Its official...spring has sprung.
This past weekend Emily and I made the obligatory trek to the middle of Washington state to dust off our little summer place, clean the boat, and soak up a little sunshine.
We left on Saturday around noon with no real plan other than grab a coffee and point the wagon east. Lacking any sort of real agenda we decided to travel over Stevens Pass via Hwy 2 then stop in Leavenworth for a late lunch.
The plan could not have been better! We were greeted with nice spring temperatures which ranged from the low 60s when we left to 70 degrees when we arrived at our final destination at Crescent Bar
The views along Hwy 2 are spectacular this time of year. The high peaks such as Mt Index are still snow-capped and seem to tower miles above the winding road. If you travel this route be sure to leave some time to stop, stare, and take a few pictures. I can't imagine a more beautiful place on earth than Washington in spring.
The rivers are running quite high right now and the amount of whitewater visible from the road is awesome to say the least.
a little less than two hours into our trip we reach the Bavarian-themed tourist village Leavenworth. Yes, it is cheesy. No, I wouldn't want to spend more than a day or two. But all the same I enjoy stopping in, checking out the sights, and grabbing a bite to eat.
Since we were traveling with our dog Fletch we really wanted to find someplace dog-friendly and preferably outdoors. Our prayers were answered when we walked into Munchenhaus a purveyor of German sausages and brew. This place is fantastic! Excellent Kielbasa, great German and American micros on tap, seven varieties of mustard, and a big vat of steaming sauerkraut at your disposal.
The seating is outdoors and features big communal picnic tables, some shade, some sun, and best of all they are dog friendly. My kinda spot.
We left Leavenworth around 4PM and made a beeline for Wenatchee where we planned to connect with one of the wineries we work with at Northwest Exclusive, CR Sandidge .
CRS was pouring wine at a new coffee and wine bar called Tastebuds in Wenatchee. Great little place with an emphasis on small plates of interesting food, coffee, and Northwest wine.
After this short stop we made our way up to Crescent Bar for the night, a little pub grub and some bad dancing before we called it a night.
On Sunday we did some Spring maintenance, went for a walk, then headed out to I-90 and decided we'd find a nice hike on the way home. There are so many trails along the I-90 corridor there's no way you can go wrong...right? Well, without a decent guidebook it is not necessarily easy to identify a good trail that is a) somewhat near the hwy and b) accessible in spring.
We spent some time exploring Lake Cle Elum and after driving quite a while, exploring several dead ends and running out of time we packed it up and headed home over Snoqualmie Pass.
The drive over Snoqualmie is not quite as dramatic as Stevens, but it is still pretty amazing and you can peg the cruise at 75 and get home fast.
If you haven't enjoyed Central Washington recently I highly recommend a spring road trip, you'll be glad you did it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment