9/10/12 -- Canyon Waters, Leavenworth and Lazing About

Last Saturday, we closed up the trailer and headed 20 miles back down the mountains.  We got some terrific views of the Cascade peaks through the Wenatchee River Canyon.  We were high enough to be able to really see them.



Cascade Peaks from Wenatchee River Canyon

Rivers and bodies of water all across the country have been low.  The drought is present here, just as in the high desert and in Yellowstone Park.  The Wenatchee River Canyon is beautiful at any time of the year.  This fall, the water is low so that the river wasn’t so wild as we have sometimes seen it.  Even so, the river doesn’t so much flow through the canyon as careen along.

The Wenatchee River
Fall has come to the mountains and the leaves are turning

This roiling river comes straight from the glaciers as the pale green tint in the water shows.  At its flood in springtime, many of the rapids in this canyon are Class 5.  Most rafters avoid Class 5 rapids as too dangerous, even for their sport.

Even though we are still on the skirts of the mountains, we are dwarfed by their beauty.  Perhaps you can find Adina in this picture.  We see their grandeur and hold our breaths lest it all go away.

Where's Adina?

After passing through the Canyon, we entered the town of Leavenworth.  Some of you have been there. 

This town isn’t like any other I know.  According to the urban legend, sometime in the 60’s or so this town was dying.  People flew past them as they crossed Hwy 2 between the urban centers of eastern WA and western WA.  Nobody stopped.

They decided they needed to pull together and create a town that would be a destination, not a short view at 60 mph.  They loved the rugged Cascades that surrounded them and decided to let them dictate their future.

Every merchant and many houses in the town created storefronts that came right out of a Bavarian village.  They painted Bavarian and German designs on their buildings.  They introduced scrolled fascia boards on their eaves. They built carved wooden fences on their balconies.   

Merchants began carrying Hummel figures and brightly painted nutcrackers, carved wooden coo coo clocks and eastern European handcrafted linens.  They called themselves The Little Bavaria of the Cascade Alps.

It saved the town.

They are one of the most delightful tourist destinations of eastern WA.  We have enjoyed messing about in this town individually and together.  The ski areas around the town are popular.  Hikers, campers and rock climbers have known about the area for years. 

Leavenworth -- Main Street, present day

I discovered it in the 60’s when Rich (my ex-husband and my son’s father) brought me here on one of the trips we took so he could introduce me to WA.  I have been back many times since.  Adina has been here for fun, to bring her grandmother for an outing, and on rafting trips.  We have come here together many times.

So Saturday, we pounded the pavement for about six hours, shopping and sightseeing.  Even the Safeway Grocery Store was decorated with scrollwork and painting.

While we had a picnic in the park, a German/Bavarian band provided live music.  The first part of that concert was a fellow who played one of those long Bavarian horns.  It’s haunting music drifted across us as we ate.

A woman played the dulcimer, a hammered instrument.  It has a metallic sound, very beautiful. 

 

The musicians sang, played polkas.  They yodeled, too, and that was fun. 

All in all, the band played about an hour.  There was an art show next to it in the square.  We all enjoyed the music.

Sometime in the afternoon, we were tired and hungry so stopped for a bite to eat.  When you go to a Bavarian village, you eat Bavarian or German food, right? 

Not us. 

We found a place called The Wasabi Thai Restaurant and Sushi Bar.  I had tempura veggies and Adina had a seaweed salad.  It felt like home.

When we lived here before, Leavenworth had two stores that we liked a lot.  To our delight, both were still there.  At the bag store, I got a new hole punched in my leather belt (which had become too big) and Adina got a new purse.  Then we went to a store owned by a fellow named Ron.  He and his daughter make copper sculptures, taking sheets of copper and cutting them with a blowtorch, then staining them with acid.  We bought a small sculpture of five fir trees to put on the cedar fence on the deck of our new home.  It's all wrapped for traveling now but I'll post a picture of it when we get home. 

An interesting sidelight of staying here. Over 70 years ago, Adina’s parents were married. Dad’s brother John performed the ceremony. His brother Chester, who lived in Cashmere (12 miles down the mountain from Leavenworth), had to go to the church’s annual meeting so he let Adina’s folks stay at his house for a week for their honeymoon. They had received a wedding present of $25 and that funded their wonderful time of exploring this area.

Now we are doing the same thing! That feels good.

We camped near Lake Wenatchee on Nason Creek, a beautiful creek about the size of Honey Creek in Milwaukee WI when it is in flood.  Nason bubbles and sings all day and all night.

We have chipmunks the size of squirrels here.  They drop cones from the top of the pine trees and then dismantle them for the sweet pine nuts.  Piles of pine cone flakes with their nuts removed dot the campsites, driveways and paths.

These pine cones are big! 
Note complete cones on the right. 
Adina's cup in the background is for size comparison.

Sunday we took a hike in the morning and then sat by the river all afternoon.  We took our chairs half-way down the bank and basked in the warm sunshine, visited and did cross-word puzzles. 


We set our chairs right where I'm standing to take this picture

Then Adina baked cornbread in her Dutch oven in the fire. Yum!  It was a lazy, restful day.

Today, Monday, we are heading up into the mountains up Stevens Pass.  We'll take a back road part of the way, part undeveloped hwy and part forest service road.  The map shows multiple switchbacks so it should be pretty.

Where will be be tonight?  Who knows.