A Bavarian village

Nebraska Trip: Day 2

We made a quick getaway yesterday afternoon and managed to squeak on to the 3:00 pm ferry. Here's Mohita waiting with the big trucks.



It was a warm, sunny afternoon and we so enjoyed the ferry ride. Since we don't go back and forth to Vancouver that much any more it's becoming a treat again rather than a tedious chore.



After a nice dinner with son Jamie and quick overnight visit with brother Charles and family we headed across the border with minimal delay and into Washington state.



We didn't quite make our goal of 300 miles today, partly because we stopped at for lunch at Angel Winds Casino north of Everett. We'd actually never been to a casino before, and probably will never visit one again. It was pretty depressing with its fake lights and loud music and jangling bells, and the sad, lonely people who spend their days at gaming machines.

From there we took a secondary road through Stevens Pass in the Cascade mountain range. This is a lovely drive through pine woods and along side rushing rivers into Leavenworth--a (not-so) genuine Bavarian village. The mountains here are pretty steep and if you use your imagination it could look a bit like the Alps. This town began in the late 1800s as a railroad and lumber town. In the 1920 it developed a ski hill but by the 1950s it was depressed and failing. It was then that a few people took their inspiration from the mountains and created some buildings in Swiss Alpine style. The town is completely Bavarian now and quite a tourist attraction, hosting festivals at all seasons of the year. You have to admire a town that can recreate itself like that.



We spent a bit of time wandering around but the highlight was finding a nice place to camp (with wireless internet) nearby a Safeway store where we could get some provisions for the next leg of our trip. It's a peaceful evening, warm with a little breeze and the frogs are peeping. We'll We'll all sleep well tonight and tomorrow we'll head into Idaho and maybe further south and east.