Wienerschnizel, Lederhosen, Bratwurst, & Biergardens

This was #2 of our beer challenge

I think we were a little late to the game in celebrating Octoberfest, but it's one of the more festive fall activities of the year.  And I always thought it was silly to celebrate OCTOBER-fest in September.   We had even more reason to celebrate this weekend because my brother was in town visiting for one night only!  And, it was Mr, Chuck Buck's birthday.  There are very few weekends in the year where all of our friends are in town at the same time, and this weekend was just one of those weeks where everyone was in the city, and everyone was available and down for some brewskies.

My husband taking every opportunity to wear another costume

After what seemed like an entire week of rainy weather, we woke up to crisp air and sunny skies, right in time for Garrett to arrive in Manhattan from a friends wedding in Upstate.  After waiting anxiously all morning for him to get here, we immediately cabbed it up to head out to Brooklyn's Radegast Beer Hall.  We celebrated Chuck's birthday and Garrett's visit with steins of delicious German beer, Bratwursts, giant pretzels and mead...
Well not all of us had mead...but Mike did because it said that it was made out of "Viking blood" on the menu.  Garrett and I thought that it would be fun to experiment with the beer menu and try everything as it appeared in order on the beer list.  It was a bit aggressive, but it's hard to choose a beer when they have crazy German names and confusing descriptions.  We made it through the first 5, there were some tough ones in there, I'm not going to lie.  Number 3 was disgusting, but we took a picture with each beer to document our challenge.

The boys with their mead in extremely festive glasses

Still counting our beer even though
we've left the biergarden

We continued the party back on the LES at Mike Keohane's rooftop patio.  There is a very short amount of time left for us to enjoy a night sitting outside.  Before we know it, it's going to be snowy and cold, so we were all down for a rooftop outing with cozy blankets, cigars, pungent scotch, berets, and mason jars with Rose wine.  It also meant a lot for me to be able to share the festivity with my brother.  This weekend was a bit windy and after the rain last week, the New York skyline was crystal clear and sparkling in all her glory.  I've been wanting to share an experience like this with my brother since we moved here so that he could see why we love this city and why we aren't sure that we want to return back to the West Coast just yet.  It's fall, and yes, it's very mild, but it's my favorite time of year, especially in Manhattan, and I'm so glad he could be here to have one day of real New York City autumn.

Needless to say, all three of us were hurt-ing on Sunday.  So it was the perfect setting for some good home cooked chili and double (maybe triple...) chocolate chip cookies.  All three of us (four with Winston) were glued to our little spots on the couch the entire day with breaks only to eat and refill on Gatorade and water.  Boy am I going to miss having a couch that can fit 4 comfortably!  The things you sacrifice for space in New York!  And, I'm going to miss my brother because I feel like one night was just too short!  But luckily him and Jen will be back to see us after Thanksgiving next month!