Back to your roots.

I haven't mentioned this on the blog yet, but I'll be going to Germany and the Czech Republic this September. I certainly hope to have some stories to tell and pictures to share -- it's going to be great. The odd thing, though, is that I'll be traveling with my parents. It's odd because, in all the years I've known him, my father's never once offered a vacation idea that involves a drive of more than a single night on the road. He's always been content to take "working" vacations, where he spends his summer days in his own garage, putting together some sort of project. So, when he suggested going to Germany, it was completely unlike him, but it offered me a rare chance to go somewhere with my parents that wasn't Las Vegas. How exciting!

Of course, I still have a few small uncertainties. Like I said, my parents and I usually have very different ideas of vacation. But this weekend, we were planning our route, and my mom noticed a town called Ravensburg.

"Oh," she exclaimed, "that's the name of a jigsaw puzzle company!"

"Mm hmm. Neat."

"Oh, we have to see that!"

"Really? Well, maybe we should check into that first. I mean, Ravensburger Games might have as much in common with this place as Boston Pizza has with Boston..." I consulted the internet. "Wow," I concluded.

"What?"

"Well, that's where the company was founded, and they've still got a jigsaw puzzle museum in the original building. That, and it's the site of an annual games festival."

With that, they were sold. I'm pretty sure that there is no longer any cathedral, any castle, or any monument that concerns them... their defining moment of this vacation will be buying a jigsaw puzzle of Ravensburg, in Ravensburg, by Ravensburger.

Which sounds exactly like something I'd do.

Maybe I'm not that different from my parents, after all.