Annie Oakley in Washington's Great Smokey Mts

Greetings from Florence, Oregon.  Florence, Oregon, you say?  How in the world did we go from Wenatchee, Washington to Oregon?  Well, thanks to the magic of “blogging,” I'll try to fill in the blanks.  First of all, my apologies for not keeping the blog up-to-date.   But hey, I’m retired and enjoying this life of leisure!  Anyway, by looking at the last blog entry, I see we left off after our first couple days in Wenatchee visiting Lynette’s family.  As mentioned in that entry, we thoroughly enjoyed the Leavenworth Summer Theater production of “The Sound of Music” and were looking forward to another musical, “Annie Get Your Gun” the very next evening – thanks to the generous hospitality of Lynette’s Mom and Dad, Glenna & Glenn.  Before the musical, we treated Lynette’s folks to a German style meal in one of Leavenworth’s many German restaurants, the Baren Haus.  Advertised as “a little taste of Bavaria,” the Baren Haus sits in a little “old brick building on the corner" in the middle of this quaint Bavarian village.  We all seemed to be in the mood for some good German schnitzel, and along with a beer or wine, that’s what we all had.  After some all-too-brief shopping in some of the little shops, we headed out to see the musical.  Instead of the ski hill setting we had for “The Sound of Music,” this production was staged at the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery just outside of town.  The Hatchery has a very nice little pocket on its grounds for staging summer stock theater activities – again, as with “The Sound of Music,” a very nice setting. As a side note on the Hatchery,  when the massive Grand Coulee Dam was built on the Columbia River in the 1930s, salmon migration above the dam was brought to an abrupt halt. Due to the loss of hundreds of miles of salmon spawning habitat, the federal government built and began operating fish hatcheries – such as this one at Leavenworth – to lend a helping hand to the salmon of the Columbia River system.  As far as the musical for the evening, as with the previous night’s performance, we all thoroughly enjoyed “Annie” – the lead female playing Annie was absolutely wonderful.  Cute, perky, sassy, with a beautiful voice.

As mentioned above, we spent quite a bit of our time in the Wenatchee area visiting with Lynette’s family – and thoroughly enjoyed getting the opportunity to spend some quality time with everyone.  We really had a great time playing cards with Glenna & Glenn, something called Hand-and-Foot.  If you haven’t played this card game before, be prepared for some frustration as you try and count out your hand.  If you Google “hand&foot” you will find as many variations of this game as stars in the sky…or so it seems.  Try it and you’ll see what I mean.  We played by “their” rules, but had loads of fun.  In the end, I think each of us won one game each - which is as it should be.  In addition to just “visiting” we also celebrated a few birthdays with some family relatives and also got to spend some quality time with Lynette’s sister, Lori, and her husband, David, and some of their friends.  Lori and David invited us and Lynette’s parents up to Lake Chelan, about an hour from Wenatchee.  A narrow, 55-mile-long lake, Chelan is the largest natural lake in Washington State. BTW, Chelan is a Salish Indian word Tsi-Laan, meaning deep water – and the lake is indeed very deep. Fed by streams from the Cascade Range, Lake Chelan has maximum depth of almost 1,500-ft making it the third deepest lake in the US and the 26th deepest in the world. The average width of the lake is one mile, although in spots it is much narrower.  But enough with the facts.  For me, Lake Chelan is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world.  Beautiful blue water, surrounded by mountains, it simply must be viewed to appreciate it.  For more on this magnificent spot, go to:   Lake Chelan   

 Lori and David belong to the Lake Chelan Yacht Club and invited us up one weekend day to join them for the Yacht Club’s summer “games” day.  While we missed the games, we didn’t miss sitting out and enjoying the fantastic weather and the scenery of Lake Chelan.  Lori had fixed an evening meal of yummy tacos that matched with a good wine or beer, hit the spot just right.  While this was a great day at Chelan, a visit to this beautiful lake would not be complete without visiting some of the wineries in this area – and tasting some of the finest reds in the state.  So, as you might guess, we managed to take in several of these wonderful wineries and vineyards that have multiplied like wildfire in-and-around the slopes of the lake.  Along with Lori, David, and several of their friends, we pitched in to rent a limo for an afternoon and evening of wine tasting at several of the vineyards, and eventually dinner at the Wapato Point Cellars Restaurant  for dinner.  What a great place to wine-n-dine, and put the finishing touches to one really great day.  Thanks to Lori, David, Sharon, Bob, Raynelle, and Roger for including us – we had a great time and look forward to another round in the future.

Before leaving Chelan, I must mention its casino. Lake Chelan’s casino is a monthly destination for her folks, so in keeping in the spirit of the moment, we made a sojourn to the Land of the Slot Machines…at least in this part of the state.  Lynette came away the big winner with $60; Glenn & Glenna made $40 each, I believe, while Lori and I threw away our money like it was nothing.  Oh well, we had fun watching all the other gamblers! 

The night before we departed Wenatchee as much of the family as we could muster gathered at the Olive Garden to celebrate Lynette’s birthday.  The picture below includes, from left to right: Lynette’s Mom, Glenna; Lynette; her Dad, Glenn; Lori’s husband, David; Lori’s oldest daughter, Jenni; and Lori.  Thanks to everyone for making the evening a great success.

Before closing this now rather lengthy blog entry, I must mention the fires that have mired Wenatchee and the surrounding area in lots of smoke for more than a week now.  As Lynette and I were driving back from Lake Chelan after our wine tasting adventure, we could see lightning throughout the whole sky as we drove along the Columbia River back into Wenatchee.  As dry as it’s been, we just knew fires could easily be started by a lightning strike.  And we were spot on with our prediction.  The next day’s paper said that lightning strikes had started scores of fires throughout the whole area. For the last week we were in the Wenatchee area, the fires were the main topic of conversation.  That and the awful smoke generated by those fires.  Most of the surrounding hillsides were sagebrush and grasses, and the smell of the smoke reflected those ingredients.  Very pungent, very nasty.  Several schools closed after a couple days and the elderly and anyone with breathing problems were cautioned to stay inside.  We were very grateful to be leaving on 14 September, and were even happier to cross over Stevens Pass and see the icy blue waters of Puget Sound.  No more smoke.  Yippee!