Friday, June 08, 2007

 

Cat house news plus honeymoon photos

Huggy has been here now for a bit over three days. All three cats are still healthy and they have actually been known to spend a little time in the same room. But there is also still hissing & growling, too. It is looking like it will work out but may take a little longer than we had hoped for.

Pat & I didn't try to go anywhere after the wedding on Sat. April 28th but on the morning of the 29th we drove her diesel powered VW New Beetle across Stevens Pass in the Cascade Mountains on US 2 to the Bavarian themed town of Leavenworth. On the way I had to make a stop at The Alps. That is the chocolate and gift store 6 miles or so west of Leavenworth. We of course made some purchases. Pat collects toads among other things and they had a good collection of toad things.

Honeymoon 00
Here Pat is looking over part of their toad items.

Leavenworth was originally a railroad town but when the RR closed down their northern route over the Cascades it looked like the town might die. Someone who lived there had recently visited the Bavarian area of Germany and noticed how similar the landscape was. They suggested that the town re-invent itself as a Bavarian village and go after the tourist market. They have been pretty successful.

honeymoon 02
This photo shows a few rooftops but also some of the foothills that surround the town. This was a photo taken in the morning when the clouds were still hanging around in the air from the 4th floor of our hotel.

Honeymoon 03
This view looks upriver over a home, up the Wenatchee River. There were power line wires running across the house that I felt kind of spoiled the clean look of the area so I took them out in Photoshop.

Honeymoon 01
Here are some of the buildings in the town. We ate dinner our first night there at Gustav's. It had good German food at reasonable prices but we felt it really was more of a lunch type menu than dinner.

Honeymoon 04
Just a few miles east of Leavenworth on US 2 is the town of Cashmere. One of it's most famous products is a fruit candy called Applets & Cotlets. We visited the factory and it's sales area. Here is Pat at the cash register while the sales lady rings up our $60 plus order. We like the stuff and bought quite a bit. We are still eating the peanut brittle. Of course Pat has me on a limited quantity of that type of stuff which is good as I am still loosing weight. Sloooowly.

Honeymoon 05
Here is another street scene in Leavenworth. This is not the US highway but is the main street through the village. Vehicle traffic is not much of a problem here. Our hotel was only about three blocks from the downtown area so we just walked over.

Honeymoon 06
This is the Enzian Inn where we stayed, in a twilight photo. The area on the 4th floor with the big windows on the right of the photo is the dining area where we ate our free buffet breakfast each morning. The balcony in front of the dining room is also where I took some photos of the landscape as well of the alphorn player:

Honeymoon 08
This fellow plays this horn from the railing along the edge of that 4th floor balcony at various times of the day. He also came inside the dining area to play it a bit.

Honeymoon 09
This shows a part of the inside lobby. The upper lobby is where Pat is standing, the stairs at the right side go down to the main floor. The big chandelier is in the near foreground and above the lobby. Behind the chandelier, on the ground floor, you can just see the grand piano which is played for an hour and a half every evening by various musicians.

Honeymoon 07
Doesn't Pat look a bit like a kid in a candy store in this photo? We were in a few candy stores but I don't think this was one of them, but there are a lot of places that give you many opportunities to buy things. It is kind of a shoppers paradise and even has two Christmas stores that offer Christmas decorations all year.

We spent two nights in Leavenworth and then decided that since we are retired we didn't really have to be back home on any specific day. The North Cascades Highway had opened the week before (it is closed all winter as they don't even try to remove the 50+ feet of snow that builds up there) so we thought we would go north to Winthrop, another of my favorite towns, with a Western theme. Winthrop is on the eastern side of the North Cascade Hwy (Wash. SR 20) and we thought we could spend that night there. On our way we stopped in Manson, near Chelan, for lunch with our friends R & D C who helped so much on various things with our wedding, including many of the photos.

Well, we got to Winthrop and found there were no rooms available! It seems that a chain group of stores had taken them all for employees to hold a retreat or something like that. We did a little shopping but only about half of the stores were open. This town pretty much closes down in the winter while it's residents go south where it is warmer, then they reopen shortly after the pass roadway opens. It did get opened a couple of weeks earlier than they thought it would so some of them were probably caught a bit by surprise and were not back to town yet.

Honeymoon 10
Here is the Winthrop Emporium, one of the places that was open. We did have dinner at 3-Fingered Jack's before hitting the road to cross the pass. I wish we had thought to give Pat one of the cameras to take some photos of the road at Washington Pass, but we didn't so I have none to show here. But the snow along the sides of the road was piled up about 12 feet over the top of the car! The road was bare and dry so the driving was easy but there sure was a lot of snow. We had no trouble and light traffic, so stopped for nachos when back to our town before going home.

The Beetle went about 500 miles, used 3/4 tank of diesel fuel and averaged 42 miles per gallon. This isn't bad for a car with an automatic transmission. Our little Honeymoon trip was short but sweet. We will take some longer trips with the motorhome before long as my house is almost ready to list for sale.

Labels: , , ,


Comments:
I'm glad ya'll got away for a little while. It sounds like a very good trip. Your pictures are great!! I really like the one of Pat, I think she may be a little shy,and she is so pretty too!!.
Have a good time and be careful of the candy!!I wish we could share with you....
Hug Pat and the kitty's for us,above all have fun.
Donna
 
Great pictures and commentary Dick. I'm glad you were able to get away for a bit of a honeymoon.
 
I haven't been to Leavenworth in years. This encourages me to get on over there.
 
Gday Dick.How lovely you were able to get away together for a few days. What a beautifull place Leavenworth is, love all your photo's specially the one with the mountain and the low morning clouds. Then onto Winthrop it looks like a scene from old Western Movie. Take care sending ((((HUGS)))to you Pat.
 
God bless you all! May happiness fill your hearts and home.
 
I love that trip, and it is right here in our back yard.
The cats will be pals in no time. (well maybe in a few months anyway).
 
What a wonderful get away. It looks like a great place and I have heard so much about it from my MIL who goes down there every spring. One of these days we will venture down that way. Got to get my passport renewed!
Glad to hear about dear little huggy. I know she will settle in soon enough.
Hope you and Pat have a nice week.
 
My you have been busy , I love all the post and pics , esp the wedding type ones , you both look beautiful and Happy , Lovely to see , Thanks for letting us tag along .
You must be tired after all that moving and wedding and travelling etc, nice to settle in and get on with LIFE , no more packing and moving ,unless in the RV.
I hope your Kitties all get along ,it will just take time is all!

Wishing you wonderful blissful Happiness , keep up the terrific blogging , and Pat looks really good here too , say Hello to her and Rubs for all three Kitties ,

Take care Mr&Mrs Mocha
Greeneyes
 
Wonderful post, Dick. Leavenworth looks like an amazing place ... being of German origin, I would feel quite at home there !!
It's great that you and Pat are so happy ... may it continue that way for ever.
Hope the kitties eventually get along, and make friends ... it will happen.
Have a brilliant weekend.
Take care, Meow
 
Post a Comment



<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?