Nope! This is Leavenworth WA, a small town tucked on the edge of the Okanagan-Wenatchee National Forest, that designed its downtown to look like a Bavarian village. It's quite cute, in a cheesy kind of way.
Bavarian Starbucks
Local bike shop--Das Rad Haus
Statue in town
if you look closely, you can see the helicopter dumping water
We stayed at a retired campground that is still used unofficially about 15 minutes outside of town. It was a great site with an outhouse strangely decorated with candleholders, small flags and a glass picture of Neuschwanstein Castle (it was the first time I've seen an outhouse decorated at all, now that I think about it).
The unfortunate feature of the site was that there was a whole lot mice running around at night. Normally I think mice are quite cute (even with having mice in our apartment for a few months in Hamilton) but I don't feel that way at night, when they get into the truck while we're sleeping in it. They got both into the back and front (as seen by the poops that they left behind, that I had to clean the next day). The worst part of it was when they ran on top of us--one ran across Luke's arm over his sleeping bag, while one CRAWLED ONTO MY HEAD. I don't think it'll come as a surprise that I didn't get much sleep that night, nor did Luke (although the mice don't bother him like they bother me).
Luckily we still have a sheet that we used to block the spaces in the gate (the only place they can get in) from when we were sleeping in swarming mosquito country. The subsequent nights we used the sheet and remained mouse-free. We could still hear them running around and on top of the truck, but that I can handle.
beach down the road from campsite
Luke met a super nice guy named Paul and they went for a bike ride together on one of the trails on the ski hill. Paul is a freelance journalist who also works for a bike part company (that makes a belt-drive for bikes instead of using a chain) and recently moved to Leavenworth from Tahoe. He lived for a few years in Colorado before that, so he had lots of advice of what to do when we get there at the beginning of October. He also invited us for beer and vegetarian bratwurst after their ride--wunderbar!
We drove back to Seattle that night and did some chores before going back to Duthie bike park for some fun. I decided I wanted to learn how to jump my bike and there is a area of progressive jumps at Duthie. So, Luke coached me through it and it went really well! I was learning how to do a manual jump and not only was I getting it but I wasn't feeling scared or freaked out about it either (I'm not the bravest biker). We went off to ride some of the other stuff and at the end Luke told me to do one last jump on the way out. So I enthusiastically launch off and....crash hard. Ironically, Luke had just been telling me how usually if people are going to crash it tends to be at the end of a ride. Luckily I was wearing padding so I didn't have a scratch on me. However, I landed on my hip and I now have a large bruise and had to take a few days off to recover. It was worth learning to jump though!
The next day we met up with our good friend Leena's friends Jim and Michael. They have a company repairing and building organs and we were invited to see their shop. Their shop is on Camano Island on a property that has horses and a **llama**. Two of the horses were super sweet and friendly and came over to be pet. They also have an amazing dog named Sara. She was a rescue from Spain, where her breed (padenco) is used as a hunting dog and frequently abused and abandoned by their owners. Sara narrowly escaped being destroyed and is now happy in her new home. She has such a sweet, fun disposition and she was made to run.
The most exciting part of Sara is that Luke loved her as much as I did! I've been teasing/nagging Luke about getting a trail dog (at some point) and up until meeting Sara Luke would only frown at me. However, Luke gets a big smile on his face when Sara is mentioned and he admitted the other day that he'd looked up information on her breed (as had I!). When I mentioned that there isn't really room in the truck for a dog, Luke said 'then we'll have to get a puppy' (!!!!!). I doubt we'll get one while on the road, but this bodes well for a trail dog at some point in the future :)
Anyway, Jim and Michael did a wonderful job of showing us their shop and filling us in on many of the detailed details of organs and how they are repaired. It's amazingly complicated! (at least it seems that way to me). They also shared some of Michael's delicious homemade pickles with us. It was a great visit!
We then traveled down the 410 highway into the Mt.Rainier National Park. My hip was still a bit messed up from the fall, so Luke did a bike ride while I did a hike. We had some great views of Mt.Rainier.
The next morning ended up being rainy and cooler, so we decided to keep driving through, past Yakima and over to Boise Idaho. We stopped at a little lake to make breakfast and while we were there large clouds/mist blew through and covered the area in clouds. I'd never seen clouds move that fast and low to the ground like that before.
Boise is an interesting place! Most of the city is on pretty flat ground, but there are foothills and then mountains that begin at the edge of town and go really far back! It's particularly interesting because the foothills begin as desert with no trees and only little sage shrubs, but as you go up all of a sudden trees start appearing and it's forested. There's a ski hill partway up called Bogus Basin and there's trails all over.
Luke did a ride in the lower desert area yesterday while I took one last day of recovery (today will be my first day back on the bike). It was super hot though (33 degrees). Luckily it's not humid...but I still found the heat oppressive.
desert blue skies, yellow grass and a small Luke on his bike
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