Chaff...

[daveon]

It's the combination of Cheesy and Naff which M and I came up with to describe Leavenworth.  What can you say about a Bavarian Alpine village nestling in Washington?  The place is distinctly odd and more than a little quiet mid-week.  Certainly not Bavarian.  We had one good meal and one downright vile meal which led to much speculation between us about what Gordon Ramsey would do with the Cafe Mozart.  Actually, we didn't get that far, we spent too much time imagining him walking up and down Front Street shouting, "I don't f*cking believe it, I just don't".

Home to yet another work crisis, threats of shutting down the business unit, complaints about lack of sales...  the same old stuff.  Not going to let it get to me quite yet.  The threat is probably for Q3, by which time we'll be in a stronger position to review things.  Still, its not pleasant.

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I wouldn't think Leavenworth is really ...er... worth much more than the few hours' time of a day trip.

When I said that Port Townsend wasn't quite the Northwest Hay-on-Wye someone had painted it, I didn't mean to discourage you from trying it. Of the touristy places we've managed to get to around Washington, it's the one we like best and keep going back to. There are a couple-three bookstores in town, well worth your time, and a whole hat load of galleries, both native and not-so-much. It's a mixed bag, food-wise, but my recollection is that we've had a thoroughly excellent meal at the Silverwater Cafe and a pretty good one at the Otter Crossing Cafe (no website). On the drive out you can pass through the charmingly picturesque Port Hadlock which on weekends has a very intriguing-looking farmer's-and-flea market, at least in the spring and summer months.

Port Townsend also offers something Leavenworth cannot -- authenticity. The town actually predates Seattle, and all the aging Victorian gimcracks are real, original aging Victorian gimcracks and not a plywood mockup. Architecturally, Port Townsend is really quite lovely in its blown-rose sort of way.

For that matter, speaking of authenticity, depending on what ferry you take, you can also stop in Poulsbo, which, while it is quite done up in ticky-tacky kitsch Scandinavianism, still isn't as cheesy as Leavenworth, because Poulsbo is into kitsch Scandinaviana because it was settled by kitsch Scandinavians. So when you stop in the local bakery for Danish, you get pretty authentic Danish, and at the May 17 celebrations you can see real little blonde girls dutifully working their way through traditional clog dances.


Other places to visit sooner than Leavenworth: Downtown Edmonds, on market days especially, and the Fairhaven district in Bellingham.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

What's the Wild West town? where they film cod Westerns?

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

What, in Washington state? Damfino. There's Roslyn, which was used to film "Northern Exposure", but in person it's a bit of a hole. All the other Wild West towns I can think of are in Arizona or California.

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Winthrop. I think - Google not v helpful..

[surliminal.livejournal.com]

Oh wow yeh, Christina and I went through Leavenworth on a road trip with John andc Eileen Way Back on our TAFF trip in 1988!!! and how we boggled!!!! I was told it made more sense in the skiiing season?

Other places to boggle at: Concrete (all one block of it), Snoqualmie (scarily like Twin Peaks which was filmed there.)

[daveon.livejournal.com]

We accident;ydrove straight past the Twin Peaks diner and had to stop for Pie and Coffee.

Sadly both were somewhat removed from being Damn Fine.

I did send JamesB a picture though.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

No, Tweedee's pie is nothing to shout about, alas. I guess that's why they call it fiction.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Sad, the coffee was at least hot.