Oktoberfest!

Brianne's birthday was on on the 14th of this month. As part of her present we decided to celebrate her German heritage by going to Oktoberfest the following weekend. For those of you who don't know—and most of you probably don't since our blog followers are predominately mormon—the Mount Angel Oktoberfest is kind of a big deal. Especially if you like beer.

According to Wikipedia "Mt. Angel is well-known locally for its annual Oktoberfest. The Mt. Angel Oktoberfest is one of the largest of its kind in the U.S. The festival can attract upwards of 350,000 people and includes beer and wine gardens, softball tournaments at Ebner Ball Park, a local football game and volleyball invitational tournament, carnival rides, crafts, a wide assortment of German food, and a two-day car show."

No, we didn't go drinking and dancing on the tables as I've heard some people end up doing. We went for the food. We got sausages (which were made by my company) and apple cake with butter sauce (which are delicious). The biggest attraction, and possibly the most disappointing, was the wiener dog races. Not that it wasn't entertaining, but they ran so fast it only lasted about two seconds. I barely managed to take one picture. We only saw the third and final race so we didn't get to see a whole lot of it.Sausages loaded with sauerkraut

Mmm...apple cake.Weiner dog races

We also went to the Catholic Church and listened to a men's choir concert for a little bit. We watch the glockenspiel at 4 o'clock, but we decided it was kind of creepy. While we walked around and looked at the different booths Brianne had to pull me away from the one that sold cork guns. It reminded me of the cork gun I had so long ago that we bought at Wallowa Lake. She saw the look in my eyes that told her I had reverted back to when I was about eight years old; and that's never a good sign.

Inside the Catholic churchThe Glokenspiel

One thing we bought Brianne was a bar of homemade Pearberry soap. There were several different scents in giant slabs that they would cut into chunks. I liked the smell of the Sandalwood soap, but that was definitely a masculine smell so she didn't get it.

Throughout the day I kept up with the scores of the football games on my phone. I was surprised to see that Washington beat USC, disappointed to see that BYU lost, delighted that Oregon beat Utah, and distraught that that Cincinnati beat OSU.

We left Oktoberfest as many people were arriving. We figured that it would be best to go in the early afternoon and leave around dinner time to avoid all the drunkenness. The food was good, but we took prilosec before we went just to be prepared. Everyone should take part in Oktoberfest at some point in their lives. It's quite an experience and was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.


~Josh