The Bavarian Town

Last weekend, Ian, Jaron, and I drove to Leavenworth, which is 2 1/2 hours northeast of Seattle. It's a tiny city in the middle of the Cascades. It's a higher elevation so there was snow there and Ian was so excited. He hates that he'd have to drive 2 hours to get to a mediocre ski resort. Anyway, Leavenworth is a town that in the 1960's was going bankrupt and they eventually decided to remake their town into a themed town, and they chose a Bavarian theme (think German and all the once upon a time stories). Oktoberfest and Christmastime is huge up there. We had heard it was pretty neat so we decided to spend an afternoon up there. Making a weekend of it was out of the question because hotels are booked a whole year in advance.

all the buildings looked like this

waiting for the lighting ceremony to start

HOLY PEOPLE. So crowded. We got there 10 minutes before the Christmas tree lighting ceremony and celebration. We sang joy to the world with thousands of people, silent night, and then they turned on all the lights in the city. It was pretty neat and kind of strange/nice that they integrated religion so tastefully into their Christmas celebrations in their city. We walked around the shops, got an ornament for a tree (Ian and I decided to collect them) and ate dinner twice. We ate bratwursts from a booth that a church was selling them, and then we ate sausages/bratwursts at a restaurant. We wanted to go to a restaurant that had polka music, but there was a two hour wait, and the boys were starving. We only stayed in the city for 3-4 hours because I was freezing (and so was everyone else) and I was so sick. Also, we didn't have gallons of money to spend at the shops. We really enjoyed the scenery and wandering around a new city!

after they turned the lights on

We have loved exploring and experiencing Christmas in the Seattle area, but we are so excited to be driving back to Utah to be spending the holidays with most of our family and friends! Just pray the snow is scarce while we drive on Saturday.