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Published: June 19th 2008
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Our Last Hurrah
This trip was supposed to be to Seattle but everything was becoming a little overwhelming so we decided to simplify and just go to Leavenworth, Ohme gardens and a few stops on the way. It ended up being amazing. This state has so much to offer if you are willing to just go and look for it.
The first day, was the last day of classes so we left around one in the afternoon. Bob our advisor, obtained a giant school van and we were off. I was finishing a book and so was out of it for most of the trip. Bob has a way of making really random detours to look at random stuff so I was a little impatient when we stopped out in the middle of no where. We were in the middle of a wheat field. It was so beautiful. We stopped to look at the type of irrigation they were using. There is a little ditch along the side of the field with syphoning pipes in it that draw water and feed it into little furrows in between the rows of crops. The water flows along the length of the
field getting water to all the crops. It was a beautiful day and I had never seen wheat so close before, it is amazing.
We continued onto our hotel in Leavenworth. For those of you who don't know Leavenworth is a small town in central washington that has a Bavarian theme. Even the McDonalds is decked out. It is like you stepped into a little German village. The sun was shining and beautiful, which felt even better because my sister texted me and said they were having torrential rain storms at home. Our hotel was called the Icicle Inn and was nice. I, being the only woman, got my own room thankfully. After settling in we were set free to explore.
It was about a ten minute walk to downtown. On our way we found some goats on a steep cliff that went down to a golf course. We found a gate and got to pet and feed them grass. Most of the shops were closed so we browsed a little and then found a place for dinner. A German resturaunt of course. I had Gulash and spetzlae. My friends had the obligatory sausage and German potato salad.
There was even a young man playing the accordian for us. It was fun, our booth made us feel like we were in a wine cask. We decided to visit the shops again the next day when more were open.
In the morning our group met for breakfast and then were going to go downtown again. Of course Bob had a different plan. I was cranky about it at first but then it was worth it. We found this beautful area and hiked around a bit. This world is an amazing place and shopping is stupid. We finally made it down town and were given some time to wander. The down town strip is filled with a number of little shops filled with mostly old lady nicknacks. It is fun to browse but it all starts to blur together after a while. Some of the shops do have a different idea though. There is a great hat shop, a number of candy shops, an amazing nutcracker museum/shop, and my favorite the cheesemonger's shop. I purchased my favorite chocolate covered cinnamon bears and we sampled a lot of cheese. For lunch we had more sausage of course.
When we
finally left Leavenworth we headed over to a town called Cashmere. This is the home of the Aplets and Cotlets factory. This is a candy born here. It is apparently a lot like turkish delight?? We had a lot of samples and went on the tour. It was really cool to see how it is made. I feel bad for the reptativeness of the job. One girl's job was simply to put a piece of paper on each box as it whirled past her on the belt. They coat each piece of candy in cornstarch and then powdered sugar, so the whole place is covered in white dust.
From there we went to Ohme Gardens. This is a hillside garden/forest right outside of Winatchee, WA. All around it there is just sage brush and dry grass. It an amazing garden that was created when a couple durring the depression started to bring in plants from the national forest and collect flagstone near the river. It is on the side of a hill so it is a bunch of stone pathways through evergreen trees, ground covers, cotoneasters, and woodland plants. There are a few ponds and waterfalls too. It is
an amazing sactuary away from the desert. The original couple would drive their pickup truck down to the river and collect water in five gallon buckets to water the garden. There son inherited it, put in an irrigation system and then ended up selling it to the state. There are some very beautiful views of the valley.
I thought we were on our way home from there but I was wrong. I suddenly woke up to find us out in the middle of nowhere again. We had arrived at dry falls. It is the worlds largest waterfall. It is only about 13,000 years old and all dried up. It was spectacular. Pictures can better describe than words. From there we were finally on our way home. It just goes to show, in a couple days you can see some amazing things.
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