Ryan and Scott and Deutschland: I heart Oktoberfest!

&otI just remarked to Ryan..."I am so happy...today was everything that I hoped it would be!" OK, I know that sounds cheesy, but I had a lot riding on today's event. We were in Germany a year ago and...and...ahhh Oktoberfest in Texas? Hm.

In truth, it was absolutely a blast. Most of it had to do with who we went with -- Ryan, of course, and then his co-worker Kris and her friend Steph. They were fun to be with and completely caught the spirit of Oktoberfest. We ate a ton -- Bretzen, Sausage, Potato Pancakes, Sauerkraut, Struedel, Frybread. And drank a TON of fantastic, draft German beer. (Thank goodness someone else drove!)

We got there a little after noon and left at about 5:30 -- most of the time we sat in the big beer hall and listened to a fantastic Oompa band called "The Swingin' Dutchmen." I heard a lot of songs I knew, including "The Liechenstein Polka" which was a popular American-type Polka in the 50s...but I remember playing it at Grandma and Grandpa Van Horn's house. They had this old CD of different polkas and this was our favorite.

I went up to the bandleader's wife and asked for it and she said many others had...and later they announced they would play it, to great applause from our table. The bandleader picked up on that and pointed to us as if we would come up and sing it with him...we declined, of course, since none of us truly know the words, but we bounced around, clapped, and had a fantastic time.

One of the best parts was the German beer...they had a whole tent dedicated to it and we did our job trying them all out. Ahhhhh it was good!

After a long day, we came back to Austin, went to Molotov and had Frank & Angie's pizza while watching some reality TV on the bar TV. A fantastic day!!

Click on the below picture to see the photo album!