Travel Diary

Sunday

Sunday morning, we drove to Leavenworth. It's a small town about two hours away and you have to go to the Cascades to get there. But beforehand, we had breakfast. It was a tasty breakfast and I was hungry for actual food since the day before I had existed primarily on beer.

We headed out and one of our first stops was to Snoqualmie Ice Cream. I questioned this choice as we had just finished her breakfast, but it was what everybody wanted. And the ice cream was pretty good. Driving through the Cascades was a fun experience. It's not too bad in spring, when the roads are pretty safe, and the snow is just on the higher mountains. We saw some red barns and I explained the long complicated process of why barns are painted red because of stars exploding. It's very complicated, but I'll explain it to you sometime, if you like.

When we finally reached Leavenworth, I noticed that the town was all stylized with a Germanic or old Bavarian type feeling. It just had those old English letters and medieval feeling to it. It was also pretty darn packed, but I guess it was Memorial Day weekend. It took a while, but we finally found some parking and then headed down to the quaint little streets. They're mostly a bunch shops with a bunch of different themes from hat shops to beer gardens to candy shops to knickknacks. It had a lot of choices for eager shoppers. We found a place at a little restaurant. I suppose it would be called that. It’s a small little outdoor dining place that serves beer and bratwurst hotdogs. I had a couple beers and about half a hot dog. Wait, I guess they're bratwurst. I get the two confused, but they tasted great and there were a few large pretzels to go around as well. Wouldn't even cooler was all the tasty little dipping condiments they had. There were all sorts of mustard flavors and each was savory good.

Note about the town--the décor and theme are just that. It’s not completely authentic in that it comes directly from a historic past of Austrian or Germanic settlers carrying on their homeland traditions. I suppose it’s closer to a Vegas themed area or Disney. This doesn’t mean it’s not fun or a great place to visit--it still is. Just be aware that it’s not truly authentic in its roots.

After that, we decided to go down to the river to walk around. The river was pretty nice, but along the way the tall, tall cottonwood trees were shedding their cotton. It resembled a late flurry of snow coming down all around. It was pretty tranquil -- you got the feeling of being in snow without it being freezing cold outside. I highly recommend it. I got some nice video of it and in the video you can even hear a little girl screaming, “It’s snowing! It’s snowing!” It's pretty fun to watch.

We then visited a cherry candy store. The others had talked about it, so I just had to see it for myself. It was great. They even offered free chocolate-covered cherries. I had the hardest time deciding what I wanted. But I did pick up a small box of them. Sure they were expensive, but sometimes money is no object for tasty candy.

We then left Leavenworth and headed back over the Cascades. One great stop was a 50’s diner. They went all the way on their establishment. There was a jukebox the place, an old-fashioned music selection machine, 50’s posters everywhere, and Marilyn Monroe posters everywhere. It just had that 1950’s feeling in all aspects. The best part was the food-- I got myself a small shake, and it was fantastic. I have no regrets about that decision.

Back at home, I would've liked to have taken a small nap. But alas, we headed over to a sushi place to pick up some dinner. It was good sushi, although not great. I still enjoyed it. After that, we watched X-Men First Class. I must say that it was the best version of the series so far. Just had much deeper character development with the villains, and that was nice to see.

Oh, and the girls were dying for me to open my box of cherry chocolates.