Sunday, April 06, 2008

Leavenworth, WA

Last week as I mentioned in my previous post was Lea and my 8th Anniversary. We headed over Steven's Pass which is an incredibly beautiful drive and found ourselves in a Bavarian Village known as Leavenworth, Washington.

It's hard not to like Leavenworth. It is truly a quaint, charming town with trees decorated with pretzels, dozens of stores with unique shopping opportunities ranging from thousands of Nutcrackers to Pretzel Dip. There is a Beer Garden smack dab in the middle of town and everywhere you go there is Bratwurst, Sauerkraut, great German Beers, cooked to order gigantic pretzels (something everyone must have...this is not your typical 7-11 hot pretzel). You do not go to Leavenworth to lose weight. This is genuine, stick to your ribs, keep you warm in sub-zero weather food.

The town is at the base of the Cascade Mountains and with snow still on the ground I was in awe of the natural beauty. We found a great little park along the river and the girls were patient enough to endure several photo sessions in different locations. I even talked my beautiful bride into laying down in the grass for some stock photo opportunities. Something in addition to her willingness to get a bit dirty for my art is her ability to get embarrassed in public places. The first restaurant we went to she asked what was on the kids menu. When the server proudly announced Pasta, chicken and then German Wieners Lea grinned and a tiny giggle discretely escaped. The ever tactful husband that I am brought full attention to the matter when I announce "You just giggled when he said German Wieners!" She turned a brilliant shade of red and it's no small miracle that we did make it to our 8th year of marriage as that was 2 nights before our official anniversary. Now that I think of it, that first night, Sophie was upset and couldn't sleep so she slept in my room with Lea and I slept in the Kid's room with Savannah..she couldn't have planned that...nahhh

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

Auf Wiedersehen,

Mat



This May pole is a center point of town.
One thing not lacking in our house are photo's of the family :)
Dang! I am a seriously lucky guy aren't I?
Doesn't she look at peace?
It's a Wedding Chapel and a Cafe!
You gotta love those German Wieners!
We made a special trip back to the park at dusk as I knew the light would be pretty on the mountain then.
Savannah sure loved it.
Seriously, if you need a nut cracked in Leavenworth..you have nothing to worry about.
Pretzels do grow on trees!
This is a town with it's priorities straight.
This was a risky shot to take as you can imagine.
Even more Beautiful at night.

1 comment:

Ryan Hawk said...

Wow Mat! Great shots in Leavenworth. That family shot w the mountain is amazing, and I've never seen a pigeon shot that was as interesting. Cool stuff.