Sleepless in Babyland: A Long and Wonderful Day on the Warm Side

Saturday morning we got up very early. Our bags were already packed. We had breakfast and filled the thermos with coffee and we were off. Mark's annual rafting trip down the Wentachee was going to be fun! In great weather. Lon won't be old enough till he is 10. Hopefully he will also meet the weight requirement too. We were making wonderful time, so we stopped to look at the Wenatchee River at the Hatchery site. The water was running VERY fast. They said it was 12,000 CFS. Mark thought it was more.

Look Mom, water is splashing over the rails! I am not going to get any closer I promise.

Watching the water. There was so much more than our last trip up here. No fish this time. Way too fast for fish

I stuck my camera through the chain link to get this shot. There were more logs coming down the river to help move that one along. I was amazed at the amount of water going over.

We got to the put in site. Lon found the swing set and was having a great time!

Daddy and Lon at the raft. The weather had already warmed up enough that Lon took off his coat and changed into the shorts I packed for him.

Being tossed around while we waited for everyone to be ready

Tummy Tickles! I am so happy Lon still likes those!

Lon and I left Dad to go on our way as he started his adventure down the river. We drove into Leavenworth. Lon was fascinated by the leaiderhosen the guys on the Wilkommen wagon wore. This is because he has seen the trailer for Cars 2 where Mater says, Look I am wearing Mater-hosen! Lon was not sure what those were, and if it was based on something real. Any chance we get to learn something new! Since we got to Leavenworth just before 10, parking as a breeze! We walked around the town, looking at shops. Lon remembered we needed a new pickle for our Christmas tree. We found a shop that had those, so we got a nice size one and a teeny weeny one too. Lon saw some very cool lights too, they are called snow fall lights. LED lights that travel down a tube in a pattern. It would look so pretty on the tree. They were nice, they were very far out of our price range. In the very breakable store Kris Kringle store Lon did not touch anything and nothing got broken. He wanted to get some more pieces for our New England Christmas Village, but I said no. We do not have room for much more. We walked through the rest of town. Lon got some cookies and cream ice cream, and I got some kringle. Yummy pastries! Then we were off to Cashmere. We used up our two hour parking privilege. Parking was getting tight and there were people waiting for us to leave once we got into the car.

About halfway to Cashmere is Lon's favorite place. Smallwood's Harvest. We HAD to do the cow ride first! No looking, no shopping, no hunting for kittens or the petting zoo. The cow ride NOW!

Happy in the cow

And they are gone! Lon got the last car, since he was told that one would be the bumpiest and the one that got whipped around the most. Lon was all over that. He loves this ride. They were not offering hay rides till later or Lon would have done those too. We got to do some shopping inside and Lon was very helpful pushing the little cart around the store. Until he heard, Good Afternoon, the cow ride will be leaving in 5 minutes! Lon looked at me. PLEASE. I handed him a 5 dollar bill, he ran to get his token. He ran back with the change and zoomed his way to the last car on the ride. I picked up the tiny cart and paid for our things and went to watch him on the ride. We got some marinades, I like the lemon herb and I also got some apricot teryaki. I tried something called a sweet fire pickle. Those were good. I got a jar of sweet fire pineapple and pepper pickles. These were alot hotter than the ones I tried. They start out sweet and then kick. For me, alot. Mark likes them too. He says they are pretty mild though. I also put my name and number down for 10 pounds of pie cherries. I hope I can get some this year. Cherry jam and pies! Yummy! I have a recipe I like for Cherry Almond preserves that I would love to make again this year. After the second cow ride it was time to go. We did not get to the petting zoo this time, and that was okay. Lon was not upset about it. He was so happy about being able to do TWO cow rides.

In Cashmere we stopped at Aplets and Cotlets. Love the candy! There were three families in the shop, and we all chatted with each other. One couple was traveling around, and he had been to Ketchikan, several times to go up to Orton Ranch. I could not remember the name of the ranch at the time to save my life. The other family was an Indian family. Lon was enamored with the 10 month old girl. He loves babies. She pulled his hair and he laughed, the mother was apologizing all over the place and Lon smiled and said, it is okay, Reyansh pulls my hair all the time and I am used it. They were pleasantly surprised that he little blond boy knew someone named Reyansh well enough to have him pull his hair. They asked the people at the front desk what there was to do around town, she told them about the museum, (we will do that soon, not this trip) and said there really is nothing else. I knew that Mark had found a cider mill on line that we were going to do once we picked him up. I mentioned that to them and showed them on the tour map where it was.

We were off to Riverside Park to wait for Dad. The play ground is always fun. Lon took off his shoes and was happily playing!

The information about the river. Which I read to Lon. We walked up to the bridge to watch the rafts come in. We missed Daddy coming under the bridge because we needed to get some water to drink. It was 80 degrees and sunny! We were not sure exactly when he was going to be in.

Daddy! Where are you?

Daddy did make it down the river. He did go in, once. The whole boat went in, but the boat did not flip. We waited while they broke down the rafts. They have to deflate them in order for them to fit back into the truck. They are not just lounging, they are working!

Lon at the cider mill. It was just the showroom. We did not get a tour, too early for that. But the cider and cider fruit blends were so good, we bought a full case of various ciders. Raspberry, peach, blackberry, etc. We might get more next time we are there. After having fun a the tasting room, which sadly was not yet offering lunch. We went to Brian's Pizza in downtown Cashmere. The pizza there is good. We had not walked around Cashmere before. So this time we did. We stopped by the Sure to Rise bakery. Got some pastries for the morning and a couple cookies too! It smelled so good inside the shop. We stopped into an antique mall, and again, Lon was very good and did not touch things. They sold, of all things, thunder eggs. The sign said 4 dollars. I thought that was each, so I picked a good big heavy one with a purplish tinge. No, it was 4 dollars a pound. Next time we are there, we will get a few more. Thunder eggs are so cool! Lon promised he would wait till his birthday to crack it open. I am not sure I can wait that long!

Downtown Pashastin. Yes, this is pretty much it. We had never been down to this town, so we decided to look. The road sign said you could get to Leavenworth from this road too.

Looking out from Pashastin over the river to Smallwood's Harvest. Pretty views.

We stopped by the KOA campground in Leavenworth. The road we were on, did indeed lead us to Leavenworth. We are going camping there with the Yis next month. Playgrounds and pools with hot tubs too. Pool tables and saturday morning pancake breakfasts! I am going to be spoiled on that trip!

The Chumstick highway ends at highway 2. There is the Corner Fruit Stand there. We stopped by. Not much in the way of fresh fruits yet. The season is very late for local anything ! Since the last time were were there they have done ALOT with the area. They made small cave, but made it into a mine shaft, with a mine cart and a chainsaw carved miner out front. Lon loved that!

Going into the "mine"

The boys thought it was so cool!

The people who run this stand have taken some of the fire ravaged trees and turned them into art. I thought they were beautiful!

CHIPMUNK! Lon talked like Alvin for a long time after seeing the little critter

Lon had to go to the bathroom! Oh no! There are not alot of places to stop on Highway 2. We were just outside of Index, but had never been down to the town. So we thought maybe we could find a something there. It is a pretty little place. VERY little. They do have a public restroom, opens at 5am and closes at 10. Which is a good thing to know. Right across from the store/postoffice. At the public park.