It's The Wurst!

Last weekend we met Auntie Donna and Grunkel Joe and some friends in New Braunfels for the annual WurstFest. For those of you who are unfamiliar, WurstFest is a ten day celebration of all things German. We ate our fill of German food, drank our fill of German beer, and danced the night away to Polka, including the Shiner Hobo Band. Love them! I hope we can make this an annual tradition. I love being so close to family again.

Took the WurstWagon!

Mrs. Rita from the Hobo Band and I

Funnel cake fries - never seen these before

One of the best things about WurstFest are all the fun hats. These pretty much sum up the girlies' personalities perfectly!

Grunkel Joe taught the girlies how to dance to the polka

Snake Farm... Just Sounds Nasty... Snake Farm... Not As Bad As I Thought

To celebrate Veteran's Day, we decided to head a few miles north on I-35 and check out the Snake Farm of Ray Wylie Hubbard fame. Dennis had been here with his Uncle Bud as a kid and we saw it on an episode of Dirty Jobs not so long ago. I have to say, it was not what I expected at all! The new owners have really done a lot with the place and were so excited to tell us about their plans for expansion. We really had fun!

Given that the place is called the Snake Farm, of course they had snakes. Lots of snakes. Snakes from all over the world. This black adder was all too happy to smile for the camera.

There's a fair share of lizards too

These gigantors were NOT the biggest kids on the block

I'm pretty sure these guys were. It's hard to tell from the picture but the one pictured below's head was about the size of a small shovel

Out behind the main building are all sorts of animals!

This zebra really wanted his nose scratched and I really wanted to scratch it, but I resisted

There are tons of free ranging chickens and peacocks

There are also beautiful breeding pairs of mountain lions and white lions. More about those later.

This was actually my first time seeing a wolf, ever. This one looks a lot like a dog we had when I was a kid.

Monkey drinking fountai

These rabbit-deer creatures loved Summer. I never did figure out what they are called.

The Fennec Foxes were SO cute.

This little prairie dog was quite the ham!

This little guy kept banging the dish on the side of the cage

Hands down, the star of the whole place for us was this 4 month old mountain lion cub. She was adorable and so playful.

More rabbit-deer

They have a petting zoo with your usual pushy goats. There were a couple of babies in there as well.

And a very tiny sweet baby piglet

This goat decided to eat my pants

Happy as a pig in... a puddle

The crocodile pit from Dirty Jobs

Yet another animal I had never seen before - hyenas!

A toothy grin from a baby caiman

These are the biggest rattlesnakes I have ever seen. They live in a very deep pit. 

If you happen to be on I-35, I would definitely recommend a stop by the Snake Farm.