If you’ve never been to Leavenworth, like Bavarian towns and good German beer, and don’t mind staying in a tourist trap, go there for a day or two. It’s quite a lovely little town nestled high in the Washington Cascades. Leavenworth is famous for it’s Oktoberfest and Christmas celebrations. I’d hitchhiked through Leavenworth back in 1979, and driven through there once afterwards, but I’d never really spent any substantial time in the town. So Linda and I decided to stop there on the way to Idaho to see my sister.

Our first stop was the Doghaus Brewery. After one good German-style beer (Pilsner), we wandered into the small town square just in time to hear a four-piece Alphorn band.

Linda and I spent the rest of the evening and the next day wandering through every store at least twice (even the T-shirt shops, though we bought no T-shirts). We danced the polka to a German band in the afternoon. I did buy a walking stick medallion for my walking stick, a hat pin for my hat, and a nutcracker, for wherever we put it in December. We also had another beer or two in some pretty cool biergartens.

Here are a few scenes from town.

We left Monday morning to visit my oldest sister in Post Falls, Idaho. Because I don’t like interstates, we kept to highways 2 and 28 in Eastern Washington. The roads traverse through fields of barley and orchards of apples and cherries, while following the Columbia River.