Spring festivals

April is party month, especially in this part of the world.

Some of our merry-making took place in the context of an official fiesta event, but we also made our own party, too.

First, the official partying.

Readers might remember my visit to St. Mary's Oyster Bake with the kids last year. We had fun then in spite of the less-than-hospitable weather. This year, we didn't have weather to deal with, and enjoyed even more eating, drinking, and other activities.

Like watching the colorful parade above on the left, and taking in the various amusing sights (some of which I have for you here) that accompany partying people with access to fermented beverages.

As last year, for reasons unfathomable to this blogger, the eponymous oysters are a main attraction for the younger generation. Here are Hal, Carey, and their friends from Austin who joined us for their first Oyster Bake. Again, partaking of those oyster shots. They were frequent patrons of the booth you see in rear of the photo.

But eating and drinking (and slurping) isn't all the party's about. Music is the big attraction for most folks, but Hal had his eyes on the carnival this year, determined to lose whatever oyster shots he'd consumed. At least, that's what I thought would happen. But he must not have inherited his mother's stomach, and came through not one, but two, organ-scrambling rides intact.

He and Carey both rode this contraption, while their more level-headed companions watched (and tried to take pictures, which wasn't too easy given the bright sunlight glaring the camera's display window):

...before, firmly belted in and sans floppy shoes...

...and during (please excuse poorly framed shot and lack of zeroing in on their car)...

Hal's appetite (so to speak) for this outrageousness wasn't satisfied, though, and he opted to try (by himself, this time) this amazing piece of engineering. It actually spun the riders around on every possible axis of movement. Fortunately, this was enough him and we were able to head back to the oyster shot booth.

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Now, for our own festival, which took place the following weekend, while many of our friends and neighbors were still in official fiesta mode.

Hosting in-laws visiting from the frozen north (well, maybe not exactly, but from almost that far up there!) we spent a varied and very satisfying Saturday in the charming hill country town of Fredericksburg.

Known as an eating, drinking, and shopping destination, we did plenty of the first two activities, but chose to substitute museum-ing for the latter. (To read about our visit to the National Museum of the Pacific War, check out this post on my London blog. I put it there because the museum, while on a smaller scale, compares favorably in quality with London's best.)

We started with a yummy lunch at a local brew pub, then hit the museum.

Tearing ourselves away from there was hard, since it was such an interesting place, but we had a special reservation awaiting us that we couldn't miss.

Hal and Carey have invested in a membership at Becker Vineyards, one of the best of a bevy of hill country wineries that are transforming the look and the commerce of this part of the state. One of the perks of their membership is an annual VIP wine tasting—how lucky we are to be related to these generous wine connoisseurs!

Our enthusiastic young hostess plied us with 8 or 9 of Becker's best and answered all of our curious questions about the wine-making business. What an interesting endeavor it is!

Unfortunately, in spite of the warm cheery feeling from all that wine, we had to part company with the Austin-ites and their visitors after the winery tour.

But it was great fun to spend such an interesting day with them. And we didn't come home empty-handed.

In fact, our souvenir bottle of Becker Pinot Grigio, and our souvenir glasses, will be put to good use as we have a friend over for dinner tonight. And we'll offer up a toast to our festival-going companions.