A Bavarian Town in Washington

Our son's Mothers' Day treat was a three hour drive over the Cascades Mountain Range to Leavenworth. Leavenworth was an old logging town in the mountains that was transformed into a full scale replica of a town in Bavaria, Germany when the logging industry was phased out.

The drive there prepares you for the fantasy of being in Germany.


For much of the way the highway closely follows the Snohomish River into a very Alpine-looking valley with glimpses of bare, rugged, snow capped peaks, passing through tiny towns with names like Goldbar, Sultan, Startup and Index, past meadows then cutting through thick pine forests clinging to steep valley walls, winding all the way up to the ski resort at Stevens Pass at 4,061 feet (1,238m), where the slopes were still covered with snow.

For much of the way the river is just a few feet from the road and presents an ever-changing spectacle: sometimes churning along over boulders in foaming cataracts


sometimes as a still pool lingering under trees or meandering slowly around little islands of gravel.


Front Street, the main street in Leavenworth, was filled with visitors and mingling with them were local residents decked out in lederhosen and Bavarian skirts and blouses





The sound of an Oompah band filled the air and built up expectations for the Maypole Dance to come.


The Maypole Dance in the main square was delightful.




Over a hearty German meal at a Bavarian style restaurant


amid murals of Rothenberg, Regensberg and other old Bavarian towns we toasted the three generations of mothers in our party.