Postcards from the Road - Leavenworth

Leavenworth is one big ol’ tourist trap..but it is so cute!  After industry had left the town and it was dying community leaders decided to promote tourism as their main industry.  The town was converted into a Bavarian style village.  I stayed at the Bavarian Lodge, a place I would definitely recommend.  Beautiful rooms, comfy beds, and the most amazing breakfast spread I have ever seen (included in your room rate).  Breakfast included omelettes, potatoes, ham or sausage, homemade biscuits with country gravy, plus your usual suspects of cereals, toasts, waffles and fresh fruit.  I’d show you a picture but it looks like pure gluttony on a plate.

When I got in on Friday I grabbed a bite to eat, then was off to take in a performance of the Sound of Music.  Leavenworth has a great summer theatre, and seeing the Sound of Music outdoors seemed like a terrific idea.  I should probably admit that I have never seen this show, either on stage or the movie, ever before.  Seeing it live with the mountains in the back might be hard to top.

On Saturday I decided to head out for a ride along the Chumstick Highway to Lake Wenatchee State Park and back.  It would be about 45 miles or so.  There weren’t a lot of road riding options around Leavenworth in MapMyRide, but this one was listed a few times.  This ride was kind of similar to riding Highway 1A to Cochrane and back.  You slowly build elevation and it really isn’t an exciting ride.  When I was about 7.5 miles into the ride the scenery wasn’t the most amazing in this direction and it was just a boring ride overall.  I decided to cut it short and head back in to town.  I sat on a bench in the town square and ate my peanut butter sandwich and some cantaloupe and felt pretty content with my decision.FYI…better riding would be to go out Highway 2 (Cascade Highway) in either the east (flatter) or west direction.  More traffic for sure, but much better scenery!  Of course I know this in hindsight now, but that’s okay!

In the afternoon I wandered around the tourist shops and had dinner at an AMAZING place, Munchen Haus.  The menu is simple with several types of sausages to choose from.  They grill them up, then choose from a wide variety of mustards, plus relish, onions, ketchup, horseradish and sauerkraut for toppings.  Seating is in an outdoor biergarten that is pet friendly.  Plus they have some terrific beers on tap, my favourite being the Alpine Amber. This morning (Sunday) it was time to test out the legs and see if they remembered how to run!  I didn’t want to go very far, so I just did a loop from the hotel along Highway 2, up to the ski hill, then back down.  Just over 3.5 miles.  Of course, running up to a ski hill implies that this run won’t be all that flat…but it felt good to get the blood pumping running uphill.  I got going early to beat the heat, grabbed breakfast, then packed up the car and hit the road to continue my journey along the Cascade Loop…