On Saturday evening, the hubs and I ventured across the Howard Frankland Bridge to attend Oktoberfest Tampa at beautiful Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park, which is set along the Hillsborough river in downtown.
The 5th annual event is the largest Oktoberfest celebration in Tampa, though it wasn't as large or crowded as I anticipated. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and GT and I had a great time. Since he had duty Friday and Sunday, it was nice to just spend time together, chat, watch silly beer games, listen to live music, and drink lots of bier, of course. My hubby had two steins (that's 2 liters!) of Oktoberfest, naturally, while I, being not much of a beer drinker, had a half-liter of Hefeweizen before switching to a German Riesling. What can I say? I'm a wine girl.
But perhaps my favorite part of the event was taking in the gorgeous sunset and city views. Wow. The clouds do some incredible things here in Florida. And the University of Tampa campus (across the river from the park) is simply stunning.
My other fave moment from the night? Playing corn hole and beating my husband by a landslide!
Since GT wasn't thrilled by the idea of an $8 bratwurst, we bid Oktoberfest auf wiedersehen (yep, I'm busting out that German I learned in high school and college) and walked across the street to a wine and beer bar called Taps for a very late dinner. Fueled by booze, we made somewhat unwise dining decisions and shared completely unhealthy but totally delicious and quintessential bar food: hot pretzel with spicy mustard and beer queso nachos with salsa fresca and chicken.
I'd love to return sometime since the lounge-y restaurant had a great vibe and the rest of the menu looked equally tasty (and not as artery clogging).
I hope you had a wonderful weekend, too! And since today is Columbus Day, it may be a three-day weekend for some of you. GT has the day off (he actually has most of the week off; it's his birthday week!) so we may go explore some more... I'll end with a shot of the almost-birthday boy acting a fool for my photographic benefit:
I told him to run through the fountain outside the park and I'd take a photo. This is what he did :) He may be on the verge of 30, but he's still a kid at heart.
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