Minter Gardens

After leaving Val and Dave's, we headed up to Aldergrove to spend the week with Cathi, Don and the littles - Patience, Jordyn and Nicky. All of the big kids are gone - Nathan is in Virginia at A School for the Coast Guard, Dylan is in Paris, France, with Lucille and her family, and Sean is at the Cadets summer camp on Vancouver island. It was very strange to have ALL of the boys gone!


The girls have grown a lot since we saw them last, and of course, the biggest change was in Nick. He turned 10 months while we were there. They are all adorable, and we really enjoyed our visit with them. It took me about 30 minutes to convince Nick that I was an acceptable adult, but we were great friends after that.



We arrived on Sunday, and Cathi and Don fixed a wonderful bar-b-que dinner in honor of Lee's birthday, along with a super-yummy pumpkin dessert! Lee was in heaven. We ate outside, as Aldergrove was enjoying the same wonderful, warm weather as the Richey's in Everson. And of course, we LOVE that!



On Monday afternoon, Cathi and Don took us to Minter Gardens for Lee's birthday. It was a wonderful garden, and we both felt that it rivaled Buchart Gardens. It was quite hot on Monday, so we all enjoyed the shady spots in the gardens. Patience and Jordyn stayed home with a sitter, but Nick came with us and strolled through the gardens.



Following are some pictures of the gardens, and of course, Nicky!


Here's the entrance to the gardens - all beautiful and blooming!


Here's another picture, and you can see the words Minter Garden spelled out in shrubs.

The hostas were just amazing! Minter Gardens has lots of water features, which really added to the feeling of the gardens.

This was quite amazing, too! It's a peacock, and his tail is spread out down a gentle slope, and is planted with flowers. We loved it!

The rose garden, along with shrub sculptures.

We loved the colors in this garden. It reminded us of the Indian garden in New Zealand, at Hamilton Gardens.

The Canadian maple leaf, in greenery!

Don, Cathi and Nick. They had on lots of sun screen!

A gentle waterfall - very peaceful.

Another water feature, and lots of water lillies.

If you make this picture bigger, you will see the water wall behind the plants. It made a wonderful sound, and created a cool, shady spot.

The water wall from another angle.

A photo opportunity.

A gentle waterfall, framed by hostas.

This pavillion was near the wedding spot. We loved all of the hanging baskets, which were blooming profusely!

Cute little church framed by trees.

Another photo opportunity!

Mother and daughter - I think I'm shrinking! : )

This little cottage is tucked away in the trees. It looked like Hansel and Gretel could have lived there.

Nick started getting fussy, so Don took him over to the lawn to play. When he heard us coming, he hoisted Nick up above the shrubs. Nick is enjoying Daddy's sunglasses!

Nick in his Hawaiian outfit.

Grandma and Nick, who is really interested in walking, and loves it when you hold his hands and walk with him.

Another beautiful picture!

Doesn't this look wonderfully restful? We LOVED our time at Minter Gardens.

Cathi and Don, enjoying a quiet moment.

A little closer up.

Don, Pat and Lee. This little table was in the pavillion with the hanging baskets.

And here's the Canadian flag, in flowers!

We had such a wonderful time at the gardens. We stopped half-way through for a picnic lunch, then continued to stroll around.

http://www.mintergardens.com/ go to their website for more information and many other wonderful pictures. We are both looking forward to visiting the gardens again, next year.

Thank you, Cathi and Don, for such a wonderful experience!

Cashmere - or, Aplets & Cotlets

Cashmere is a cute little town, with a huge claim to fame - aplets and cotlets!! I know that most of us remember eating these little confections as children - it seems like they came in the assortments of dried fruit that came around Christmas time.

There are two roads into town - one is called Aplet Rd. and yes, the other is called Cotlet Rd. The factory that makes these and many other flavors of "lets" is there - Liberty Orchards, which was founded in 1920 by two Armenian immigrants. We took a tour, of course, and came out with boxes of these confections.

We also visited some of the little shops in town.

The Wenatchee valley area is one of the largest apple growing regions in the world, and the Tree Top Apple Juice factory is there.



This is the local drug store, complete with a soda counter - remember those?


Hee's the Liberty Orchard factory where Aplets and Cotlets are made

Here we are, touring the factory.

Our knowledgeable tour guide

More assembly lines. There was enough powdered sugar on that floor to coat a ton of donuts!

Ohme Gardens

The nice person at the Enzian Inn who checked us in recommended some sites around the Leavenworth area. One of the things she recommended was the Ohme gardens. Never being ones to pass up a garden, we headed off on Thursday morning to Wentachee to tour the garden. I neglected to mention in my post on Leavenworth that it's quite HOT there - the temps were above 90 both days, so we decided that a morning garden ramble would be best.



Herman Ohme and his wife, Ruth, had 40 acres of land, which included a craggy, dry, desolate, rock-strewn bluff with a breath-taking view of the snow-capped Cascade Mountains and the Wentachee Valley. They decided to create a garden of florishing alpine meadows, pools, and shady evergreen pathways. They begain to create that garden. Small evergreens were transplanted, native stone was hauled to form paths and borders, low-growing ground cover was planted, and pools were created next to massive natural rock formations. It was hard work, done mostly by hand over a 42 year period, when Mr. Ohme died. His son maintained the gardens till 1991, at which time they were given to Chelan County.



These gardens are indeed built on craggy hillsides, and are not accessible for strollers or wheel chairs, which is too bad, but it would destroy the gardens to make them accessible. We walked up and down many, many stone steps, but it was absolutely worth it - beautiful and peaceful, as only gardens can be.

Starting off - you can see the stone steps leading up the hill.

There were lots of stone benches all throughout the gardens, for sitting and enjoying the scenery.

Here's a view from one of the lookout spots. Sadly, today you see lots of industry, but you can imagine what the Ohme's must have seen. From this spot, you are looking at the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia rivers.

One of the many ponds, along the rocky walkway.

You can see a lookout to the right of the picture.

A cooling waterfall.

And a pond, with water falling into it.

Another beautiful shot

You can see the Alpine feel of this place

Another rock sitting place.

We had a great time here! We saw pictures of the gardens in springtime, when all of the spring flowers were in bloom, and we would love to see it then, as well.

On the way we passed through a little town called Cashmere - I could just visualize some pioneer naming the town that because his wife was pining for cashmere that she could no longer get! We decided to stop there on our way back through Leavenworth and back to Val and Daves.

Leavenworth

On Wednesday we loaded up the car and headed off on a side trip to Leavenworth and environs. Cathi and Don had visited Leavenworth many years ago, and told us how great it was, Val and Dave had been through there and agreed, and we had seen a special on TV showing the 10 top places to celebrate Christmas, and Leavenworth was near the top of the list.

This little town was a booming metropolis in 1892 when the Great Northern Railway Company began building the first route across Stevens Pass. The railroad was completed in 1983, and was the valley's first connection to the west coast and everything east. Timber and mining were also major industries, as gold had been discovered in 1860. However, 1925, the GNRC relocated it's headquarters to Wenatchee and moved it's tracks away from Tumwater Canyon. The sawmill closed a year later. For the next 30 years, the town of Leavenworth slowly declined. The main draw during this time was the skiing in the winter. But by the 50's, it was clear that outdoor recreation was not enough to sustain the town - businesses were failing, Leavenworth was dubbed a welfare town, and jobs were hard to come by.

A group of residents banded together, determined to find a way to end the 30 year depression and keep Leavenworth alive. They looked to the Alpine mountains for inspiration. The Alpine theme was introduced in 1960, and all new construction took on a Swiss Alpine style. By 1968, 14 buildings had been remodeled. The Christmas celebrations that the town had always enjoyed grew in popularity and attracted visitors from all over.

Today, Leavenworth boasts 16 festivals, summer theater, art shows and outdoor recreation events year round, that keep visitors coming back year after year.

The town is proud of the fact that they were able to accomplish the reclaiming of their town on their own, with concensus, and with no government assistance of any kind.

We would definitely recommend a visit to this delightful area!




Here's one of the main streets - there are 3 - with an authentic beer garden on the right that serves German beer and all kinds of brats and sausages. Needless to say, we enjoyed a cold beer there!
This is inside the beer garden. Leavenworth is in the mountains, and has a short but intensive growing season - there were flowers EVERYWHERE!

Another shot inside the beer garden

Danish bakery - note the pretzels decorating the outside of the shop

Here's a close-up.

Here's the town's May Pole, where they celebrate May Day each year.

This picture shows the Alpine-like mountains

Another shot of this adorable little town. Lee said that it looks just like some little villages he's seen in Switzerland, so it's pretty authentic.

This is a lighted walkway into lots of little shops.

More architecture.

More mountain scenery

And more

We ate dinner Wednesday night at a German restaurant (of course!) called Andreas Keller, which had an authentic German menu, as well as pretty authentic decor, as you can see from our "barrel" booth. I had schnitzel and Lee had sauerkraut, German potato salad, and sausage. We were serenaded with accordian music, as well. It was a hoot, dinner was great, and we really enjoyed it!

We stayed at the Enzian Inn, which is located where the GNRC roundhouse had once stood. It was a delightful hotel, with beautifully decorated rooms, music in the evenings, and a full breakfast. A big draw for me was that the owner played the Alpenhorn every morning, serenading his guests. In this shot, he's standing on the balcony ledge on the 4th floor, playing a song - amazing!

Then he brought the Alpenhorn in, and played a song in there. You can see that the horn has little feet at it's base. As he played, he slowly edged toward the kids all gathered there. They weren't too sure about that!

We had a fabulous time in Leavenworth, and they also have wonderful gelatto! The people are so friendly and the town is so engaging, that you could easily spend a week there. They have developed into quite a grape growing region as well, with lots and lots of botique wineries. We didn't even experience any of the parks and hiking trails and other outside activities that they are famous for. The Wenatchee river runs right along this little town - next time!!

Deception Pass

On Saturday we visited Deception Pass! There were 10 of us, in 3 cars: Lisa and Troy in their Mercedes, with Hailey and Morgan; Valarie, Dave and Maxx in the BMW, and Lee and I, Lindsay and Madi, bringing up the rear in the Nissan! :)

We parked before the bridge, and walked across the first half, then under the bridge and back up on the other side. The views were beautiful, and there were lots of boats taking advantage of the calm waters.

After walking back and collecting cars, we continued into Deception Pass State Park, and out to the beach, where we enjoyed the sun, surf, beachcombing (yes, I did find a piece of sea glass!) and a great picnic. Maxx wasn't too sure about that roaring water, and neither was Madi, but Hailey climbed the rock that was calling to her, and we got some great pictures.

After Deception Pass we headed back to Everson, where we "re-ran" the dinner from Friday night, as there was so much food left! We enjoyed another relaxing evening outside, which was followed up with the horseback riding that you saw in the previous post.

On Sunday, Lisa and Troy visited Vancouver, which they had never done before. We hope that they had a great time!

Deception Pass bridge - it was a long way down!

Lindsay and Madi at the overlook at the bridge

One of the many islands in this area - very picturesque!

GG, Grandma, Madi, Lindsay and Morgan

The whole motley crew! Troy, Lisa, Dave, Lindsay, Morgan, Hailey, Val and Madi

Madi was having a great time!

Troy & Lisa, Val and Dave

Madi and Maxx share a moment. - note that Madi has his leash, it's like leading the pony!

Valarie and Madi

Lindsay, Madi, Maxx and Dave

Mommy and Madi

Madi

GG & Papa

Val, Madi, Dave and Lindsay. Morgan, Maxx and Hailey are just to the right.

Val, Madi, Dave and Lindsay

Lisa and Dave

Troy, Lisa, Val and Dave. Madi's hand is in the picture, she wants Grandma to pick her up!

Picnic on the beach! Life is good!

Hailey on the rock, with the sea all around her.

Another wonderful day on this delightful trip!