Leavenworth

Oktoberfest was in full swing in our favorite Bavarian town in the Cascades. I had dreams of being in the mountains, hearing the oompah music, eating a brat covered in sauerkraut and brown mustard, watching the kids frolic merrily on the hills, having Jim lead us in a rousing acoustic rendition of "Edelweiss", while skipping about to the quaint stores and street vendors, laughing gaily, full of joy and delicious German pastries.

My Sound of Music fantasy (minus the whole Nazi thing, of course), was only slightly tarnished by the reality of the situation. We listened to the audio book (favorite Jones pastime, of late) of "The Wizard of Oz"en route for the duration of the 2.5 hour drive. The kids did well in the car, whining was minimal, fighting infrequent, all things considered. We arrived and met up with Grandma and Grandpa Obray and Eric and went about finding lunch. Sadly, the bratwurst line was insane, so we settled for McDonalds, which the kids were not unhappy about. We divided to conquer the stores, traded the stroller for the backpack (much better) and the kids had a blast buying ornaments in the Christmas store, looking at nutcrackers and cuckoo clocks, picking out a small toy at the toy shop with Grandma, and relaxing with ice cream near the end of the day. By five o'clock, the crazy college kids, some clad in their lederhosen and St. Pauli Girl look-alike finest, had overrun the streets with their steins, and we knew it was time to go.

Ahhh... Leavenworth. 'Till next year...