Washington Weekend>>Winthrop 2

Winthrop, Washington. The village is done in a sort of pioneer/old west theme, and it's cute, not over done and obnoxious like some touristy places. The real draw of Winthrop is the outdoors, hiking, biking, horseback riding, river rafting and kayaking, hot air ballooning, fly fishing in the summer, skiing, snow shoeing, skating in the winter. Hotels are already booked for next Christmas! We've come a few times now to Winthrop in the spring and find it quite nice- affordable, friendly, walkable, really beautiful. This is a little picture of Winthrop's downtown- a couple blocks of little shops and restaurants.

Avery at the Shafer Museum http://www.shafermuseum.com/, which was closed when he went, but, he said, just as fun, because all this old equipment is outside and touchable, examinable, kid-explorable.

Our favorite Winthrop shop is Glassworks of Winthrop http://www.methowvalleyarts.org/webpage.php?username=gmudge where Garth Mudge works just a screen wall away from the sidewalk blowing glass into sculptures, folk art, vases, platters, pitchers. I'm totally into these sea stars, even though Winthrop isn't exactly near the coast. And he makes these cute little glass sort of mini paperweights with an embossed star, and we've started a little collection of them. The boys like to play with them, and I keep them on a tray with pretty rocks and candles.

When we're in Winthrop we always stay at the Chewuch Inn http://www.chewuchinn.com/, in one of the cabins with a kitchenette, grill, sofa bed. Chewuch Inn is clean and comfortable, the owners and staff are friendly and quick to respond, and the breakfast they provide each morning is delicious and generous, with homemade granola, oatmeal, scones, muffins, fruit, make-your-own waffles (what kid doesn't like that?!), cold cereals, a different yummy frittata or similar dish. They have an assortment of games and videos, space for kids to run around and explore. We love it. It was particularly fun this year because some other young families were staying there and all the kids kind of ran around together and had fun outside and the Moms could all sort of share child-watching duties.

On the way home, just outside of Twisp, we saw an interesting modern-homesteading couple with dreadlocks and polarfleece plowing their field with a team of giant Clydesdales. We pulled our old red Volvo over and watched for awhile. What hard work! What amazing animals those giant horses are! Imagine how much sheer WORK goes into the food we eat and take for granted. Even though most farmers around here don't use horses to plow any more- it's all I can do to keep a little garden- if we had to RELY on my skills and work ethic to eat... YIKES! Thank Goodness for Farmers.

And our last stop before we finally went home was the Aplets and Cotlets http://www.libertyorchards.com/ factory in Cashmere. We all had to wear hairnets to take the little tour, even the baby,who hardly even has hair. He wasn't happy, as you can see. And he didn't even get to taste any candy after, either! The rest of us made a good dent in a big box of Aplets & Cotlets the rest of the way home, though. And then we fell asleep, worn out by the travel and excitement of a weekend away.