After the railroad moved out of Leavenworth and the economy started to tumble, the locals got the idea to rebrand as a Bavarian village, and they’ve done a great job. Leavenworth is delightful. And delicious.
I’d been to Leavenworth once before, but I’d never driven from the western side of the state. The scenery was mind-blowing. The weather was perfect. The traffic was light. It was the kind of day I imagined when I decided to try exploring the country for a year.
I was headed to Leavenworth to meet up with Kelsi! She was taking a break from her Midwest nomading to spend a week in Washington State, so since I was on the western side and she was on the eastern side we decided to meet in the middle.
Fortunately for me, Kelsi knows the town well, so when I said that Munchen Haus had a vegan option, she led the way. You order at the window and get a plain dog in a bun, and then you take it to the topping station and go nuts. I got the Beyond sausage with the apple cider kraut, the BBQ sauce, the curry sauce, the Backyard Brat mustard, dill relish, and the Dirtyface Amber mustard. It was really good.
I’d read a rumor that The Danish Bakery had vegan options but couldn’t find the word “vegan” on any of the labels. So I waited in line and asked. They had vegan options! The cherry, the raspberry, and the cinnamon bread were vegan. I went with the cherry.
We saw all the things! We systematically wandered the town and visited the oil and vinegar place, the tea place, several sporty gift places, several cute gift places, the cheesemonger, the game place, the Russian doll place, the soap place, the coffee/chocolate place, a kitchen gadgets place, and an adorable clothing store.
We also stopped by Whistlepunk Ice Cream Co., and they had three vegan flavors. This is the chai, and it was fantastic.
The highlight of the shops was the Christmas shop Kris Kringl. You could probably spend days in there and not see everything.
The back part of the first floor (it’s two floors) is the Christmas/Halloween village sets.
On the top floor there’s a section that’s more Biblical.
They also had every kind of ornament.
Christmas can be whatever you want it to be.
As two Californians who were not in California we geeked out in The Cactus Room.
I parked by Waterfront Park, so I wandered the park a bit before driving home.
This is the Wenatchee River! The “waterfront” part of Waterfront Park.
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