65th BIRTHDAY TRIP TO LEAVENWORTH

The reason I didn't have a blog post last week is because we were on vacation. This week's post will be put up in two posts, half today (Wed) and half tomorrow (Thurs).

65th BIRTHDAY VACATION TRIP

My 65th birthday was last week, so for part of my present Linda gave me a trip to Leavenworth! This is one or our favorite places to go in Washington. Leavenworth has a very interesting story behind how it came to be this quaint little Bavarian village. Up until the 1920's, the town was a small but busy logging community. Then the railroad relocated to another area, and all the businesses in town were devastated. The economy struggled for years, until the 1960's when the town business leaders decided to try turning Leavenworth into a "theme town." A group of them took a trip to Solvang, California, (an actual Danish community) to gather ideas and then came up with a plan to convert the entire city of Leavenworth into a Bavarian village. With the beautiful snow-covered mountains as a backdrop in the winter, Leavenworth certainly looked the part. The town remodeled their buildings in the style of a Bavarian village and with the help of the many festivals they created, slowly but surely became a tourist destination.

We left home on Tuesday and drove first to Cashmere, a town close to Leavenworth. In Cashmere, we stopped at a park and had a picnic lunch, then drove downtown for a tour of the Aplets and Cotlets factory. This is where they make a type of candy known as Turkish Delight. The "aplets" are made using apples and the "cotlets" are made using apricots, both fruits from Liberty Orchards which owns the factory. It was interesting watching how they make and package the candy, and of course there were samples to taste. You know I couldn't leave there without getting a box of their candy. They had numerous flavor combinations to choose from, but I settled on the Tropical Fruit & Macadamias. It's the best Turkish Delight candy I have ever had.

Aplets & Cotlets Factory

After our tour we decided to drive on over to Leavenworth and get a coffee before checking into our hotel room. We went to our second favorite coffee shop and I got my free birthday treat (thank you, Starbucks!).

Our very favorite coffee shop is the Starbucks at Chalet Place in Yakima, but sadly it is closing towards the middle of July. Anyway, we like the one in Leavenworth a lot because you can sit outside in the shade and people-watch with lovely scenery in the background. This pretty much became our home base as we ate breakfast there and had coffee each afternoon.

Starbucks in Leavenworth

Linda photo-bombing our Starbucks drinks!

After coffee we checked into our hotel, the Leavenworth Village Inn. It's a nice little place, one street over from the main drag, and only a block and a half from the Starbucks.

Leavenworth Village Inn

We got settled in and then decided to walk around Front Street a bit before dinner. Whenever we go to Leavenworth, we have to eat at King Ludwig's Restaurant & Biergarten as they have authentic German cuisine and good beer. We ordered beer first (we definitely have our priorities straight) and relaxed for a bit before dinner.

Dinner at King Ludwig's Restaurant

One of these days I am going to get up the nerve to order the King Ludwig's Famous Schweinshax'n dish. This is a huge ham hock that has been prepared in the Bavarian style, whatever that means. Sometimes they have them roasting in the front window and it's almost impossible not to drool when you walk by and see and smell them. I guess that is the Southerner in me coming out because you know how we love our pork! However, on this trip I ordered Hungarian Goulash with Spätzle and Rotkraut, and Linda ordered Käsespätzle, which is Spätzle with swiss cheese and onions. Our plates were so big neither one of us could eat it all! After dinner we walked down Front Street and sat in the park for a few minutes, then headed for the hotel as we were pretty tired by then.

Käsespätzle at top, Hungarian Goulash at bottom

That's all for today, but check back tomorrow (Thursday) for part two of our Trip to Leavenworth!