Pacific Northwest Aug 2019 - Day 11 Leavenworth and more tubing

[katiebaz]

Today we were leaving the cabin and with no early start to go hiking we all enjoyed a much needed lie in. After a leisurely breakfast of eggs on toast (it was really nice to have ‘real’ eggs after the plastic ones served in so many hotels!) we packed up and said goodbye to our cabin. We had really enjoyed our time here and were sad to be leaving.

We called in the national park one last time so Daniel could get a sticker for his water bottle and then drove on to our next stop, the town of Leavenworth. The journey took about 3 hours and we drove past gorgeous scenery of mountains and desert.

Leavenworth is a pretend German town, made to look like a Bavarian village. The idea came about after the lumber trade declined in the area and the town decided to re-invent itself as a tourist destination. All the shops and restaurants have a Bavarian façade and it really was quite charming - a bit like wondering around Epcot.

We were booked to go tubing on the river throughout Leavenworth that afternoon but needed lunch. We had a bit of ‘heated debate’ about what too get and ended up in a local Safeway with nobody able to decide what to have. After a terse lunch in the car, which no-one enjoyed, we made up and got ready to go tubing.

The river was quite low and we enjoyed the gentle ride down, past lovely scenery and it was all very relaxed until we came to some rocks in the middle of the river. We had clipped all our tubes together but the suddenly the water speed up and I could see that we were heading straight for said rocks. As I was in the middle I couldn’t steer and urged my family to avoid them. Somehow both Steve and Daniel did manage to miss the rocks but steer my tube right into them. My tube flipped and I ended up in the fast moving water with my foot stuck in some rocks as I tried to stand up. My family were laughing and telling me to get up but I couldn’t get my foot free so was a little panicked which seemed to make them laugh more. Eventually I got free and swam to the side where Steve had rescued the tubes and Daniel had swum after my paddles. Fortunately the rest of the journey was very calm although I did get quite a bit of ribbing from my very unsympathetic family despite my bruised and cut leg.

Once back in Leavenworth we had a wonder around the town, looking in the shops and treating ourselves to a rafting Santa Christmas decoration. We then stopped for the most amazing ice-creams from the Cold Stone Creamery - even better than Dairy Queen, before checking into our hotel for the night.

We headed out for dinner and there seemed to be mostly overpriced German style restaurants on offer, which none of us fancied. However, we found a fabulous Mexican restaurant down a side street and had a brilliant meal. The portions were huge and very reasonably priced which made it even better and glad we hadn’t gone for overpriced snitzel.

We then went back to the hotel, chilled out watching baseball and planned the next day.

[CrispyA]

Ahh, the family lunch disagreement - we’ve been there. Hangriness never helps either and teenagers aren’t usually very practical with their suggestions.

Glad you (mostly) enjoyed the tubing, even if the boys were less than helpful. Laughing at you being stuck in a rock is not okay.,

Leavenworth looks really cute

[katiebaz]

Originally Posted by CrispyA

Ahh, the family lunch disagreement - we’ve been there. Hangriness never helps either and teenagers aren’t usually very practical with their suggestions.

Glad you (mostly) enjoyed the tubing, even if the boys were less than helpful. Laughing at you being stuck in a rock is not okay.,

Leavenworth looks really cute

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I can laugh about the tubing incident now but at the time I was not impressed with the lack of help and general amusement it caused everyone else!

[smithlane]

A great day tubing. My lot would have done exactly the same and laughed their heads off whilst being generally unhelpful!
Leavenworth reminds me of a German Solvang in California. Such a random quirky town! I'm glad you found a reasonably priced restaurant to have dinner.

[katiebaz]

Originally Posted by smithlane

A great day tubing. My lot would have done exactly the same and laughed their heads off whilst being generally unhelpful!
Leavenworth reminds me of a German Solvang in California. Such a random quirky town! I'm glad you found a reasonably priced restaurant to have dinner.

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Don’t you just love a sympathetic family?. It was a really lovely quirky town and we are glad to have found it. We do fancy California for one of our next trips and will checkout Solvang.