Road trip to Leavenworth!

What a beautiful time to be in the Pacific Northwest - fall!

Mountain view around Leavenworth

Bright blue skies, rivers flowing, colorful trees and all of the apples and grapes are ready for picking!

Traveling along the big Columbia River

And the rivers are flowing and full of salmon coming up to spawn.

We are surrounded by the Columbia, Yakima, Snake, and the Wenatchee.  Amazing.

Perfect time for a road trip to Leavenworth! 

Monument along the Columbia

We decided to take the back roads and found this great monument in George, WA. "Grandfather Cuts Loose the Ponies Monument".  Pretty cool.

Gotta pose

Leavenworth is small Bavarian style village right in the middle of Washington.

Bavarian Lodge - great place!

It made us think we were back in Germany - except everyone spoke English!

Looks like Germany!

They are famous for the Christmas festivals and Octoberfest - which we just missed - oh well.

Danette and Phil relaxing in Leavenworth

We were only there one night, but we had a great time.

George and Pam - what sweet friends!

We stayed at the Bavarian Lodge, right downtown.

Love the painted buildings

Very nice place with great beds, plus walking distance to everything. Perfect.

Beautiful Danette and Pam

We spent the day (and night) strolling around the restaurants, shops, and bars of course.

Busy day!

Morning stroll along the Wenatchee

We didn't buy much, but it was fun to check out all of the cute shops and eat some German sausages.

The Band warming up

But, one night was enough.

Unless you just want to sit back and relax and enjoy the view - which is just fine!

What a view

We enjoyed a very brisk (cold) walk down to see the Wenatchee River - what a pretty view.

And then started our road trip back - back roads again - of course.

The Brick Saloon

First stop - the Brick Saloon in Roslyn - established in 1889.

Washington's oldest operating saloon - too bad it was closed!

Cool old General Store

Rosyln is where the TV show Northern Exposure was filmed.

Art in Roslyn

It looked very familiar!

We also checked out the Swiftwater Cellars Winery at Suncadia Resort - it was closed.

And the Bale Breaker Taproom in Moxee - it was closed too - oh well!

Hops, Hops, and more Hops!

But, it was a wonderful drive thru the Yakima Valley.

Which contains approximately 75 percent of the total United States hop acreage. Good to know!

Traveling along the Yakima River

We finished our road trip along the Yakima River Canyon Scenic Byway.

The colors of fall

Lovely drive along the Yakima River, which is popular for fly fishing.

Lots of guys floating along the shallows with their fishing poles.

Glad the Sno-Cat wasn't needed

It really was a wonderful weekend with friends and family.

So happy that we got to experience it all!

Strolling around Leavenworth

Totem in Roslyn