In early November, we spent an action-packed weekend in Austin to celebrate Jon's birthday. The festivities included a trip to New Braunfels on Saturday to attend Wurstfest and on Sunday, we spent the day at a music fest in downtown Austin. We enjoyed not only lots of time with the Blues, but also reconnecting with some of our GK friends in Texas.
Growing up in Texas, I had always heard about Wurstefest in the large German community of New Braunfels, but had never attended before. Over the past 6 years abroad, we've so enjoyed celebrating both Oktoberfest and Oktoberfeest (the Dutch version) and when the Fall rolled around, we were both aching to bust out our lederhosen and dirnld. Luckily, the date of Wurstfest coincided perfectly with our Austin trip, and we were able to dress in our German garb with a Texas twist - wearing cowboy boots!
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| Proudly showing off her sausage |
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| Laurel and Braxton dancing away |
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| Happy Birthday, Jon! |
I didn't really know what to expect from this Fest, but was pleasantly surprised! They had three different beer halls, all with Texas/Bavarian music, lots of German souvenir stalls, and plenty of authentic German food (to include lots of wurst, hence the name of the fest). The weather was gorgeous so when the kids were getting a little restless in the beer hall, we meandered outdoors and sat along the river while sipping our beers.
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| The Clough-Blue clan |
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| The Germany crew |
Margaret and Brandon drove up from San Antonio to spend the day with us and we had so much fun, as always, hanging out with them. It was so surreal to be celebrating all-things-German in Texas together, after being in Germany together for the real deal! Needless to say, we were quite the hit dressed in our authentic garb. We were stopped on several occasions to be asked where we got our outfits and even had the New Braunfels paper snap a pic of our group.
On Sunday, Jon and I planned to spend the afternoon/evening at Austin's FunFunFun fest downtown. It's a great music fest of mostly rock bands and one of our fave from back in the day was there, The Dismemberment Plan. They hail from Northern VA and even attended the same high school as Jon (though many years earlier). Though he has seen them many times during his high school and college days, I've never had the chance as they only recently got back together and started touring again. When he found out they would be playing at this festival on his birthday weekend, he knew that would be the perfect way to celebrate it. Beforehand, we had brunch with the Blues and snapped this cute pic of the boys.
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| Fun, Fun, Fun Fest |
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| The Dismemberment Plan |
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| Jon on the FunFunFun Fest sign |
We had so much fun people-watching at the fairground and simply taking in the music fest vibe. And of course, the highlight was being able to see the D-Plan and sing along to all their songs. The Blues were oh-so-sweet to watch Conan so we could have this time together to celebrate Jon's birthday. That night, we met up with Missy for dinner at the Domain. This was our second opportunity to meet up with her during one of our Austin trips, and unfortunately would be our last as she returned to the NL later that month. We so enjoyed being able to visit with her on Texas soil, and though we will miss her being close by, I'm so excited for the many adventures she and Chad have ahead during their extended time abroad.
Austin truly is such an incredible city and we look forward to our weekends here so much. Whether we're exploring the nature parks, bar-hopping downtown, shopping on Congress, or trying out new restaurants, there are always a plethora of activities to keep us busy. Though we would love to live here, we at least get the next best thing - family that does! Thanks, Blues, for making our Austin visits so wonderful! Can't wait until the next one!
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