Trading Valses for Walzers...

This past weekend we brought some tango dancing friends up into Mill Valley for the annual Kinderfest put on by the Nature Friends Tourist Club of San Francisco.  My mother's side of the family has German roots and so my first exposure to dance was actually to my Great-Grandfather's polka music, back in Nekoosa, Wiscosin.  We traded in our stilettos for hiking shoes and made the trek into Muir Woods for a delightful afternoon of good lagers and hefeweizens,  Bratwürste and Polish Würste, and walzers and polkas to live music.  Dance (especially when combined with good German beer) really has an incredible ability to melt away inhibitions--it was wonderful to watch my friends, who normally would have shied away from joining into a dance style they didn't know, attempting to polka with such gumption!  If you like Oktoberfest, and you like hiking in the outdoors, I highly recommend visiting the Tourist Club for this, or one of their other festivals, held in the spring and summer.

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