Basses and Mountains: Leavenworth and other small towns

We wanted to get away from town for a few days this past week and, after some consideration, we decided on Leavenworth as our destination. Or to be more precise, we rented a cabin outside of Leavenworth in hopes of some peace and quiet with easy access to decent restaurants and stores.

We set off on Wednesday in the late morning and went east on Highway 2 from Monroe. Around noon we stopped for lunch in the small town of Skykomish (population 205). Skykomish is a quiet little town aside from the rumbling of a Burlington Northern locomotive idling in the center of town.

Most interesting sight in Skykomish

Apparently, there is just one track across Stevens Pass so, to avoid head-on collisions, trains will wait in Skykomish until an oncoming train passes before continuing their journey. After lunch at a small cafe we walked around town to get a feeling for the place. The feeling we got was that not much goes on here. There is a King County Library which is hardly ever open. There is also a crumbling old hotel for which there is a campaign to raise money to finance its restoration. Currently, its only occupants seem to be birds.

Skykomish Hotel

We walked around the town a bit which seemed almost deserted.

The bridge into town

This picture sums up the local zeitgeist

We continued our drive eastwards, arrived in Leavenworth, and went to a store to pick up a few supplies. In the parking lot, a large white man in a huge pickup was sitting inside smoking. In the back window was a large Trump sign. And that's Eastern Washington in a nutshell (more on nuts later).

We hurried into the store, made our purchases and managed to find our cabin a few miles out of town. I had envisioned an isolated location in the woods where you could go out the door and walk directly into the woods. Sadly, this was not that cabin. The views from the deck were nice, as the pictures below show, but the atmosphere was disappointing. Dogs barking and neighbors yelling were not what we were hoping for.

Looking to the southwest from out deck. Icicle Creek Canyon on the left.

View to the northwest from our deck.

We went into town looking for a place to walk that was not crowded with tourists and decided to give the River Walk a try. We left the car at Enchantment Park and walked through the woods to a pedestrian bridge to Blackbird Island. It's a small island and in a few minutes we crossed another bridge back to the mainland near Commercial Street in downtown Leavenworth.

These were the greetings we got at Enchantment Park

The River Trail

After a short walk around town (which was crowded with tourists), we retraced our steps dodging kids on bicycles, drove back to the cabin, and had wine and snacks on the deck.

Thursday morning we went out for breakfast at the Wild Huckleberry restaurant at the Leavenworth Golf Course. To our surprise (this being such a tourist town), it was nearly empty so we ordered omelettes and watched some ineffectual golfers outside attempting to avoid a sand trap.

After breakfast, we drove into Icicle Creek Canyon stopping here and there to walk in the woods and gaze at the creek. Here are some creek views from various points along the road.

We also noticed the plant life and butterflies.

Ponderosa Pine

Lorquin's Admiral

Mock Orange (Philadelphus Lewisii)

A wild rose along the river bank

Lots of Bracken along the trails

We also visited the Icicle Creek Center for the Arts where a summer music camp was going on. I think I need to go to the adult chamber music camp here next year.

Snowy Owl Theater at the Icicle Creek Center for the Arts

We arrived back in Leavenworth and, perhaps foolishly, visited the Nutcracker Museum. A nice German lady welcomed us and asked us if were seniors. We informed her that we had not yet reached age 65 but she insisted on giving us the old folks rates anyway. In retrospect, I'm glad we saved a few bucks. It turns out that, along with the usual Christmas nutcrackers, we were paying to see a wealth of racist, sexist, and just plain stupid nutcracker-like objects.

Abe Lincoln wondering what the hell he is doing here

Karl is about 6 feet tall. He is for the toughest nuts to crack.

Hillary and, I assume, Margaret Thatcher. Cracking nuts between their legs. Could this be sexist? Maybe?

Native Americans taking it on the chin as usual

Female body parts cracking nuts in their what? Uteruses?

Of course. Einstein always carried a card around to help him remember that damned equation.

Criminal curating. Conflating Star Wars and Star Trek.

No. Mozart didn't play the cello. That's not how you play the cello. That's also not how you play the bass. His bow grip is atrocious. He didn't live long enough to have white hair. Just no.

Let's mock the Mormons because why not? Note Joseph Smith holding the mythical golden tablets. Brigham Young is misquoting himself (should be "This is the Place").

This is the worst. Do you see Martin Luther King here? Neither do I. And why is the figure on the right dressed like a slave? Not really in keeping with the spirit of MLK. The guy holding a Christmas tree? On MLK day? Are they confusing Santa Claus with Dr. King? I think they just slapped some brown stain on these guys, labeled it MLK day, and went out for a beer. Very sensitive.

Having drunk deeply from the fountain of racism and misogyny, we fled back to our cabin for vegetable soup and some badly needed wine. And more wine. Plus some wine on the deck. Rain approached from the mountains to wash the bigotry away (if only).

A cleansing rain approaches

Friday morning dawned with beautiful weather in the mountains and a waning gibbous moon. We had breakfast at Louie's Cafe, a small place where one of us kept getting hit by the door when other patrons entered. A bit disconcerting but the food was good.

After breakfast we hit the road. We planned to go home via Snoqualmie Pass, thereby making a big clockwise loop over the course of our trip. Soon after we turned south on 97 headed for Swauk Pass, we stopped at a roadside fruit stand where we bought some deliciously fresh Rainier cherries. We chatted with the woman running it who told us the farm had been in her family for four generations. At our request, she graciously granted us permission to take a walk in the orchard.

I suspect these guys had a hand in creating the Nutcracker Museum. Or do I insult asses?

Washington Apples!

The Orchard

From this idyllic spot, we continued on to Cle Elum after a short side trip into the beautiful Teanaway Valley. We made the required stop at legendary McKean's Drive In for milkshakes, and continued into the heart of Cle Elum.

We had often noticed a building labeled "The Telephone Museum" and decided to stop in for a look. After all, it couldn't be any worse than the Nutcracker Museum.