Brown bag it..or when that fails, iced tea it

Today was Oktoberfest in our little community. It was the 2nd annual event and like last year the weather was beautiful. Unlike last year, it was nearly four times as big, or so it seemed. It was a huge success, and I am glad. It's good for the economy and our little neck of the woods to see so many people out and about (and spending money!!!)

The deal with our Oktoberfest is they close off a bunch of streets near the center or our little town/area and sell beer, along with other food. The cost for beer alone was $25 for 10 "tastings." The tastings appeared to be about twice the size of your average shot glass.

I knew even before we got there we weren't doing the tastings. The ridiculous price aside, the lines for these tastings were unreal. We have only so much free time, especially with a 16-month-old who has more energy and more desire to explore than anyone I have ever met.

So instead of spending $50 for both of us to drink, we spent $10 total for nearly 50 oz of beer!

When we got there, we went into Harris Teeter, since grocery stores in Virginia sell beer, and bought two 24 oz bottles of beer (Corona and Red Stripe). Last year we were able to get brown bags, but this year since we bought at HT and not the mom and pop wine store, we had to improvise. So we bought two bottles of iced tea, sadly wasted most of the contents of the bottles, and replaced with beer. With cops EVERYWHERE, we had to sneak it.

Next year I will think ahead and bring travel coffee mugs or save our own iced-tea bottles, but no chance lance are we waiting in those long lines for "tastings." I will take my $40 and put that elsewhere.