Schnitzel, Spatzel, and Strudels!

Friday we headed out of town and through the mountains.  Just on the east side of the Cascades is a cute Bavarian village called Leavenworth.  It was the headquarters of the Great North Railroad in the early 1900’s, but as the logging left the town it soon died out.  To bring it back to life they decided to turn it into a themed town.  Leavenworth is now a small, quaint town with big, whimsical Bavarian charm.  They have a nutcracker museum, an old bookstore, and even a shop with gifts from Russia!

The Bavarian village of Leavenworth!

We arrived Friday night just as the sun was setting and the town was putting up their Christmas lights.  On the way in we saw a petting farm that had goats on roofs, and all sorts of apple trees.  Finally a glimpse at the apple state.  The cute little petting farm was shut down for the night, but we vowed to see it on our way out of town.

Friday night we walked into a couple of the shops that were still open, and spent time walking up and down the streets of Leavenworth taking it all in.  Walking through the streets is like a fairytale.  You can smell all the bakerys’ fresh fudge, the restaurants’ German cuisine, and you’re surround by millions of Christmas lights.  Some of the locals even dress in lederhosen! We had dirty face sausage and dirty face amber beer in a restaurant alley.  Then we had a full sausage sampler at a restaurant while enjoying live accordion music.  We have been wanting to car camp in Nick’s new Subaru, and we got to park it on one street over from their main street.

Saturday we walked around the shops that were closed the night before.  We hit up the Russian shop and I felt my childhood rush back.  They had matryoshka dolls, and other hand-painted wooden toys I had grown up with.  The lady running the shop was from a town outside of Moscow, and brought everything over directly from Russia.  Not sure how they got a shop in this Bavarian village, but it was a great reminder of where I’m from and felt nice to be surrounded by beautifully hand crafted gifts made right by my home town.

Shenanigans in the mountains

We decided to drive a bit past Leavenworth to see if there was anything outside of town to check out.  We found a short trail leading to a beautiful steel bridge.  We walked over, under, and even climbed the bridge!  The area was breathtaking with mountains all around us, fall colors on the trees, and rushing water beneath us.  We hit up a bakery on our way out and tried some Bavarian pastries.  Then on our way back home we hit up that petting farm. They had popcorns, honeys, salsas, jellies and jams.  Every flavor you could imagine in every sort of snack.  We bought a bag of apples, and were on our way (after sampling just about everything, even Bee Pollen!).

Until next time