Leavenworth, Washington

8/31/13

Another beautiful day dawns here with virtually clear skies and a promise of temperatures in the low 80’s today.  Our friends, Fred and Jeannie McMachan told us about a town named Leavenworth, WA. About 45 miles north of us.  It turns out that Leavenworth was a mining and railroad town in the late 1800’s.  Once the mines played out, the town residents decided to create a German town as might be found in the Alps today.  The Leavenworth family was prominent in development of the city, with one brother leaving to travel east to establish – guess where? Leavenworth, Kansas.

At any rate, we had a wonderful day here having lunch at Andreas Keller German restaurant, sightseeing, and doing a little shopping before we returned home for the day.  On the way home we decided to drive the Yakima Canyon Drive that rolls about 40 miles through desert-like sand hills deeply surrounding the Yakima River Valley.  We observer pristine-blue waters drifting south with hundreds of families floating the river.  It must have been a grand holiday weekend way to spend it lazily floating along through this scenery with you family in tow.

Highway 97 northbound from Ellensburg

We arrive in a beautiful German alpine village

Joy soaks up the sun and flowers

Lunch at Andreas Keller restaurant downstairs

Flower baskets everywhere

Hundreds of thousands of bales of hay await shipment to Japan
Japan has little productive acreage it can allocate to such mundane things as growing hay 

Just south of Ellensburg we find a gem of a scenic byway

Blue waters of Yakima River are enjoyed by many this Labor Day

Rolling arid hills provide a great contrast from the valley below

We saw many folks with rafts tied together enjoying a warm day

Almost down to Yakima