Wordless Wednesday: kindred spirits

A Wurst First

Just up the road in New Braunfels, the locals celebrate their German heritage in the fall with Wurstfest, a sort of mini-Oktoberfest with lots of beer, food, and music.

The last time we went was many years ago, back in the mists of pre-children time, and I don't remember much about it (perhaps some beer was drunk?). But I'm pretty sure we didn't go specifically to hear the music, much less any particular band.

For the 2015 Wurstfest, however, we finally yielded to some friends' insistence that we go to hear these guys...

It's Alex Meixner, accordionist-extraordinaire (and very un-ordinary!) and his band. 

Now we understand what our friends have been raving about all these years. What a show they put on! We stayed for two sets, the first being a bit more traditional, while the second got pretty wild. We've already decided next year we have to go and stay for the third set in the evening, which we expect will be even crazier.

The musicianship, as well as the showmanship, was outstanding. Here's a shot of our boy handling two instruments at once (and the rest of the band was equally multi-talented):

(My pictures aren't that great, but you can see better ones, and even catch some video, by following the link above.)

We did have some great German food and of course some beer (the variety of brewski choices was almost overwhelming for Henry; we sent him off to get some and he didn't come back for over an hour!). But there was more music as well. Another good band was this group of musical ladies, who are actually from München...

See better pictures and some video of them at their website: Die Bayerische 7.

We had some great sausage and pastries in addition to the brews, but decided not to go for this delicacy:

Yes, there weren't a lot of healthy eating options on offer. But it was a very fun and festive time, so we tried to ignore that failing and go with the flow. 

As is often the case at such festivals, especially as the cumulative beer consumption continues to rise, the crowds in the audience are as much fun to watch as the performers. Funny hats, in particular, seem to be almost de rigueur...

The pink pig hat this guy was wearing had strings that he could pull so that the pig could "fly":

I thought it was interesting that a more traditional German Hut (aber ohne drei Ecke!) was in the foreground here, in front of some wilder examples...

It did seem that as the day wore on, not only did Alex get wilder, but also the number and absurdity of the crazy hats increased with the beer consumption. And some party-goers went even further with their costuming:

Next year we want to see Alex after dark, and also, perhaps, do some polka-ing in the Wursthalle...

We think it will be doable, but we'll have to pace ourselves, and probably spend some time outside the music tent (das grosse Zelt) decompressing on the parklike festival grounds (it's held right along the lovely Comal River in downtown New Braunfels). The music did get louder as well as more raucous as the afternoon progressed. 

But for now we're just grateful to our friends for turning us on to this great event. Thanks, Joline and Sandra!

Wordless Wednesday: I'm speechless

Come high water on Halloween!

I hadn't been paddling in a really long time, between out-of-town trips, and a drought that made the water too low, punctuated by floods that made it too high....well, I guess you can understand.

But the upper Guadalupe had calmed down sufficiently from its lately hemorrhaging for me to get out again, on Halloween Saturday.

Although the water was still pretty high, and, being the chicken I am when it comes to white water, I shared a canoe with Henry rather than paddling my own craft.

As an example of the high water, here's our group at a favorite lunch/photo spot. The downed tree that everyone's trying to stay clustered around is usually up on the beach by a couple of yards!

And the flat rocks you see on the left in this photo are usually the tops of small cliffs...

...while of course, piles of debris are always a sign that high water's been this way...

....as is the sight of water coming over falls on tributary creeks...

As you can see, the water was definitely muddier than usual, but there wasn't too much debris that we had to dodge. And it carried us along at a good clip.

With weather at a perfect temperature, it was a fun way to spend our pre-trick-or-treating time.

I hope the circumstances will align favorably for me again soon!

The not-just-white-house

The most exciting (by far) aspect of my recent trip to our nation's capital involved tours of a building that I hadn't been near in quite some time...

This picture was taken in 1953, when Mom and I met Dad in Washington. He had some leave from his 18-month tour of duty in Newfoundland. Being only a little over 4 at the time, I really have no memory of the White House; I have no idea if we went inside and met Ike  or not.

But I will long remember my 2015 visit, when I not only got to see the inside of this part of the place—here it is today, a photo I snapped after we exited our tour:

—but I also got to see the working side, which not too many people are privileged to do. More about that later.

Thanks to my wonderful niece (more about her later, too) a couple of friends and I were able to play hooky from our conference for most of the last morning and tour the East Wing. This is a public tour, but you normally do have to sign up months in advance. Molly was able to expedite this process for us, although we did have to give information for a background check, and then get checked off at not one, but two checkpoints before entering. Not that we minded. In fact, we found the level of security comforting and the Secret Service guys and gals that handled it were professional and courteous.

Here's a shot of some lovely and well-tended flowerbeds I enjoyed as we waited outside one of the checkpoints:

All of the grounds were similarly well-cared-for and bursting with fall color...a perfect complement to the very white exterior walls of La casa blanca.

These beautiful grounds not only look great from the outside, but they provide gorgeous vistas from the inside, too...

But of course the main attractions are inside the place. And what fabulous attractions! From the quirky to the incredibly elegant. You can see a lot more on the official webpages (Whitehouse.gov is very good for history and details), but here are some of my best photos:

State Dining Room
(isn't that a great painting of Lincoln?)

I loved all the historical photos lining the corridor walls...
this one shows Princess Diana dancing with John Travolta!

from Abraham Lincoln's china service

on the wall in the Green Room

the rest of the Green Room

the Red Room
(my best shots were usually verticals since the ceilings are so high!)

the Blue Room was my favorite of the colors...
...but I think the painted-on faux valence around the ceiling was a little weird

What a gorgeous place! I'm rather proud to have it as a symbol of our country's government, pleased with its museum-like features, and very grateful to have had this chance to walk through it.

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The night before, though, we had an even more exciting tour.

Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures inside this time, but I do have a few to show you. The one above is what the north portico of the White House looks like when you exit from....The West Wing!

As a long-time devoted fan of this '90's TV show, I was so very, very excited to get to see the real thing. It was so cool! 

The link above, btw, is from the official Whitehouse website, and it goes into great detail about various movies and shows that have featured the White House, and how accurate or inaccurate the set designs are. The sections on The West Wing make great reading for fans. And they also supported my impression that the real thing is much smaller and more cramped, with a few exceptions, than it was portrayed on the show.

The biggest exception is the Oval Office, which I so wish I could have snapped for you. It's rather spacious, although probably not commensurate with its place in the popular imagination.

We were allowed to take pictures in the Press Briefing Room, which is incredibly smaller than it looks on TV, even in actual videos taken in the actual room. An interesting example of how your mental picture of a space can distort it. Anyway, on the left above you can see me channeling my inner CJ.

By the way, some of the buildings surrounding the White House itself are pretty impressive, too. I was particularly taken with the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, right next door, where many White House staffers have offices. I thought it looked incredibly beautiful in the darkness. (You can see photos of it in daylight by following the link.)

But of course the star of the show is the White House, and we enjoyed both of our tours immensely. Neither would have happened without Molly's taking time out from her insanely busy schedule to arrange them. Here I am with her outside the West Wing after she showed us around. I am so very proud of her and the work she does. Many, many thanks, Molly!

Wordless Wednesday: streamers

Museums: a favorite way to get exhausted

Washington, D.C. is a city of museums, and I never tire of visiting them. Even those I've seen before.

However, since I figured my trip last month might be the last time I'd be in  our nation's capital for a while, I wanted to take in some new [for me] museums.

Actually, the museum where this lovely sculpture is on the front porch isn't new. But it's been so radically re-designed that I thought it was new at first.

The National Museum of American History is one of those fantastic hodge-podge institutions where you just never know what you're going to find.

Like in their section on food, where they have this impressive display of types of to-go drink covers:

I mean, who even thinks to collect this stuff? But it's really fun to read about and see, all in one exhibit.

One of their biggest galleries deals with transportation, and I was rather taken with this exhibit. It shows logos for all the different car companies that made vehicles early in the history of autos, but are now [almost] completely forgotten (click on the picture to see a larger version, so you can read the names):

The museum also has a variety of smaller exhibits lining their spacious entrance area. Here's one I especially liked:

The signature artifact in the museum is the actual flag that flew at Ft, McHenry and inspired the writing of the national anthem. Yes, the actual flag. It is pretty awesome, literally, since it's gigantic, but also because you know what all it has seen. The exhibit surrounding it is more interesting than you might expect, too, since it not only recounts that particular anthem-inspiring battle, but also the vicissitudes of family and national history that led to the flag's being where it is today.

And as a bonus, the wall behind which the flag is exhibited (no flash allowed in there, obviously, and it was too dimly lit for a good photo) is decorated with this gorgeous "artistic rendering" (I left the gentleman in the frame for scale):

Very cool, eh?

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The other museum that I visited is very, very different from the light, airy, and somewhat quirky American History Museum, but it's not far away, across the Mall.

In spite of hearing for years what a great museum it is, I'd been putting off visiting the Holocaust Memorial Museum. I just wasn't sure I could handle it. But as I've studied and read more and more about World War II, my desire to see what the museum could add to my understanding of this aspect of the conflict overcame my reluctance to experience it this personally.

And I'm so glad it finally did. What an amazing museum! Its exhibits are so rich and full of meaning, insights, and emotions that I wasn't able to come anywhere near seeing even all the World War II-related galleries. Not to mention the exhibitions that illuminate the evils of genocide and prejudice in other eras. It was definitely emotionally draining, but there was also simple museum-fatigue...you can only take in so much information before your brain just overflows, no matter what the subject of the museum. I definitely want to go back someday and see more of this place.

I didn't take too many pictures here. For one thing, even though it was not their busy season (and timed-tickets were not required; this is definitely the time of year to visit if you aren't constrained by school schedules) it was pretty crowded, making it difficult to get clear shots of many of the artifacts and exhibits.

But my attention was also very much taken up with reading the explanatory materials and I only occasionally brought myself out of that verbal mindset and noticed something that I thought would make a good visual. However, I do have a few to share with you.

On the right above is a chart showing the way prisoners in the concentration camps were identified. I think if click on it you can see a large enough version to be able to see the letters, but since they're in German Fraktur script, you might not be able to interpret them (although the link will take you to a reference table). Suffice it to say that there were lots of categories, and cross-categories, of people who suffered in these camps, all meticulously identified.

The photo at the top of this section was taken looking out over the museum lobby through glass in which names of Holocaust victims have been etched. Lovely, but sobering. 

Another very moving pair of spaces, and an imaginative one, from a design standpoint, is the Tower of Faces. I took a picture in the first room, which features photos of Jews who lived in a small town in eastern Poland before the war. 

After you go through this space, there are several exhibits recounting different phases of the Holocaust. Then you go through a similar space with photos of the Jews from this town who survived. I couldn't bring myself to take a picture in that room. 

The museum has some very poignant artifacts from some of the ghettos where the Jews were forced to live, like this gate. I can't remember which town it was from:

And there are recreations and models that help tell the story. The most arresting one, that's almost impossible to look at yet also impossible not to study, is a model of the Auschwitz crematorium (you can see a more panoramic view of it here): 

There was so much to take in! I was particularly interested in this chart. I guess I would have been considered a grade 2 Mischling, as I knew from previous readings about the Nuremberg laws. But to see it so starkly set out was pretty unnerving:

I was pretty exhausted by the time I finished going through the main permanent exhibition at the museum. And I know I probably slighted some of the later parts of it through simple fatigue. But I did feel it was important to record this famous quote from Martin Niemöller, which is posted near the exit:

It pretty nicely sums up the mission of the museum, and what should be the mission of citizens of civilization everywhere, with a special sense of poignance given the recent events in Paris.