SDA and Oktoberfest



I have blogged before about my husband applying to do his SDA (or Secondary Duty Assignment, or B-Billet) and the roller coaster ride the whole process has been. Well as of this Monday he is officially doing his SDA! Ryan got accepted to be an instructor at SOI (School of Infantry) at Camp Geiger for the next three years. So no PCSing in our future since it is still pretty close by. There will definitely be some long, long hours for him to work. For three years. Oh boy! Anyway, since he had to check out of his current unit at Lejeune on Friday and in to the new one at Geiger I got to see the rare sight of my husband in his Alphas. Yes, the dress blues are wonderful, but the Alphas make me swoon too! He get's some genuine WW2 era swag when he wears them in my eyes, especially when he gives his cover the twenty degree tilt as pictured below.

*SA-WOON*

After my husband checked in he came home and we decided to head to New Bern for the day to walk around and spend some time together since I was off from work. It was finally a little chilly so I dressed for semi-fall weather and tried a new hairstyle. Verdict is still out on how I feel about that!

 

I did get a little car sick on the drive there so I wasn't feeling my best when we arrived. The longer we walked around the better I felt though. Our first stop was at this giant, indoor flea market we never managed to visit before. It was pretty neat! We had fun exploring and Ryan found a pewter box with the comedy/tragedy faces on it with a matching necklace inside.. so he got it for me. (And by got it for me I mean he found it, realized he had no cash, saw I had some in my wallet, and I paid for it!) It was very sweet though.

 

We stopped at a few more shops after the Flea Market and Ryan was super excited to find a giant rooster in one of them. It is a long story (aside from the USC Gamecocks affiliation) but we had to get the picture to send to his best friend Josh. The man never likes to get his picture taken and complains like crazy until there is a five foot tall rooster on a table. Sigh.

 

 

As we walked around we saw signs for the Oktoberfest the Rotary Club was putting on for their fundraiser. I was feeling better so we got some tickets at the gate and decided to go in. We had some delicious brauts and sauerkraut with German potato salad and some really delicious Oktoberfest from the Carolina Brewing Company. We also paid a little extra for some Apple Streudel and German Chokolat Cake! We got to meet a lot of really nice people and have some good food and drink, so it was definitely a win. A lot of people came in ethnic outfits and there was also a full German Folk Band with dancing!

These old people were my favorite, they were loving it!

We had enough beers that when some of our new friends dragged us out to polka we were willing to give it a shot! Even though I am extremely Polish my extent of Polka knowledge is the Chicken Dance, so our polka was more like a two step with Ryan leading and an extra bounce thrown in for good measure.

 

As Oktoberfest wound down we found a bar nearby with an outdoor stage and live music. I was done drinking at this point so I could drive, but we did stop in and listen for a few songs. I sobered up for sure because when Ryan tried to drag me down front to dance to Sweet Home Alabama I dug in my heels! He went and rocked out though.

 

We definitely had a great time and I was pretty bummed I had to work the next day, I would have loved to stay out later!

 

The outdoor music