Guten Tag!

Spent a very nice Easter Sunday traveling to Leavenworth, Washington with my husband, my mother-in-law, Gareth’s sister Phedre & her boyfriend Josh. The weather was awful, but the sights were still beautiful. It was supposedly the 4th day of Spring and yet we had to travel through a downpour then snow and ice before spending most of the day dodging a steady drizzle.

Leavenworth is a quaint alpine Bavarian village literally in the middle of nowhere. Okay, it’s somewhere between Western Washington & Eastern Washington. It’s actually a great place to go when you want to drive somewhere and feel like you’ve left the state and still be back in your own bed before nightfall. Sometimes driving is the best way to see Washington at its most beautiful.

As soon as we passed this sign, Mum spotted a bakery and squealed for us to stop. The guys dropped us off and went to refuel the car giving us time to peruse the delights of a German bakery. Mum studied in Germany for her doctorate, so it was almost a religious experience for her to find the pastries and breads she loved. I was just glad we had someone with us who could pronounce the German names correctly.

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We enjoyed an Easter "dinner" at the Tumwater Inn Restaurant where I had my very first schnitzel supper before roaming the many delightful stores that line downtown Leavenworth. Many were closed, but there were enough open for us to walk off enough of our meal to enjoy the delicious desserts and coffee at The Mozart Cafe.



Mom took this picture with the idea of catching the mountain behind us. It’s there. Behind Gareth’s hat.

I told Gareth, "Now be loving, please." After I gave him "the look" and told him to try harder, this next picture came out better.



Phedre’s much better at the "Be loving" thing. Although right now she’s holding the Webkins we bought in Leavenworth hostage and asking us to meet outrageous demands in exchange for their safe return. Not very loving at all.





This is her plotting her diabolical scheme to traumatize Gareth’s Sir Hiss the snake, Mum’s pink poodle Can Can, my pink poodle Cerise and an unnamed panda.

Actually she was in the waterfall room of the Metal Waterfall Garden. But still. Behind this peaceful and tranquil facade I know that scheming mind was hard at work. She is Gareth’s sister after all.

Speaking of relatives, this picture kills any claim that Gareth makes that he’s adopted. Look at the identical smiles (grimaces?) on Mum & Gareth’s faces.

Meanwhile, Josh aka Ua, wears that same, albeit somewhat pained, smile as Mum later tries to convince him that a wedding in Leavenworth would be "wunderbar!" However, where Josh gladly donned a kilt for our wedding, I don’t know that Gareth would be as willing to sport a lederhosen. But oh, the blackmail pictures ....