Oktoberfest

Keeping with the theme of being a little late in my posts, we recently went to Helen with Emily and Trip to celebrate Oktoberfest (the K makes it way more german). We had an amazing weekend. We woke up early saturday morning and took in a nice little hike through the north georgia mountains. brayden LOVED IT!!!


Emily and Trip on the trail...


It wasn't actually a midnight hike, as this picture suggests, it just came out dark, but here is brayden holding his first stick...


The falls were pretty amazing, probably dropping around 200 to 300 feet!!! brayden's wondering where he left that stick...


We were much more amused by them than this picture implies...


Ok, this is better (if you're wondering why you recognize this pose, its from the dancing elves video)...

After our hike we headed in to town and took in some traditional bavarian fare, tacos and margaritas. we would have eaten elsewhere, but the lines were absolutely unbelievable, apparently we're not the only ones who'd heard about the wonders of helen in october. We were actually lucky to get this table. stephanie convinced an older gentleman, with teeth the shade of brown m&m's, to let us sit with him. he left as soon as brayden and I arrived, apparently he thought he'd be dining with stephanie and a bunch of drunk teenagers, oh well...

not sure why the guy in the background is so made, perhaps he wanted to sit with the old man (there are 3 more pictures of this guy staring at us like this). Notice the traditional german "corona" umbrellas. also, notice how brayden still has hair at this point.

But we did stop in to the hansel and gretel kitchen and pick up some amazing chocolate, which lasted all of 2 days. We did our bests to fit in with all of the locals while we were in helen. Here's a pic of stephanie and I in our lederhosen...

sadly, this picture is not alcohol induced.

We were fortunate enough to witness an ancient german tradition, affectionately called "Misst Zeit aus"...

or translated to english "time out". it was hard to take this picture for a number of reasons, among others 1) i didn't want this guy to see me, 2) i was laughing too hard 3) the dad was genuinely upset at his son, and 4) i felt really bad for the kid because he was genuinely sorry for what he'd done.

We finished our day in helen by listening to some live music at helen's version of the hofbrau house. apparently there weren't stringent qualifications required to get the job of head entertainer at this venue, i imagine when they posted the ad in the paper it read something like "WANTED: Musician. Must play guitar and know most of the words to the songs you will sing". But it was Live music (with the exception of the background karaoke accompaniment cd), the weather was phenomenal, we were with friends and i had a cold beer in tote, so i really can't complain, it was a wonderful time.