Saturday, 16 July, Leavenworth

It was a little sad waking up this morning and not having a plan of getting together with Ken and Barbara.  We do have a plan though.
Bella and I walked up to the office to pick up mail.  On our way back we discovered how royalty camps!

Today we pulled another adventure out of Reader's Digest's "The Most Scenic Drives in America"  

We thought we'd bomb up to # 5, Gorge Creek Falls, and then work our way back down stopping to check things out.  That way, if it got to late and we didn't get to see everything we could do the rest next weekend when Rob gets back.  Unfortunately, we didn't get on the road until 11 am.

We drove up to Winthrop (#11) and had lunch at a cafe and quilt shop call 3 Bears.  We had a yummy calzone and shredded pork tacos. then drove up to Washington Pass (#10).  From there we decided to stop along the way and take pictures and do little hikes.

This group of mountains is called Liberty Bell.  It marks Washington Pass in the Okanogan National Forest.  Rock climbers especially like this one. Then








We hiked around a little bit up at Washington Pass.

Then we drove up to Rainy Pass and hiked to the beautiful deep blue Rainy Lake where we gazed at a waterfall (actually two of them), a glacier, and the surrounding peaks.

We drove on up to Ross Lake Overlook and Happy Creek but we were not able to stop because the parking lot was full.  It seems something was going on there.  So, we headed on up to Diablo Lake.  There we got out, walked around and were awed by its remarkable jade-green color, which is cased by glacial flour (suspended rock sediments that refract the light).  

 It really is beautiful.
Next, and finally we drove up to Gorge Creek Falls.

There we turned around and headed back down toward home.

We actually drove through the little town of Winthrop this time.

It's a cute little frontier town founded in the 1800s complete with boardwalks and hitching posts.  The old fashioned facades however, are actually false fronts erected in 1972 to promote tourism.  It was cute.  

We actually did stop in the town of Twisp.  Several years ago, while staying with Ken, Barb, et al in Lake Chelan, Rob, Ken and I came up to Twisp to do a mountain bike ride. Tonight we stopped in for dinner at a place called La Fonda Lopez.  Tonight's specialty is Paella.  So, naturally we had to try it.  It is definitely not as pretty as ours, and not quite as tasty, but it was still good.  I couldn't eat all mine so I got to bring some home for later. 

We finally got back to our home on wheels at 11:30.  We did a quick potty walk-about and went to bed.