Au Revoir, NYC! Guten Tag, Frankenmuth!

Finally getting to Frankenmuth posts...

We left for La Guardia very early, hours before our plane departed. Going through security, a Homeland Security Officer made me step aside, and another one frisked me! I couldn't believe it! I suppose knee socks and berets are awfully suspicious.

I was so sad to leave New York, and I never really gave it a proper goodbye. At least there was Frankenmuth to look forward to.

I love Frankenmuth, mostly because of sentimentality of my childhood. I had been there a couple of times growing up, and because of those vacations, I thought that everyone in Germany still wore dirndls and lederhosen; that it was all tiny villages with buildings of tan and brown and red geraniums pouring from hundreds of window boxes; that polka music played perpetually. Embarrassing to admit, but I believed this even until our trip to Munich last year...how wrong I was!
I told Aaron that I was sorry if he was disappointed with Frankenmuth, and he said that he was looking forward to going someplace where he could relax a bit.
When we arrived in Frankenmuth, certain buildings and shops looked familiar, and many did not. Overall, the town was a bit smaller than I remembered, scaled down like a miniature village, even with the addition of River Place, which was built after my last trip to Frankenmuth.
Our hotel, Fairfield Inn, was very nice and the bed was oh, so comfy compared to the Bedford. We immediately set out, stopping first at the Cheese Haus, which was just across the street from the hotel.

Then we went to the Bavarian Inn Castle Shops, which were not at all as impressive as I had imagined.

We were quite starved, so we decided to eat at the Bavarian Inn Restaurant. There are beautiful murals of fairy tales, such as the Goose Girl and Rapunzel, on the walls (which gave me inspiration for my next set of drawings).

I had the chicken dinner and Aaron had the sausage plate - I can't believe how much food there was because everything is home-cooked family-style. I was stuffed on bread, coleslaw, mashed potatoes, cranberry-apple-orange salad, green beans, sweet cucumber salad, and pasta salad with bacon before my chicken even arrived! Plus, they include homemade cranberry-apple-orange ice cream and ginger cookies for dessert. Top that off with the beer sampler and a couple of frosty mugs each...gracious, I thought Aaron would have to roll me down the street!

We headed down to Oktoberfest along the beautiful wooden covered bridge. It was Thursday, so Oktoberfest was pretty dead, and we were about the youngest ones there, surrounded by scads of older women who had come on bus trips.

They did play a Johnny Cash - John Denver medley in polka-style, which Aaron of course loved.

A sad thing did happen, though. Apparently too much chicken and too many Oktoberfests, because I burst right through the seam of dirndl! That dirndl is so dear to me, so I don't know if I have the nerve to fix it myself. I think I may have to let it out a bit while it's being repaired. :-(

We decided to leave since the tent closed soon after anyhow, and went to Tiffany's, a local bar decorated with, what else, but Tiffany lamps. It was fairly packed, especially with young, drunken 21-year-old girls. But the beer was $1.25, so the price was right.

That ends our first night in Frankenmuth...the next round to come tomorrow!