Leavenworth, WA

We kicked off the road trip to Vancouver, BC with a stop in Leavenworth, and it was such a gem.

We stayed at the Blue Elk Inn and loved it. Such a cute little town, with the Wenatchee River running right along the edge of downtown. We wandered the streets for a while before dinner, great place to visit.

Dinner was at Larch, and it was outstanding. Honestly one of the best meals we've had in a while. We are already talking about coming back.

Leavenworth started out as a plain old Cascades railroad and logging town back in the 1890s, nothing fancy about it. When the railroad moved on and the timber industry dried up, the town nearly withered away. In the 1960s a group of local business owners decided to reinvent the whole place as a Bavarian village, right down to the architecture and the flower baskets. It worked. Now the town draws over a million visitors a year, and even the fast food places have timber trim.