Christmas in Leavenworth, WA

This was our view when we arrived at the Sleeping Lady Resort.  We were going to have a great six days here!  We unloaded our bags in the room and headed to dinner.  It was a bit of a walk through the resort to the restaurant.  The kids could hardly stay out of the snow.  It was so beautiful and so much white! (December 2012)

Our first morning we headed out for a snow shoe hike.  The property is huge and there is so much area to explore.  The family photo shows the Icicle Creek running behind us.  It's full of salmon in the spring.  Jose is planning a return trip to fish.  Sounds fun! 

We headed into town for dinner.  The town of Leavenworth has a population of about 1,900 and swells to many thousands this time of year with tourists.  The towns was transformed in the 1960's to a Bavarian Village.  They thought with the beautiful backdrop of the Cascade mountains they would draw more visitors.  They couldn't have been more right.  It was truly magical.  The buildings were draped with Christmas lights, as were all the surrounding trees.  There was a sledding area in the middle of town where we spent a lot of time watching and laughing!  Great youtube footage.  We choose to dine at King Ludwig's Bavarian Restaurant.  We shared the king's platter (bratwurst, pork hock, sauerkraut, schnitzel and spatzle etc.).  We loved it..especially with live polka music.  There were fireworks near the end of the night.

 

click to play video

The next morning we headed out for cross-country skiing.  There is a great course at the resort.  It was a first time for all of us.  We spent two days on the course. 

 This was our view...the sky was much clearer on the second day.

                                                                                       

Here is the sleeping lady...the Cascade Mountains.

Jose and I went on the "Art Walk" through the property.  There is an extensive permanent art collection.  Some pieces we had to hunt down and scrape off the snow to see. 

Above is the Icicle Creek Chandelier by Dale Chihuly.  The glass sculpture is inbedded into the rock (covered by snow in photo) and is 12 feet tall.  This was just a preview for our Chihuly experience in Seattle.  Below are some pics of what the kids were doing while we were gone.  They built forts and piles of snowballs for a fight upon Jose's return.

 

Christmas Eve...game of checkers then dinner.  That night we watched the Grinch in the flicker room with a few other families.  An interesting thing about our stay...no tvs in the rooms!  We spent a lot of time talking, playing games and long walks outside after dinner.  It was great family time.  We all went equipped with our ipads, ipods and cell phones.  No wifi and not much cell service. 

Christmas Day Sleigh Ride.  We had thick wool blankets to keep us warm.  Afterwards, some cider and hot chocolate in a heated tent to warm us.

The next day we headed for Ski Hill.  Jose and the kids took a short lesson and we spent quite a while going up the rope tow and down the hill.  It wasn't a big ski hill, so it was perfect for us! I hadn't skiied since college and this was their first experience.  It was like riding a bike and I'm ready to head back.  We shifted our attention to the tubing hill in the afternoon.  A rope tow pulled the tube to the top of the hill and then pushed the tube down onto the path.  It was a super fast ride! 

We woke the next morning prepared for our car ride and flight to Seattle.  It was 12 degrees warmer and no rain.  We stayed in Seattle for 2 1/2 days and had some drizzle part of one day.  Better than we had expected.  From the hotel to the Space Needle.  At the base of the Space Needle was the Dale "Chihuly Garden and Glass" exhibit.  The sky was clear so we had a spectacular view from the needle.  Our hotel was right on the harbor.  We were pretty close to the Great Wheel. 

Above is the EMP Museum (Experience Music Project).  The building has amazing architecture.  My photo doesn't do it justice. It wasn't difficult getting a good photo of Seattle when the sky is so clear.

 We were up early to start the day with one of our Savor Seattle tours...Chocolate Indulgence!  It was two hours tromping through the Pike Place Market and surrounding areas to taste some of the best of Seattle's chocolates.  Included were a visit to Fran's Chocolates for salted caramels and Dahlia's Bakery for beignets and chocolate crackle cookies.  Each stop we got some history, background information and a small taste of the dessert.  It was fabulous.  Seattle is quite the foodie city.  Instead of relying on our own sense of finding our way to the best food...I relied on tours to take us around to taste the city.  All four of us would return to Seattle in a heartbeat just to eat what we found there.

There were a few street performers there...this guy was hilarious.

Camille and I took a ride in the Great Wheel.  It's only about 5 months old. 

 

 Our second full day in Seattle we had two tours planned:  Pike Place market tour and Gourmet Tasting Tour.  The market tour we tasted smoked salmon, cherries, clam chowder, market spices, truffle oil, fresh doughnuts and crab cakes.  We saw the famous fishmongers toss the salmon.

 

Here's the original Starbucks (technically the 4th) located in Pike Place Market. 

The famous chewing gum wall-  this is a road off Pike Place.  We had to make a contribution.  Ryan hates gum so this was disgusting to him.  It was gross, yet pretty at the same time. So colorful!

The Gourmet Tasting Tour took us from Yellow Leaf Cupcake Co. (featured on Food Network for their Tomato Soup cupcakes and pancakes n bacon cupcakes), Serious Pie for some fab pizza, duck appetizers, clam risotto, and here we are at Thoa's enjoying Vietnamese Pad Thai.

It's been a great visit to Washington...we definitely will plan a return visit.  The Sanchez family has got to get back to Visalia.