Oktoberfest: beer, brats, and bar-b-q

This month has been chock full of trips and parties and deadlines. I'll start my October re-cap series with a little ditty about a town called Leavenworth.

To get a sence for Leavenworth, envision the German village portion of Epcot Center (sturdy ladies holding two beer steins, smiley guys in Lederhosen, squat brown and white buildings, flowery storefront signs). Now drop that into the middle of the Cascade Mountains, and watch for the tourism dollars to roll in. Who knew there was such a market for faux-Bavaria in central Washington? Anyway, the company I work for gave us a gift certificate to Leavenworth's Sleeping Lady Inn for our wedding (our friends Chris and Julie also got one). Not coincidentally, we decided to cash them in during the town's Oktoberfest, one of the biggest in the State.

Although Oktoberfest itself was nothing to write home about, some unexpected details made the trip. Dave navigated through treacherous traffic then gnarly mountain roads for 2.5 hours in the pouring rain. The biggest big rigs whooshed by us, rattling our trusty Subaru. Road beers, music, and a lively game of "Top 3" made the trip more fun (Dave, are you with me??). We miraculously arrived in one piece and headed out for some shnitzel (like little doughy turds).

The next morning, Dave and Chris went into town to watch a football game, while Julie and I took a two hour walk through the hills. We stumbled upon a public salmon hatchery, where they nurture baby salmon in incubators. They look like eyeballs with tails. It was way cool.

Oktoberfest was wet. Great big halls were filled with drunks, townfolk, frat kids, ladies in sexy dirndles, and Germans looking to save money on airfare. We drank beer indoors, chatted with our table-mates, and watched German showgirls dance, play bells, sing, and pique the interest of every guy in the tent. Again, picture Epcot.

We then moved the party down the street to soak up the beer with some respectable German food, including goulash, brats, and sauerkraut. I can now check off one place in the Top 1,000 Places To See Before You Die book.

Traveling home on Sunday, we stopped by a converted roadside school bus that served bar-b-q. Chris is a born-and-bred Texan food lover, and had heard about this bus in his quest for authentic bar-b-q. None of us were hungry but we had to stop. After ordering, Julie and I dipped into the Reptile Museum next door to use their bathroom. Our eyes lit up like little children at the freakishly large and creepy critters (a two headed turtled- saw it with my own eyes!, an Anaconda that would eat us for a snack, and an albino aligator). After our reptilian peep show, we ran back to the bar-b-q bus to tell Dave and Chris about the wonders of the museum and to pick up our junior-sized pulled pork sandwiches. The food was delicious! Chris and Julie, the self-proclaiming food snobs, were raving about the just-sweet-enough barbeque. Did I mention we ate our sandwiches in the converted school bus, which had alphabetic magnets all over the ceiling? We did.