Moving day again with a long drive ahead, meaning yet 8am breakfast. The breakfast was hot and satisfactory. I had another waffle with sugar free maple syrup. It was so nice that I started thinking how good it would be to have a waffle iron at home. Then I thought about all the cleaning afterwards and that here it is the fact that it is all set up for me with the waffle mixture on tap. I realised it should just be an occasional holiday treat.
At 9am we were all loaded up in the car and in the petrol station next door filling up with ‘gas’. Our planned route today taking in the chinook pass had been scuppered by the fact that the road to it had now been closed for 12 months due to a landslip and one the alternative route now involved going through the National Park again which we couldn’t do as all the passes for the day had been sold. So instead, we routed clockwise around Mount Rainier rather than anti clockwise as we hoped.
We couldn’t so anything about it and so set off determined to make the most of the day and enjoy the scenery.
The drive wasn’t too bad on a beautiful sunny clear day. Once we had made it around the other side of Mount Rainier, we were treated to some splendid views of the summit. I stopped so that we could take some photos.
It amused us when we realised, we were going to drive through a place called ‘Graham’ and decided we would stop if we could and hopefully get some pictures of Graham in front of the sign for the town of Graham. The place was much bigger than we had anticipated. We were disappointed that there were no’ Welcome to Graham’ signs. It did have a Starbucks though and so we thought it would be rude not to stop for a coffee with Graham in Graham.
Once the drinks had been finished, we doubled back to seek out a relevant sign but it was fruitless. We did see buildings called ‘Graham’s Marijuana’ and ‘Graham’s Fire Department’ which made us smile.
We pushed onto until we came to a state park called Lake Easton which I pulled into hoping to find somewhere to have our picnic lunch. At the entrance I managed to sweet talk the ranger to letting us off the admission fee as we were only going to be here for a short while and not partake in any activities other than sitting at a picnic table. Another $10 saved.
The Lake was very pretty. The air though was very fresh because of the altitude. It was lovely though. We kept to my word I had given to the Ranger and were soon back on our way.
Our destination was Leavenworth for the night. A Bavarian style village in the middle of the Cascade terrain. The pictures of it had looked very interesting but we were not exactly sure what to expect. I was nervous as I was subjecting our car passengers to a 4-hour journey to what may have turned out to be not one of my better ideas.
With relief, Leavenworth far exceeded all expectations. It had a pretty charming quality all its own. The buildings looked very Bavarian. Even the font used on brands like Starbucks had been changed to a Germanic style. We were all smiling as we noticed different things.
Our accommodation for the night was the Linderhof Inn which was the nromal run of the mill motel but very clean and reasonably priced. We decided to go for a walk to explore all the very quaint shops and bars. They were as quirky as they were pretty. The whole village was quite resplendent in the hot sunshine without a cloud in the sky.
After some browsing without purchasing which is my favourite type of shopping, we found ourselves inside a Cold Stone Creamery where Karen & Graham both had ice creams. T&G were by now in need of an afternoon nap so went back to their rooms. Karen & continued wandering around the village ending up in a typical German bBeer Haus where I bought Karen a small German Chocolate Cake Ale. She wasn’t too keen on it but finished it. I had a free glass of water.
It was then time to collect T&G from their room and all back together we headed across the road to Gustav’s Restaurant. I had a salmon burger which along with everyone else’s food was very acceptable. We learnt more from the waitress about the history of the town.
We decided to avail ourselves of the offer from the motel of a free round of putting at a course opposite. I am so glad we did as I have never seen or played a putting course like it, set on a steep hillside it made fantastic use of the natural contours. There were no straight or level holes. There were water hazards from the stream which came from a beautiful natural waterfall which fell into the middle of the course. It was simply stunning.
Of course, it’s the taking part that matters but I won anyhow. We had to curtail the round after 9 holes as we lost daylight. What made it even more memorable were the 3 deer that wandered nonchalantly passed us as we were playing.
By now it was time to retire for the night and so after a lovely cuppa we hit the bed, tired but pleased we had had another good day.
