Octoberfest

This weekend we explored more of Washington... On Friday morning we headed to Leavenworth, WA . Leavenworth is a small German themed town about four hours away in North Central Washington. It has a variety of festivals throughout the year. In October, it is Octoberfest. We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day to drive there. The leaves were amazing with vibrant reds and crisp yellows. Too bad that I didn't take any pictures of the landscape... 

Leavenworth's streets were lined with people of all kinds (old, young and in between), sausages were plenty, and the beer tents were full of German attired happy people. (If you would like to read about the history of Leavenworth click here). After touring the town and getting some German food we drove on to Wanatchee where we stayed for the night. 

Our "plan" was to stay in Leavenworth until after dinner but our parental duties required us to leave earlier then planned. (read: over tired children.) We knew we were pushing our stay as Wilson (and consequentially Chris and I) didn't sleep well the night before (Wilson woke twice from growing pains in his legs) and because he was so excited about our adventure didn't sleep a wink on the four hour drive. Before we had to leave our fantastic parking spot, we asked Wilson to sit in the stroller to rest his body for a little bit. Needless-to-say, the little man wanted nothing to do with anything that involved the word "rest" so he decided to RUN. Bet you can guess what happened after he tried to flee us and the stroller of leisure... You got it... we left. He had to sit his little "I don't want to rest!" bottom in the car. And he was out like a light in a matter of seconds. Big shock-right?. In fact, the little man was out so hard that he was snoring. In reality both kids really needed a rest as Nora fell asleep after a few short cries. When I look  back, leaving should have been the plan from the beginning. (Even though mom and dad really wanted to check out the beer tent.) 

Wenatchee  is referred to as "the Apple Capital of the World"  and is about 20 miles from Leavenworth. When we arrived in the Apple Capital I checked us into the hotel and asked the front desk to recommend some fun things to do in the area (Chris and the kids stayed in the car.). It turned out that there was a NAHL (North American Hockey League) hockey game playing that night. We had about an hour to kill before the game started so we drove around letting the kids finish their naps. When the kids woke up we headed to the hockey game. Wilson was excited (and so was I!)! He loves hockey and loved the game. We all had a blast! Our seats were fantastic- four rows from the glass and the home team, Wenatchee Wild, scored 4 goals while we were there. (We didn't stay for the whole game. We knew that we needed to get a decent night's sleep so we left at 8:30.) By the time we left Wilson had learned when to cheer and was screaming when the boys (the players were babies... 16-18 years young) hit the glass and was dancing when they scored.  It was really a great experience. LOUD but great. 

The next day we toured Wanatchee some more (Wanatchee is beautiful- by the way.) and Nora and I squeezed in a nap while Chris and Wilson went swimming in the hotel pool. After noon we drove back to Leavenworth stopping at a farm for a box of apples along the way. (side note: We now have 30 pounds of apples. So, who wants a pie?) Back in Leavenworth we filled up on sausages and enjoyed walking the streets. The kids even napped in the stroller (with no fussing!) while Chris and I drank beer in the beer tent. It was perfect!

We had a blast. I just wish that we took more pictures...