Leavenworth 2011

This past weekend, we carried on our October tradition of heading to the mountains to visit the quaint village of Leavenworth, WA.  Our day was filled with delicious sausage, light smatterings of rain and more dogs than you could shake a stick at.  After our relaxing weekend here, sans kiddos, back in May, it was interesting to see Leavenworth through the eyes of three crazy kids.  (Jackie and Calvin came along to round out our motley crew.)     

Leavenworth is absolutely gorgeous this time of year; it's sad that we have to drive nearly three hours to find deciduous trees, but it was totally worth it to see them in their fall glory. The village of Leavenworth definitely survives on tourism, but it's incredible charm and even more impressive culinary offerings makes it worth every minute in the car with three toddlers.   We timed our trip so we'd have the opportunity to eat at least two meals in town; such is the level of our commitment.  

We had planned on catching lunch at Munchen Haus, but on the way happened upon a brand spanking new sausage garden owned by the same people as Cured (our favorite cured meat specialists).  If I wasn't already stoked about our impending awesome sausage experience, I hardly kept myself from leaping over the counter to kiss the owner when I heard him talking to the line chef standing at the grill: "Listen, when people start lining up like this, they're going to order s#*.  So, just throw some s#*t on." 

That, my friends, is excellent management.  And we were not disappointed; whatever that line chef threw on the grill tasted fantastic.

After our fortifying lunch we quickly found it is not so easy to leisurely meander through quaint shops with three rambunctious kiddos in tow, so instead, we did a lot of window shopping with frequent stops to attack unsuspecting people's dogs.  

Since we've been to Leavenworth several times,  we're pretty familiar with most of the local shops and attractions, but were pleasantly surprised by some of the village's new additions.  We found a store that specializes in roasted and glazed nuts where I picked up some vanilla and cinnamon roasted pecans.  Another new find was a tea shop where Audrey, Bailey and Calvin absolutely charmed the pants off the staff.  It's hard not to when you're that cute...I mean, what else are you going to do? I also picked up a box of chocolates at the best place in town: Schocolat. 

After listening to the live festive music in the park and letting the kiddos run amok in the fall leaves and squishy grass, we headed over to our favorite place: Andrea's Keller.  This place serves the most authentic German food I've been able to find stateside and I absolutely love their weisswurst and spatzle.  What shocked me was how much Audrey liked the rotkohl (sauerkraut made with red cabbage and wine).  Bailey ate her weight in spatzle and she and Calvin kept each other amused throughout dinner talking about their bandaids (earned during the aforementioned jaunt in the park).  After dinner we rolled our happy bellies down to pick up some cheese at the Cheesemonger's shop and some gelato for the road.  All in all, it was a very filling (literally), gratifying day.  Leavenworth and gluttony kind of go hand in hand, so now it's back to reality and a more mundane menu.  

At least I've got those cute kids around to lift me from my lack-of-wurst depression.