Christmas Festival in Leavenworth, WA

I had hopes of a snowy white trek through the mountains to the quaint town of Leavenworth, while listening to and singing Christmas carols. We would drink hot cocoa, go for a sleigh ride through snowy fields with the mountains as a pristine and tragically romantic backdrop. Then we would pop into a few shops finding unique treasures from our time in Bavaria. I also pictured us staying at a wonderful little Inn, like the one from Gilmore Girls in Stars Hollow. This was to be where we would retreat from the crowds of people and to warm up if needed. It sort of happened like that...


Apple Orchards on the way to Leavenworth. These covered a large part of the land and without apples they looked a little spooky. Note: not much snow coverage here. We did sing to the good old Oakridge Boys Christmas Album on the way out despite the no snow thing.


Bavarian Cuteness at 10:00 a.m.


Gazebo where the town cryer spoke and "cried" from throughout the day. The carolers sang and the guys with the alpine horns played here during the festival. We were awesomely positioned as the evening festivities started at 4:30 or so. We were right behind the small set of risers so we could see just over the people sitting on the higest row. I was stoked because the streets were packed with tons of people who I'm sure couldn't see a thing. So great! The town cryer gets up and announces that the stars are going to be making their way down the street and lighting the town up as they come down the path. How exciting! She says the canon's will boom and the stars will light the way! The canon's boom and then everyone on the bleachers stands up to see the lighting of the town...so now guess who can't see anything besides butts. The butts did not light up. Hmmph.


Not so "Bavarian" chics who had mexican food for lunch! We did have a Bavarian waffle for breakfast though.


Horse drawn carriage that brought Santa, Father Christmas, and St. Nicholas into town. I had never seen all three at one time. St. Nick looks like the Pope. Father Christmas gets to wear green. Em and I were watching all this go down from a 2nd story window shop, so I don't have any pics of this.

There was no room in any of the Inns (felt a little like Mary and Joe when trying to find a reservation. Do you think in Bethlehem they had 2-3 night minimum stays as well?) No snow equalled no sleigh ride. There were 3 cute shops (Kris Kringl, Inside Out, and one other that I can't think of name) that I spent some time in but there were also a lot of "tourist" shops.

All in all it was still a fun day, but I was pretty pooped out once we got in the car for the ride home. I slept the 2 hours back to my house. Thanks for driving Matt and not sleeping on the way back!!