Sunday, January 11, 2009

September 2008 Road Trip (49)

September 17, 2008
Leavenworth and Heading West

Leavenworth, Washington:

Leavenworth, Washington is a charming Bavarian Village known for delightful specialty shops, numerous choices for cozy accommodations, and an active calendar offering a year-round schedule of festivals, music and live theater. Perhaps the most popular of the events is the Christmas Lighting and Ice Fest. The quaint, Bavarian theme is very at home against the breathtaking backdrop of Washington State's steep, snowy Cascade Mountains soaring thousands of feet above. http://www.gonorthwest.com/Washington/cascades/leavenworth/Leavenworth.htm

If you've been to Kimberly, BC, this place will look a bit familiar with the Bavarian theme happening. I think Kimberly is nicer, though. We arrived in the evening of September 16 and stayed overnight there. In the morning we found somewhere to have breakfast, then wandered up and down the main street. It's cute - lots of shops, most just the typical tourist fare but a couple featured local art/crafts, which is more what we are interested in.


Greeter for one of the shops.





The flowers were great - keep in mind this was late September and we were walking around in shorts and sandals.


Main street - one side shade, one side sun. And under construction. Reminded us of home!


There is a lovely park in the little river valley by the town, so we meandered down there.



The water was mirror smooth - really lovely.

Anyone know what these berries are?









Back in town....
We ate lunch upstairs here.

We went into this little quilting shop. I picked up a couple of patterns, but no fabric. Nothing jumped out at me screaming "buy me!"
Back on the road and a few km further west, we came upon the "Historic Tumwater Dam."
The Tumwater Hydroelectric Project was constructed from 1907 to 1909. At that time, the hydroelectric project was the largest west of Niagara Falls. The project was constructed by the Great Northern Railway Company to produce power for electric locomotives traveling through the old Cascade Tunnel on the Stevens Pass route. ... http://www.gngoat.org/tumwater_dam.htm


The stair like structure in the foreground (above) is a fishway.
Back on the road...



Another zag. Joe spotted this little bridge so pulled off to take a look. No signage - at least that I have a record of so not too informative that way. But it was quite pretty.







We found our way to Seattle and a the hotel in Renton where we had stayed in 2005 on our return from the Oregon coast. Our Seattle day is tomorrow!

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