Tag Archives: travel

Trip to Leavenworth, Washington

For the Christmas spirit, I decided I wanted to check out Leavenworth as several had mentioned about this little town, known as the ‘Bavarian’ town to be a replica of traditional Germany. I had just been to Germany in Sept, so I thought it would be interesting to take a look.

From the Youtube videos that we watched before heading out, Sheepie was already complaining at the fact that the buildings were not made of stone like in Germany. I was disappointed to find out that it wasn’t an authentic German town. I thought that the original settlers from Germany somehow gathered there and started the town. Instead, it used to be another usual American town until they switched for tourist reason only. There are several language mistakes, like “Gift Haus” (Haus is ‘house’ in German). However, they didn’t bother to translate the word Gift into German – well I guess then visitors wouldn’t know what it is. Unfortunately, the word ‘gift’ in German means poison. So if you know German, it can be entertaining, as with any time one is ‘trying’ to translate from one language to another. I see similar things in happening in Asia.

Our first stop in Leavenworth – the gasoline station!

See my first Idea Rabbit video on Youtube! (yes! finally!!! I’m venturing out onto video too!)

We left Vancouver, BC around 11am or so and arrived in Leavenworth around 6pm. It was already dark, perfect for the lit Christmas lights. With the exceptionally warm winter of 2014, there weren’t any snow, even though it was snowing while we drove through the snow covered forests to the town. It was however super cold.

The word ‘Gift’ in German means ‘poison’. So the Poison House! LOL Being the day of Christmas, not much was open, especially at this time. We got to take lots of photos but was quite a challenge to find a place to dine. There was King Ludwig open, but there was a huge lineup, so we ended up at Wok About Grill – a Mongolian fast food that had just opened that month.

Read Wok About Grill review here.

With it being the holidays, finding accomodation online prior to going was also time consuming. Most places were all booked out, and only really expensive places were still available. Since we were going there to check out the city and not the hotel, I booked at the Wedge Mountain Inn in Dryden – about a 10 minute drive from Leavenworth for $79.99 USD a night. The manager was originally from Germany but came to America at a young age.

Read Wedge Mountain Inn review here.

The next day, we had breakfast at the cafe next to the inn called the Big Y Cafe. Afterwards, we checked out and headed east to Wenatchee since Sheepie was curious to what that town was like. So we drove around and checked it out, also doing some super deal shopping at Walmart.

Read Big Y Cafe review here.

We drove through some really interesting terrains. Very different from what we have in Canada. Lots of hills and valleys but Sheepie was puzzled at why there were very little vegetation. The hills seemed to be composed of very loose soil and looked unstable.

We returned to Leavenworth to see the stores open and streets bustling with tourists. If you’re not a crowd-person, then this might not be for you. The town’s core attraction is about a dozen or so blocks, so you can easily go through the entire thing. The town reminded me of being in Germany and it was a nice trip from Vancouver.

Wok About Grill

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We got to Leavenworth around 6pm, but went pass through to Dryden to check-in to our inn and drop our stuff. By the time we got back to the town, it was 7pm. Since it was Christmas, everything was closed for the day, or was closing early. We walked around looking for a restaurant while we took photos of the glittery Christmas lights throughout the town. We finally found Wok About Grill which had only opened at the beginning of that month. There was a lineup, but we had no other option, so we waited.
The place was pretty large with high ceilings. The server told us that we could order from the menu, but it was limited. Their main specialty was making your own stir fry. The server brought us two large plastic bowls and we filled it with any ingredient that we wanted from meat (frozen), veggies and noodles. Top it off with the sauces of your liking. The chef will then weigh your bowl and give you a sticker with the cost. You are charged $7.20/lb. I filled my bowl quite a bit and it came to just a little over $12. Oops, lol. Sheepie’s was only about $8.50. Watch chefs grill and cook up your meal!
A bonus is that every meal comes with either your choice of rice, tortillas or lettuce cups. I ordered rice while Sheepie go tortillas.

DIRTY condiments and topping area!!

I thought Sheepie’s price was quite fair, with all that he had. I had quite a bit of noodles which were much heavier, hence the higher price. I shouldn’t have been so greedy, I was pretty full at 85%, but managed to finish the fry entirely, though only half the bowl of rice.

My plate with white rice $12+

Sheepie’s tortillas and plate $8+

Our server was very friendly and pleasant. The hostess seemed a bit reluctant to be working there, especially on Christmas evening. The table area was clean, but the buffet area needs to be cleaned regularly. Although with so many customers pouring in their own ingredients into their bowl, I guess it’s inevitable to be a bit messy. The counter by the chefs were pretty bad. Sure, it’s end of day and super busy, but still.

Taste was ok. Filling but nothing spectacular. Maybe it’s my own fault for not using the right mix of sauces. Either way, I don’t know if it’s on my top list. Definitely not in Leavenworth, as I came to eat some German food – still, I was happy they were still the only ones left open in the entire town!

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Flight to Calgary with Air Canada

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After my disappointment with Aeroplan, I still decided to try again, this time to go to Calgary (read my previous post in trying to go to Las Vegas). I didn’t know that the promo had more conditions (don’t they all…), and since Sheepie wasn’t going to be able to take time off from work over the long weekend, I decided to go back to Calgary on my own.

I was told that for the promo to be valid, I needed another person to go. It was two free flights – not one, meaning you just couldn’t take one. So I asked a friend who also used to live in Calgary and her parents still lived in Calgary. As a matter of fact, they lived only a few blocks from my parents house…lol. So the drop off and pick up from the airport to home by my friend’s dad was easy.

The promo or any Aeroplan flight does not Include taxes. This time, the taxes and fees came out to $150 per person, which still is much better than the regular $400+ to Calgary.

The flight going there was freezing, and my friend asked the flight attendant to turn up the heat a bit. There was even a stranger who offered his jacket to her, until it got warmer.

On the flight back to Vancouver, I noticed that we were flying quite low and in the wrong direction after take off. We should usually see the Rockies come up fairly quickly, but I only saw the flat prairies ahead of us. The terrible intercom came on and the pilot said something like they were trying to take care of some technical difficulties…I watched the map on the little screen in front of me showing our plane was flying North.

After a while, the pilot came back on and told us the ‘malfunction’ was corrected and that we would return to flying our route to Vancouver. For a person who has extreme fears of flying, this was not something I wanted to hear…however, the rest of the flight went without a hitch, and arrived safely back to YVR. Phew!

I have heard numerous complaints about the staff, flight attendants, quality and now planes themselves from Air Canada. Their Aeroplan system has turned for the worse, and it’s so not worth accumulating little points. (going to Japan costs $700 for taxes and ‘fees’ even though you have to use 75,000 Aeroplan points) I’ve stopped carrying my card, or dealing with it anymore. Sure, the normal points you accumulate through their flights and at some retail stores are free, but if you have a credit card that allows you to get points, but then costs you over $100 annually, it doesn’t make sense. Sure it comes with some travel insurance, but I ended up having to buy a separate insurance to Europe because of certain conditions.

Thank you for the flight, but sorry Aeroplan, I’m abandoning the reward system. I’ve had better experiences with WestJet, going to Europe has always been with Air Transat, and now that there’s ANA (of JAL) to Japan, and that tells you something if I’d rather go elsewhere where they don’t have rewards.

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