It has become an annual tradition with one of our groups of friends to make a pilgrimage to Leavenworth, Washington to partake in Oktoberfest shenanigans. This year marked our second trip together. Our group included the newlyweds {Carrie & Patrick}, Mary, Ryan, Sara and Carsten, and three dogs {Berkeley, Emma and Jackson}.
The Millers found a fantastic house for us to rent for the weekend. The house had a very open floor-plan with a huge kitchen, a bedroom for each couple, a hot tub and a fenced in backyard {perfect for the pups!}.
We all arrived on Friday evening. We had enough time to have a few bottles of wine, some snacks and some great conversations before hitting the hay for the night.
Saturday morning we woke up and took the dogs for a walk and had breakfast together {breakfast burritos, courtesy of Sara} before going into the town of Leavenworth for the afternoon. Last year we went to the official Oktoberfest celebration, which included a hefty entry fee, no drink tickets and a lot of chaos. This year we decided against the actual celebration and instead found a place to grab some lunch and then did some shopping around town.
The girls split up to pop into some shops while the boys found a great beer garden with food that was better {and over an hour faster} than the restaurant we had lunch at. If only we would have found that place first! While the boys were enjoying their beer steins us girls did a wine tasting, Mary and I tried on the “world’s best leggings” and we did some olive oil sampling before meeting up with the boys for beers and pretzels.
The weather was absolutely perfect. It was sunny, crisp and clear, so we got fabulous views of the mountains. Leavenworth is situated in the Cascade Mountains along the Wenatchee River. Given that it is currently fall, the colors were spectacular, which made the idyllic scene that much better.
On our way out we walked through an art fair and Alex and I bought a black and white picture of aspen trees that was taken outside of Aspen, Colorado. I think this picture will make its way to a wall down in the office. Mary and Ryan got a black and white image of Mount Rainier for their home.
We got back to the house around dusk and let the pups out to play while Carrie warmed up some hearty chili and cornbread for dinner. It was a pretty low-key night, but we all really enjoyed being able to relax so much. Alex and Patrick got a great fire going outside and then we all piled in the hot tub for a bit. I’m not sure how this happened, but we ended up watching Beauty and the Beast until we all fell asleep on the couch…
Sunday morning came way too fast and we had to pack up and get ready to go back to Seattle. Mary made a really good breakfast casserole with spinach, goat cheese and tomatoes, along with some rosemary roasted potatoes to fill our bellies up for the beautiful drive back home.