A Busy Weekend

This weekend we played host to a couple of US families that were over here visiting. Friday night our old neighbors in LeClaire were here house hunting as they will be moving here with Deere and Company as well. Isn't that funny? I think we talked to them more at dinner then we did when we lived in LeClaire! Saturday TJ and I went for a run in the morning and then braved the train system to Bad Durkheim for the Weinfest. We met up with our buddy family (another ex-pat family set up by Deere) and then some other ex-expats that we knew from Augusta. Apparently this is the largest wine festival in the world an goes on for two full weeks. There are rows and rows of tents, and each tent is a different German winery. We of course, sat at the Schaefer tent! Here are some photos...

Everyone loves a little German band, don't they? They would go up and down the rows of tents and play. My favorite thing about them is the drummer has glass holders attached to his drums, and I am pretty sure they had been "sampling wine" for quite a while!
This is living proof that my Dad's father's family is from Germany! This is the Karl Schaefer Winery, and I will have you know that all of the Schaefers spell their names the same as mine! Well at least as far as I have seen!
In the tent, a waitress comes around and you order by number which wine you would like. I got the sweetest Riesling (as I do) and was very surprised to see what they brought me. Yes, a half liter of wine in a glass. I paid a 2 Euro deposit for the glass, and 4 Euro for the wine. The glass has the name of the winery on it and lets just say that I lost my deposit on this glass!
We met our new friends as well as the ones we already new at the festival and had a great time! Pictured below starting with me counter clockwise is myself, Libby, Wesley, Debbie, Kristi, and Darren (TJ is taking the picture). We just met Kristi and Darren and found we have a lot in common...including a dog and no kids! As you can see from the photo we are all crammed in under the tent and there is barely any room around you!

Sunday another couple was in town for a week and we took them to Schwetzingen to the Schloss gardens. It happen to be the Mozart Festival this weekend so we did a lot of people watching! This was a little promenade dance they were demonstrating. Don't you love his tights? His legs happen to look better than most women I know!

All in all it was a very fun, but extremely tiring weekend. I was happy to hang out and write a paper today as well as take Tut for his long walks. These two pictures are from our walk today...we had a little bit of excitement!

Tut was on the trail of something in the long grass between the garden plots and the orchard and I couldn't figure out what he was sniffing...

And then I found out! A cat was laying in the grass and ran as fast as it could across the street and up into the tree. I let out a screech as Tut was on his long leash and nearly got its tail! I let a sigh of relief when the leash caught. Well, Mom, it looks like he hasn't lost his hunting skills...now it is cats because there aren't any squirrels around!
Who knows about next weekend's events as my huge final paper for Business Law is due Monday! There is talk of Munich as Oktoberfest will be beginning soon. Who knows!?! This week I am going to try to tackle grocery shopping and recycling for sure, so until then...

Auf Wiedersehen!