9/26-9/28 Captain's Blog

Happy Fall! Or should I say Happy Oktoberfest!

Our Aquatennial family is fresh back from La Crosse, Wisconsin (or behind the "Cheddar Curtain" as we like to say) and their Oktoberfest celebration. Here's what went down!

La Crosse has one of the largest Oktoberfest celebrations in the midwest, certainly one of the largest in this area. They began the celebration in La Crosse in 1961 and it has grown ever since (go here for more history). Let me assure you....it is a PARTY in the Oktoberfest tradition. I don't know if they do it like this in Munich but they should.

We left last Friday afternoon from downtown Minneapolis....Commodore Mary, Queen Tara, Princess Emily in one vehicle, Princess Jaclyn with Captain Rob and me in the other (and Rob's wife Amy as well...Mary's husband Mike met us in La Crosse).

La Crosse is about 2 1/2 hours from Minneapolis. It's an absolutely beautiful drive especially once you get east of Rochester and head down into the bluff country near the Mississippi. In a way, it looks like Germany. With a little less yodeling.

The Festmaster's Ball and the Golden Keg. We must have
found the right place I guess.

We checked into the hotel and we quickly changed because we were off to the Festmaster's Ball.

There is a "royal family" that oversees the festivities. One of them, the Festmaster and Frau (which is German for an adult woman, or, basically, the Wife!) and this ball is where they say goodbye to the old one and welcome in the new.

Commodore Mary, Queen Tara and the new Festmaster!

It was a HUGE crowd and a wonderful dinner (mmmmm.....German food. Not bad!). There also was a tradition they do called "The Tapping of the Golden Keg". Works for me. It is Oktoberfest after all! And yes, it is actually a golden keg. In a golden barrell. That's just good stuff right there. Yes, Rob and I were quick to get in line. As we always are!

Mmmmmm....Golden Keg. Don't mind us.

Following the Ball, we were off to the Southside Festival Grounds. In La Crosse, they have a North Side and South Side Festival Grounds which, basically, are carnival grounds with rides, food, beer tents (mostly beer tents) and live music. The "Dweebs" were playing on Friday night. Nice!

Now, it's awfully tough to take underage girls drinking! Did I just say that? That's not what I meant. Let me try that again (I'm being funny here....just go with it).

The basic, after-hours atmosphere includes beer tents, live music (with beer tents) and bars (with beer tents). If you are 19, 20 years old, kind of tough to hang out (in a beer tent). So, we found a place to sit at the festival grounds where they didn't have to be 21 just to get through the door and hung out (it was kind of a beer tent)! It was good to hang with the girls and just talk. We just all have so much fun together plus having Amy and Mike (Rob and Mary's spouses) is always fun. We have a great group of people.

At the Festival Grounds...our group with Bill (King Boreas) and
Brooke (Queen of the Snows). Oh, and an empty
pitcher. Whoops.

Eventually, they let us in to see the band (after they stop alcohol sales of course) so we could catch the last couple of songs. Gotta love the Dweebs! It was kind of funny because inside the stage area, it was wall to wall, across the floor, crushed beer cans. You could literally walk the whole length of the building without touching the floor. You did NOT want to be in sandals!

At that point, it was time to get the girls back to the hotel. Of course for Rob, Mary, Mike, Amy and me, it was time to see what else was going on. Well, you hear all the stories about La Crosse, you want to see what's happening downtown, right?

Stop judging me.

We met up with our friends from the St. Paul Winter Carnival including King Boreas and two of their Wind Princesses, Natalie and Erin. We went to a place called the Library where not much reading was going on to enjoy some of Oktoberfest's finest libations and people watch. Because THAT is the best part.

As a side note, the T-shirt watching may have been better. I can't really share a lot of them with you but trust me, they were very creative. "Notsoberfest", "Don't Worry, We're Professionals", "Minneapolis Drinking Team", etc. You get the idea. Very funny stuff, some of them. Others, maybe a little on the disturbing side. I guess that's what they're going for though.

It was a late night but we had a lot of fun. We have such a great relationship with Winter Carnival and it's so much fun to hang out with them.

Do you think they pick their parade spots early enough?
Thanks for the seats!

Saturday morning was the Maple Leaf Parade. The parade runs from north to south through the town and it is a zoo. It's a tailgate party with a parade in the middle. Interesting? Yes. Fun? Without a doubt. Borderline frightening? Definitely.

The view from the float!

Example.....we were talking to a couple of Police Officers while lining up for the parade and one of them told us that if anyone tries to "climb onto the float, go ahead and kick them down". Yes, kick them down. I don't remember that in the job description.

Gotta love alcohol induced float climbing. Sounds like a new reality show on Fox. Right after that show where people try to fit through a hole in the wall before being knocked into a pool. Weird. If they do the show, it should definitely be hosted by someone in Lederhosen named Franz.

So, the "boys" along the parade route were a hoot. Yes, I said hoot.

Anyway, they were....ummmmmmm.....how do I say this? Oh, interested in the girls. We got a LOT of "Jaclyn, call me!!!!", and "Tara, we love you" and just plain yelling ("EMILY!!!!!! EMILY!!!!!!! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!!!!!!!! GIVE ME FIVE!!!!!!! DON'T BE THAT GIRL!!!!!).

Yeah, yeah, yeah...we love them too. Just don't fall!

It was all in good fun. I think. Except for the people who kept yelling "Vikings Suck!!!" Yeah, yeah. We know! You don't need to tell us. It wasn't like we were wearing purple Adrian Peterson jersies! Back off. You can't reason with a Cheesehead (well, how do you? They're wearing cheese!). Told you we were behind the Cheddar Curtain. I should have worn a Jets Favre jersey.

Saturday afternoon was a luncheon during which all the visitng festivals gathered to spend some time together and exchange some gifts. Along with Winter Carnival and Aquatennial, we were joined by a HUGE contingent from Winnipeg (Festival Du Voyageur), a couple of festivals in Florida, the Vulcans were all there (hide the women and children) plus a few more (I killed a lot of brain cells....I can't remember all the names).

What could be better than a Princess with an Accordian?

Saturday night, Oktoberfest welcomed us to a hospitality tent (yes, it was a beer tent....a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet for all you Shakespeare fans).

It was really a great bonding time for all of us. They had an accordian player there who would walk around from table to table singing polka songs and, of course, making us sing along with. That was interesting. Ziggy socky, ziggy sockey! Hoy! Hoy! Hoy! That plus more of the beautiful German language. And every song from "The Sound of Music". Edelweiss get's old after the 48th time but we had a lot of fun.

Oh my...Ein Prozit never sounded so....off key.

After that, back downtown to see what was happening there. Yep, more drinking. But this time more people. I think both Minnesota and Wisconsin emptied into dowtown La Crosse Saturday night. That is quite the scene.

Sunday morning, we had a group breakfast and then we were off to church. Commodore Mary and Winter Carnival Prime Minister Scott did readings and our good friends from Winnipeg played some music. It was a very nice service.

After that, it was time for goodbyes. Not only from the other festivals but from each other. Princess Emily went with Rob, Amy and I while the rest were with Mary. It's funny, when you spend so much time with each other, you'd think that splitting off from each other would be easy. Well, for us, it's not. At all.

Princess Jaclyn, Me, Queen Tara and Princess Emily...
All decked out in our Oktoberfest finest!

And then we drove home listening to the Vikings stink it up. Yep. The Cheeseheads were right.

So, what's next? Not a lot but a few things to tell you about.

First, Queen of the Lakes Tara, Princess Jaclyn, Captain Rob and I are off to the Anoka Halloween Orange Tie Ball on Friday, October 17th. It's a fundraiser for the Anoka Halloween festival and I still can't figure out if I need to buy an orange tie or not. TBD

After that, we have the Anoka Halloween Parade and Coronation on October 25th and the U of M Homecoming Parade on November 1st.

Hope we see you all soon!

Lindsey Peterson
2008 Minneapolis Aquatennial Captain