about the apartment he lives in and that the occupants upstairs sometimes make too much noise and he has to bang on the ceiling with a broom. Recently, late at night, he heard some pounding upstairs and he went up to complain. There were 6 Chinese students there, and they were pounding meat on a cutting board. He said, “Oh, you’re cooking. That’s okay then.” A couple of hours later, after he was in bed, they brought him some of the food they were making, so he said he was going to return the favor this weekend.

Again, I don’t know how we got on the subject but he was talking about his salad dressing and how a customer asked if he could buy a large quantity to take to San Diego, like a gallon or two. Herwig said, “Sure, but it will only keep for a week or so. How are you going to get it there?” The customer was going to fly, so he bought it. But Herwig wondered how he ever got it through security.

Then he talked about the ESPN segment where we had seen the restaurant. He said that Todd Blackledge (former PSU quarterback (ETA: on the '82 undefeated and National Champion team) and now a football announcer on ESPN) came in on a Thursday, ordered their biggest platter and ate it in no time, then a wienerschnitzel to go but decided to just eat it there, and then asked if he could come back the next day to film a “Taste of the Town” segment to be aired during Saturday’s game. The filming took 3 hours and he and his son Bernd got to stand over Blackledge, threatening to beat him with large wooden sticks. It was a lot of fun apparently.

Then he finally said, “You know why I’m still here talking? I’m giving you time to finish eating!” And he said he’d help Sarah.

Then his son delivered the apfelstrudel and he was like, “Here you go…whoa! Wait a minute! You can’t have it until you’ve finished.” He left to get something and I figured a photo opportunity was coming, so I handed the camera over to Marlene because I knew I was soon going to be hassled.

He came back with this pig puppet.

And said something like, “You should have gotten the veal wienerschnitzel. Then we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Herwig came back with this pig hat that he said a university professor had given him.

Finally, we had withstood enough harassment that I could eat my strudel. Everyone tried a taste, and I ate the rest. It was delicious! Much better than what I had at the Biergarten this past summer – I was kind of disappointed in the apfelstrudel there this last time.

I took one last picture of Bernd as we left.

He was complaining about the “tourists” because as we were leaving another family came in that had seen them on ESPN and the guy was taking a picture of their menu board.

We really enjoyed our meal here, despite our still-recovering stomachs. It was a lot of fun, and the food was good. Definitely, the best way to describe it for you folks is: 50’s Prime Time meets Biergarten.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. Up next, Boma...need I say more?
Link to next chapter

 

[tinacaplan]

Restaraunt sounds good. And if my eyes don't mistake me, that's the Dude, of Big Lebowski fame, in the center of the board, is it not? I'll have to keep the place in mind should I ever find myself in State College, PA, which I probably won't, but hey, why not? Does make me look forward to our upcoming trip and our obligatory stop at Biergarten, though.

 

[mom3sonstt]

What a fun sounding place you discovered! I see lots more pig statues on their counter...,I assume they collect them? What is weinerschnitzel? I guess I always assumed it was a hot dog-ish / sausage like thing....but yours was something flat . Is it more like a chicken fried steak kinda thing? . Whatever it is....it looks good . Can you tell that we skipped our biergarten reservations (but don't tell anybody...that's a spoiler for my tr)

 

[Sleeping*Beauty]

Two Judy's. And yum that apple strudel looks good!

 

[dd50]

Sorry to hear that you were sick. I had a stomach virus about 6 weeks ago and it sure wasn't fun.

Seems like you found a good restaurant and met some characters. Did they ask why you were taking pics?

 

[brookelizabeth]

Three Judy's. Almost four, but in the one shot it's just her chair, I don't think you can see any of her.

 

[Poolrat]

Sounds like a fun stop. It looks Marlene was bareyl able to stomach even looking at food. I hope she is feeling better.

3 Judy's and 1 sneaky James in the 3rd picture.


Getting harrassed by the pig.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Oooh, the food looks SO GOOD! So so good! I bet everyone was so glad you stopped despite your stomachs, and what a perfect meal to eat for the first time in days.

I'm with ya on the Apple Strudel, I wasn't a fan of Biergartens either, the cheesecake there though...

 

[MAGICFOR2]

What a fun surprise for you! I love the "50's Prime Time meets Biergarten" description! I saw on the bottom of the menu board they had BYOB times listed with "bring some for us!" Too bad Judy and Marlene were still feeling a little puny and couldn't really enjoy the full meal.