Projekt Bayerischer Oktoberfest, Wenatchee Washington
Projekt Bayern Oktoberfest in Wenatchee – this was on the spreadsheet all along, since they had advertised many months ago when I was doing my planning.
Seems like the Bavarian Town of Leavenworth (20 miles away) has their own Oktoberfest going and there is a big kerfuffle between the two. But we went back for two days to enjoy the music, drink the beer and eat the Bretzels.
Happy Hans was our favorite and could he ever sing, yodel and play the buttonbox.
After seeing him the first night, we had to go back for his solo noon German traditional session. The complete marching band then got the fest rolling on Saturday morning to begin the beer keg tapping. And of course there needs to be an Alpenhorn.
Happy Hans band played again that evening including American favorites like Sweet Caroline and the most impressive Burning Ring of Fire when he and his son would also do the trumpet solos. Of course, I both waltzed and yodeled with two Lederhosen clad men.
Gertrud always likes to dress up for the occasion so she attended Oktoberfest in her own non-traditional Bayerische outfit.
Just as we were thinking we had had enough beer and needed to accomplish the 3-mile bike ride home, on came a Vancouver Canadian band, the Gordanairs.
They had about seven members and their lederhosen did not mean they played mostly umpah, they broke out into great dance music and we decided to stay for another round. The young head guitar player was amazing and even did a back bend on stage while continuing to play in his lederhosen. Of course, John had to inquire after the show if anyone knew Robin Trower just like if we meet someone from England he wants to know if they know Catford, Robin’s birthplace. So, we found out one of the older vocal and harmonica players was the father of the young guitarist with the moves. We found out they normally don’t wear lederhosen, his backbend while playing guitar in leather was very impressive. There was a sweet woman who during their set got people up to dance and she ended up being the girlfriend of the drummer and boy could they dance.
Of course, mixed in there were the Tyrolean dancers from Oregon who did bell ringing and the Schuhplatter and other cool dances. And alway in between there were chants of ein zwei drei tiki taki tiki taki, hoi hoi hoi.
We visited the Bavarian town of Leavenworth twice, not their Oktoberfest. The second time we visited was planned, as Gertrud was meeting us there the day before we were to meet up at the Wenatchee Confluence Campground and do the Projekt Bayern Wenatchee Oktoberfest. We actually spent our first night a motel, the Ritterhof in Leavenworth since we had been Vinny VanGoing.
Leavenworth is a delightful Bavarian town with a fussgaenger zone and beautiful flowers hanging from the shops and restaurants.
Set at the base of the Cascade mountains, murals and architecture all in the Bavarian style made it a fun evening, but then the outdoor garage type doors at Icicle Brewing came down and they played “Closing Time” at 10pm sharp as were sipping our last beer ~
Gertrude said this early closing time was not like she remembers in Austria.
Well maybe they were saving up for their actual Oktoberfest the next day.
Word has it that Leavenworth broke away because their Fest turned a bit Wild and not family oriented, but who knows. All their Oktoberfest tickets were sold out so we couldn’t go anyway.
There is a delightful park along the Wenatchee River walking distance from the town. Well Jack Frost was not nipping at our nose, so good thing Princess Google recommended skipping our planned roasting of these “Horse Chestnuts” by the fire that we had gathered on our walk.
The first time John and I visited Leavenworth was in the rain, but looking for good bread and beer.
We were in Dan’s Market getting that longed for Das Brot, (could not find a standalone Bakerei with bread, just gingerbread, sweets and coffee shop combos) when John comes to the single picnic table in the back of the store, housing the deli, bakery, coffee area, singing with the store sound system the Beatles Song “All You Need is Love.” Before you know it, there were about 5 different people full on singing “Love, Love, Love” ~ The bakery lady, a coffee customer, us and another guy , of course both of us. Everyone had a really good voice and one coffee sipping women did an echo thing. It was just a moment that happened and wish we could all live this message in our very fragmented society of today. It was so spontaneous and positive and feel good!
We found the bread, but as usual we are always in search of dark beer and so many places don’t have it, even though they are on the menu. Bluette Brewery and Pizza and we were starved and had a fabulous thin crust pizza, but then decided to move along in search of the dark side – John even wore his beer diversity shirt. Icicle Brewery and the blue sky was visible, and they had a fire table to warm, of course a bench rain wipe down was necessary.
Here we met an Austrian Couple and got to practice our German a bit. Good thing because then we were off down the street to Muenchen House where we met another German mom, dad and 25 year old son. Etienne, studying in London for masters in sustainability, was so articulate in the topic as John lectured in his usual teacher manner. Another full night of meeting different people and John placed the burden of the environment on this young man to solve, and he was knowledgeable and passionate about his duty. John says his favorite part of Vinny VanGoing is meeting people.
After our first trip to Leavenworth from Lincoln Rock Camp Ground, a passing couple had recommended the Pybus Market, a renovated train depot in Wenatchee. Here the Hellbent brewery was a delightful place to eat drink and chat.
We had been contemplating going to a community theater production “50th Birthday Present” which we learned about from the restaurant bulletin board at Bluette Brewery, but then we met Glen 451 at Hellbent. Glen educated us in the pronunciation, Wenatchee, has the short “a” sound not “ah”; this is the same as Chelan. At his recommendation, we were off to the next adventure to hear live music by the Chumlillies since Glen was tasked to build a fire (hence 451 after Fahrenheit 451) at the Old Barn Drinkery.
Evidently, they have event/weddings here on weekends and every Wednesday and Thursday throughout the summer they had local musicians play. The owners are musicians themselves, and the sound system was excellent and were able to hear all the words to the song “Cascade Smile”. Unfortunately. we are gonna miss the Dark Side of the Moon Laser Music show at the end of October here at the Drinkery. Great vibe, people and location, Wenatchee, along the Columbia River.
Wenatchee is the Apple Capital of the Country, looks a lot like Tehachapi area with the large brown rolling hills, and there is lot of local produce stands not mentions Bosket Bread Bakery rising since 1987 out of Leavenworth.
Evidently it is desert, but enjoys the Columbia River water in many different ways.
Wenatchee was really growing on us. One such way is the Confluence Wenatchee Campground where the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers converge.
Here Gertrud and I paddled around for several hours and were able to maneuver through a side creek that connected these two rivers as fall colors were popping.
A nice place to paddle even though it was way over the lake size that John and I have established as optimal for SUP.
At the campground we also discovered the fully paved Apple Capitol Bike Trail which led us easily to the Toyota Center where the Wenatchee Oktoberfest site and also right to our favorite Pybus Markert of all places.
So of course that meant a stop at Hellbent to show Gertrud the place and read the monthly local arts Wenatchee newspaper that we found there that was chock-full of information about Wenatchee town events.
This was good news for John because as Gertrud and I paddled, he was able to watch the Eagles win their fifth game at Hellbent and bike home not on a main road because there was celebration and after all he was at Hellbent Brewery. He met the same regulars that we had met the week before, and just made it home before dusk.
The Bike trail is a 10-mile loop that crosses the Wenatchee and the Columbia River twice, going through lovely parks with permanent Art exhibits, swimming areas, soccer and football playing fields, Marriot Residence In and Hilton properties, fancy private neighborhoods and condos.
Wenatchee was really growing on us and we decided if there was a place to rent for a month it would be Wenatchee. The only down side is SeaTac airport is 100 miles away a bit further from a major airport. Evidently it gets cold here and snows too, so would never make it permanent anyway, but it has the right amount of civilization (beer, wineries and music), beauty, and convenience, evidently it has a Costco too. The campground had beautiful deciduous trees and they were popping. Unlike many deserts, the Columbia supplies water and the vast fields at state parks are watered and green. Vinny looks good in yellow.
As we drove east word from Wenatchee, wow was it beautiful on Route 2.
The couple that we had met from Hilo had said they drove all the way across the country on Route 2, only in the summer.
Wenatchee National Forest went along for quite a while, outside of Leavensworth, and there looked like there were many hiking and camp grounds along the way. Looks like most of them do not have electricity. But the hiking looked incredible especially on this color popping October day.
The drive in to Leavensworth was also beautiful, and there were so many orchards as Leavenworth is the pear capital of the country, at least that’s what they say.
The above account of Wenatchee and Leavenworth were the highlights of the Central Washington State Area, but we also had other good times mostly meeting people and also had our Lake Chelan week and Covid Shots too. Those memories follow here. We had decided to leave Quinault Lake in Olympic national park a day early since the rain in the rainforest was scheduled full on mode for several says and get to Aberdeen a day before our Covid vaccines scheduled at the Rite-Aid.
Steam Donkey Brewery in Aberdeen was the destination where we would sort out a place to stay for the night since we were again off the spreadsheet. Got to talking to a nice couple who lived in the area and before you knew it, they invited us to stay in their driveway, and they even brought fresh from their tree, apple crisp out to us. They were off fishing in the morning and we off to our shot appointments. After a bit of Rite-Aid debacle with our Insurance Company changing our group number, but forgetting to tell us, we got the shots. Again, it was getting late but Lisa put her foot down and we went to the Mermaid Museum and Westport Winery which was a Harvest Host location where we knew we could stay overnight if needed.
We were too late to go to the museum, but never too late for a nice dinner at the café and some chocolate, wine and coffee, chocolate rum purchase.
Although it was almost dark, and we were feeling no vaccine side effects, John wanted to get back on the spreadsheet even though it was a 3-hour drive, and who knows how we would feel tomorrow. Which, I was fine, and John slept all day at our first Finger Lake experience at Ike Kinswa State Park. It was the perfect day to hang out because it rained the whole day, and I got to do lots of communications with people whom I had been missing. It was so quick how we were driving in mountain forests and then boom, we were in the desert near Wenatchee right along the Columbia River.
SUP stayed tucked away and we were off to Lincoln Rock State Park Campground again with a bunch of rain scheduled for the next day which is how we veered off the spreadsheet and instead of paddling on a part of the Columbia River protected by a huge Rock. It was a 20-mile drive to the Bavarian town of Leavenworth for the bread and beer as explained above.
Lake Chelan, bound from Lincoln Rock Campground.
Back on the spreadsheet now, Chelan, a 45-mile-long finger lake is a tourist hot spot in the summer, but pretty empty at the end of September.
The lake is clear and gorgeous and evidently you know it is the desert in the summer, but there is the luscious lake in which to cool.
We finally had a high of 70 and sunny which made paddling delightful, but a bit too cold to frolic in the water for someone other than Pink Fins. There was almost no one on the lake during on these first days of October even though it was beautiful and the sun was warm and the lake was placid.
We had two days of wonderful all-day paddling, although on the second day there seemed to be small waves coming out of nowhere ~ it wasn’t even windy. They were small and rolling and not a problem, but a bit strange. We stayed at two different Campsites the Lake.
1) Lakeshore RV Park located was very conveniently located to a Laundromat, Chelan Market (great little market) and close to a Safeway, as well less than a mile walk into the main street. It had a gate to the Dan Morse Park where you could swim, launch SUP, play in the extensive grass, or even rent kayaks and fix bikes (John’s gears were needed some work) The spots were a bit more spacious than most RV Parks, but location, location, location made this expensive ($168 for two nights). Center spots are best because there is a nice green and tree covered field, and not spots near the highway. I would imagine it would be a zoo in the summer near the water, there were tons of empty slips and I could imagine holding about 30 power boats. I believe you could SUP under the bridges and could get out at the city park for a picnic. People say the water here is warmer. Here we did the Brews on the Bridge, there’s a lot happening in Chelan.
2) Lake Chelan State Park about 10 miles up the west side of the lake was typical RV packing (few trees between sites but open up to a huge field where the deer regularly grazed. Paddle Boy had to carry the boards down 2 flights of steps to get to the swimming/launch area.
There was Little Bear Trail, was a 3-mile hike up in the hills from the campground, but it was not so picturesque although it had lots of lusciously vanilla, butterscotch smelling ponderosa pines.
Evidently there is Twenty-five Mile Creek State Park that is 10 miles further up the road, we decided that was a bit too ambitious for our day paddle. There is something about this State Park which may interest Pink Fins because it looks like there are boat slips, 4 brand new metal docks and accessible to what looks like some primitive camping tent spots, they may be boat-in sites.
Pink Fins, I also read that Lake Chelan has a sailing Regatta too.
Would I come back to Chelan? I think if we wanted the more near city and to stock up yes, although we never really found that brewery or restaurant that we really liked…Although Myth Pizza was excellent but small and a bit crowded to hang on a Saturday Night. This size Lake in general is not optimal for paddling, but if I found myself needing a place in the heat of the summer, Lake Chelan is very inviting. I wish there would be a SUP wine Tour on the Lake because Mason on the other side had all kinds of vineyards, four are Harvest Hosts, and from my podcast it said Rio Vista Winery will let you overnight as well. In fact, as we drove into Chelan, we stopped at the Tsillian Winery, and I drank several glasses while we listened to an excellent classic rock band, Legacy Mukilteo for the entire afternoon because they were so good. John got to have some canine time with two sweethearts.
He also had to break out his air guitar as they played Eruption by Van Halen. They will be hard to find again since last Facebook post is from 2021 and that was how they keep in contact. There is a city called Mukilteo, and they seem to play for Untapped Public House as well as local events in this city near Everett Washington. The winery staff were very attentive, and an older gentleman who looked like the owner came around said he was family, he said we could stay at their winery if needed.
Great venue to listen to music – no good beer though.
We have one more day in Wenatchee, Gertrud has left for a spa in Carson and it is supposed to rain for the next several days. before we head to our friend Scott’s house for a few days and then fly to Margot’s Wedding in Houston. Stayed at a ½ price Passport America RV park ($17 with electricity/water), Wenatchee County Park excellent Wi-Fi and facilities and cool sculptures even in the rain.
And John finally got to see a moose.
Travels with Vinny VanGo 