The First of Many More!

Who says you need to live in a house before you have a party in one? StoneRidge Pal Jim was having a birthday, so we decided to break in the house the right way.

We started the evening by going out for a Mexican Dinner in Newport.

Then we had cake at our house.

Here we are all hanging around the island in the kitchen. To complete the night it was cocktails and music in our music room.


We are trying to be officially in the house by the end of this week. DirecTV was installed today and StoneRidge Guy got to watch a few minutes of a football game on the new TV. He was very excited! High speed internet and our phone service will be installed later in the week.
I'll keep you posted.

Oktoberfest!

21 StoneRidgers in 7 motor coaches caravan-ed the 4 hour trip to Leavenworth, Washington. It's a town very much like Solvang, in California. (StoneRidge Guy was not able to join us because he was heading to No. California for his annual golf trip.) Friday morning we all met in the Motor Coach Village parking lot to start our trip.

first row (left to right): Carol, Susan, Cindy, Rita, Patsy, Murray, Tammy, Judy, StoneRidge Gal, Patty
back row (l to r): Russ, Marci, David, Rusty, Dennis, Larry, Terry
missing: Jim, Gabe, Allen, Joe (they were busy prep'ing the coaches)

We left early, hoping to make it to the Thousand Trails RV park by mid afternoon. Our intention, of course, to get set up in time to have a bratwurst dinner in town. StoneRidge Pup Maggie and I stayed with pals Jim, Patty and Sadie. (Sadie is Maggie's sister, they are litter mates.) Most of us were doubled up, so the quarters were tight.

After we set up camp, all of us went into the town of Leavenworth for some beer, brats and a bit of shopping. Our trip organizers scheduled groups to make meals. We had our breakfast each morning around a roaring camp fire by the Tammy & Russ' coach. Of course there were Bloody Mary's and Mimosas. Dinners were held indoors at the Family Hall, again pot luck style.

Saturday was the day for Oktoberfest. It started at noon with a parade followed by the keg tapping ceremony in the Festhalle, the main hall. It was fun, but we found our where everything was really happening... The Beir Stube! Would you be surprised to find out that we spent the rest of the day there?

Lots of people, people with funny hats, with beer mugs, always full of beer and Lots of Dancing! I can confidently say for each and every one of those in our group that we had a BLAST! The chemistry in this group of 21 couldn't have been better. We all agree that this should be an annual event.

There were too many photos so instead of uploading each one, I made a short video. If you are reading this from the web site, please turn off the "my tunes" in the sidebar before you start the video below. Oh, by the way, Steve won his tournament and will make sure that he joins us next year for Oktoberfest 2010.