Leavenworth, Washington

On Memorial Day, we had coffee at a Starbucks we'd never been to before... in Leavenworth! Thanks to Micah's great idea, we took off early Monday morning and drove just over 2 hours away to Washington's own Bavarian hide-a-way in the mountains. Leavenworth is an imitation of a German town, complete with bratwurst, pretzels, elaborately painted buildings, men dressed in lederhosen, and a maypole!

Leavenworth, like many other Washington towns, was originally founded by Native American Tribes hunting for deer and elk, and fishing for salmon. However, it became a bustling city when pioneers settled the land in search for gold and fertile soil. The Great Northern Railway tracks ran through here, causing the city to thrive at the end of the century, but in the 1930's when the railway pulled out of the area, Leavenworth took a turn for the worst...

Thirty years later, in the 1960's in one last effort to revive their city, the town leaders turned to tourism. With Alpine mountains as a backdrop, they remodeled the place after a Bavarian village and created a series of festivals to draw in the crowds. It worked and now over 1 million visitors take Hwy 2 out to Leavenworth each year to enjoy a bit of Germany in the middle of the Pacific Northwest!

One of our favorite foods - big, yummy pretzels! We enjoyed a walk around Leavenworth's Blackbird Island...

... despite the emanate danger!

Valerie was a happy girl almost the whole day! She loves to be outside.

We couldn't leave Bavaria without bratwurst so we went to the place that smelled the best - Munchen Haus.

Yummy!

We had a great time in Leavenworth, though we hit some major holiday traffic coming home! It took us nearly twice as long as it should have, but we enjoyed the journey anyway!!