Getaway

We decided to take a Friday off and get away for the weekend. She's recently made a trip to the Eastern side of the state to help move her grandma into a new house and loved the countryside, so she suggested we go over there somewhere.

For those of you who don't know. Seattle is right along the coast (actually Puget Sound) and a few miles inland are the Cascade Mountains. The mountains block most of the moisture in the air from making it over them, so the Eastern side of the state is a desert. It doesn't get much rain, but because of the lack of clouds, the sun is unrelenting and the difference in temperature (and climate) between Seattle and Leavenworth (where we stayed) is pretty amazing.

Anyway, as I said, we decided to spend the weekend in a little tourist trap called Leavenworth. It's a town that decided to dress itself up as a little piece of Bavaria, likely because it's up in the mountains and (maybe?) has a similar climate. There's a single main drag on which all of the buildings have been built to look like chateaus and all the signs in town (even McDonald's) are painted in a "Bavarian" script. Mostly it's all about shopping, drinking, and maybe some kind of outdoor activity like golfing, hiking, biking, or whitewater rafting. There are a number of German-style restaurants. The place is pretty popular and has been going strong for decades.

We spent two nights there, walked around town, drove to a couple of nearby attractions and basically relaxed for the weekend. It was a lot of fun and the timing couldn't have been better because I just finished working on a big project for Green Ronin, so my schedule was clear!

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Above: The view from the balcony of our hotel room.

 Below: Shots of Ohme Gardens. Built by a family from the 1940s up until the '70s. They built it on a scrubby outcropping of rock and kept it watered so the plants would grow. Now with mature trees on the land (where normally there would be none), the place is cool and green in stark contrast to the nearby barren hills and land. Now it's a county park.

Above: Thyme covers the ground everywhere.

Above: See the path in the distance? That's part of the gardens. All the paths are stone and all of the stone was brought in and laid by hand over the decades.

Above Two: The two photos above give you a sense of the scale. She's at the far end of the pond, then her again at the top of a path next to one of the stony outcroppings.

Above: Me reading the history of the place next to the "Hidden Pond" they built.

Above: One of the many, many, hand-built stairways and paths that wind throughout the garden.

Above: Me on one of the awesome benches they built of stone.

Above: My favorite bench, built under a huge stone.

Above: A picnic table built of stone. Of course. You can't tell in the photo, but there's a nice, little waterfall running down the rocks next to the fern behind the table.

Above: We stopped in Roslyn, where they filmed Northern Exposure in the early '90s, on our way back on I-90. I haven't been here since Seth and I drove through when we moved me to Seattle in 2001!

Above: My girl out in front of the mural for the Roslyn Cafe -- which is now actually the Roslyn Cafe as you can see by the sign on the left and the people eating breakfast outside.

Above: The office of Dr. Joel Fleischman, now a gift shop.

More soonish, I hope!