Washington: Leavenworth and Spokane part 1
Leavenworth is a quaint mountain town that re-invented itself from a dwindling logging town into a vacation destination as a Bavarian themed Alpine Town on the east side of the Cascades. The town recognized the topographical benefits of a Bavarian theme and with no German roots in the area the city decided to go full Bavarian in the 1960s! Walking the town is like entering the German Village at Epcot but it’s the whole town. If there was ever a Bavarian HOA, this is your model city 🥨. Not just the shops and main downtown but every home and shop in the entire town is bought into the theme. Even McDonalds and Starbucks chains step into the fold and join the Bayerischer für Flair (Bavarian Flare).
Our Icicle RV camp was nestled into the mountain side on the Icicle River. Picturesque, cold mountain river was a daily stop for the boys who rearranged rocks and boulders to make a river cold tub and Vince who enjoyed the refreshing soak. Of course the boys also destroyed their creation 🙃 for no reason detectable to sane minds 🤪 but that’s part of the ItsDillerTime purpose isn’t it… Between excavating the river and some rock hounding quarts and agates downriver in the Wenatchee River, we also enjoyed visits with our late Step-Father John Matson’s family who live in the Wenatchee area. Michele and Vince met then at the wedding but neat to meet them again and share some fond memories of John a few decades later. Again, we benefit from both the scenery and people as we continue around the US ❤️
Wenatchee River heading down stream to Leavenworth from Steven’s Pass …. a very distracting river driver :o)
Jayden has been following Jesus for awhile now… starting to walk like him too : o O
Despite all the social media discouraging rock stacking we figured middle of the river was safe and picturesque… not to mention beautifully time consuming for the kids!
Vince didn’t have the camera ready when Charlie took his dip into the Icicle River. He’s mostly Chesapeake Bay Retriever so he should be a water dog but he DID NOT like the cold water and froze like statue once we got him in… lol really wish we had that picture!
Robert found his peaceful spot watching the water flow by. This was just a break from his rock throwing, don’t worry most of the rocks picture were transplanted soon after.
Boys at play with a bit of Bavarian football… nope not their football the tackle and rub your brother’s face into the grass football.
Some frequent visitors to the area. These were really pretty golden brown color deer.
Visit with some extended family. Left is our late Grandpa John’s sister Sherry and her husband Ron. Super fun learning about the area from them and remembering John.
The camera shy younger sister Kim. Michele still got a hair covered pic out of her.
As noted, even the national chains get into the Bavarian theme.
Labeled “best pretzel in town” and yes it was biggest we’ve had too.
The Christmas shop Kris Kringle was amazing and was as busy as Christmas in July.
The Nutcracker Museum has some really neat nutcrackers but man… expensive!
Little Harry Potter Christmas village.
Fun Adventure Park as you enter town. Total tourist trap but one that resembles a rollercoaster so…
This alpine hand coaster was built for one or two and Robert gives Mommy a A+ driver rating!
Mr cool at the wheel… or handbrakes.
Someone loved it!
Of course there are brats with pizza… why wouldn’t there be? Great pizza too!
Playing in the Wenatchee River just off of Enchantment Park. We had 30-40 tubers and paddle boarders pass. We also had a visit from a very large Bald Eagle but couldn’t get a good picture since it stayed out of our iPhone camera range.
The Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery was less than a mile down the Icicle and a touch further to where the Icicle joins with the Wenatchee River for its easterly (on east side of Cascades now) decent down the mountain. Seeing the hatchery and recognizing its age and scale was pretty impressive. The hundreds of minnow sized sockeye in the small incubation tanks, the thousands in the larger holding ponds and the 25-35 full grown salmon hanging out by the discharge from the hatchery didn’t hurt the impression either. Quite an impressive operation and the eagles and osprey hanging around proved it to be an effective hatchery. Fun educational stop for mom/dad if not for the kids.
Baby salmon called “fry” and yes they are eyeballing you!
Peyton was impressed on the wingspan of this display in the education center.
There were dozens and dozens of long incubation tanks throughout the property.
These were mid-sized Chinook almost ready to go to the final tank for release.
Bigger Fry sized salmon.
The ladder on the left is for releasing fish into the river below and the wood platforms we found on other sides of the river are tribal fishing platforms for Yakama, Chinook and Wenatchi to fish. Fishing is restricted to all others and along the river up and down stream from the hatchery with this exclusion for local native tribes.
School of salmon ranging from 16-20 inches hanging out by the release area.
The drive east toward Spokane out of the Cascades through Wenatchee was interesting. The topography changes quickly following the Wenatchee River down to the Great Columbia, which splits the city of Wantchee into East and West and then turns east a bit toward Moses Lake through a heavy agricultural area. We learned that this area is very dry but irrigation makes it some extremely fertile growing for fruit trees giving way to potatoes, wheat and corn. We even hewed that some of the vineyards in the area produce some of the best grapes in the world, but we aren’t trying to pop the cork on the too wine debate, just sharing that it surprising to find such a lush area of farming in an otherwise arid climate as we traversed up and across the Columbia Plateau. We’ve been in such lush green Washington landscapes it was almost startling to see the landscape turn brown as we left the irrigated land and cross the more rocky open plateau. Seeing the transitioning landscaped throughout our journey has been a cartographer’s education of an amazing land in the south and now northern crossing. Spokane comes into view with their signature white and red checked water towers and we look to get our RV jacks fixed and find a camp to settle into while Michele returns to Orlando for her Uncle’s Celebration of Life service. Prayers for all the family and especially Michele’s Aunt and all the family as they grieve and remember. For now we wait in the parking lot, with full-hook-ups for the repairs to be completed. It’s taking a bit longer so our plans are ever changing but Michele’s flight back to Orlando is our anchor until we push NE. So some Sunday worship with the Liberty Lake Brothers and Sisters and some RV reorganizing and bike repairs by Peyton while we wait the weekend for the repairs to be completed next week. Then off to Glacier, then down to Yellowstone, Tetons and Rocky Mountain NPs as we move into mid August. Peak season for those parks so 🙏 we can find parking that doesn’t hurt the budget too bad. The quest continues 💪
Depending the mountain we saw a number of fruit stands and realized this area is fertile free tree territory.
If it’s irrigated it’s green but everything else through this valley is brown and dry.
The pups’ view as we travel… also foot warmers for mommy… in summer… ;oP
The Wenatchee joins the Great Columbia river and it turns east until this end back south. It gets really dry after the river turns and we had across the Columbia Plateau.
Those are dust devils blowing across the fields. Much smaller than what we saw in New Mexico but we haven’t seen this dry land since the deserts of the southwest.
Fairchild Air Force Base is Spokane’s military base and from what we learned, is also the reason why these military style checkerboard water towers pop up throughout the valley passing through Spokane east. The increased visibility helps for low flying planes. We haven’t seen any that low yet but we have seen a bunch of these water towers.
Well… spending $3500 to fix the hydraulic jacks on our RV… yeah that price wasn’t known in this picture… at least comes with a comfy waiting area. Oh and this was hour 2 of day one and we were there a few days so we owned this lobby :o|
Our service didn’t get completed on Friday and they don’t work over the weekend so we took advantage of full hook ups in the parking lot and called it home for the weekend. Even the pups got to sniff out some east Spokane squirrels and rabbits!
Peyton has mostly self taught himself how to be a bike mechanic and he’s getting pretty good. He’s rebuilt this old Gary Fisher into a fly wheel and improved the brakes and shocks on this stop. He’s also done some maintenance and upkeep on the Lectric bikes. Some pretty handy skills!
Mentioned we have used the time to organize a bit and Michele has been helping to purge toys and “stuff” we’ve just not used or accumulated over the last 10 months on the road. The picture above is Robert’s bunk… take it in… and remember special needs kids often have A LOT of stimulation around where they sleep, it helps them. Oh and this is his room, play area and the bus toy shop. Again, this is after the purge :o O
If you park the car by your exterior TV it can count as a drive in movie!
Had an amazing visit to Legacy Church in Liberty Lake, WA. Heard a great message from a visiting Missionary currently serving in Spain. Great message and even made a few connections with some brothers and sisters in Christ. Travel churching can be fun!
That’s a wrap for Spokane part 1. Great sunset with one of those water towers! Spokane Part 2 to come as we look for a parking spot for the week Michele is back to FL and plan out trip east along the norther boarder.
