The hills are alive with .....

When the Days Inn offers free breakfast you just have to say yes! The highlight was the pancake making machine, quality ok but the mechanism, so fascinating! 

Next Norm wanted to check out Lake Whatcom, a place he visited 60 years ago. Has it changed since then? Yes quite a bit but he still had some fond memories.

Our plan was to head south and east and see what we could see along the way. Coffee is always something you need to find. There are a number of coffee kiosks everywhere.

This was at Bryant and since 1929 there has been a general store here. You can even fill your growler here these days, Probably not so in '29. 

This coffee stop looked a bit like the Netherlands. All have pretty good coffee. They were a bit surprised when Norm tried to walk in and not drive through. They made him stand outside. You need to follow the rules. 

Our lunch picnic found us stopping at Sultan. Who knew about this little town named after the Indian, Tseuld. The locals thought the name sounded like sultan and so that is what they called the town.

Yes that is us meeting Tseuld. A quick walk about this town (5 minutes) and visiting the info centre gave us reading material for the Sky valley. It is a beautiful drive along the Skykomish River leading to Stevens Pass. It was recommended we walk the Iron Goat Trail. It was here that the Great Northern Railway was first built. We learned about the 96 people who died by a snow slide here in the early1900's. The train tried for days to get through but snow, ice, more snow blocked the way and eventually the snow pushed the train off its track. So our walk turned into a hike, 2 1/2 hours! It was a great experience, lots of history and nature. 

One of the fascinating sites was a cement wall that was built to hold up a snow shed. There are 6 miles of these walls in the area. This one was at least a quarter mile long, amazing!

There were tunnels along the way too. Massive structures now crumbling but once used for the train to go through. 

The weather was perfect, the trail empty and the hike, priceless (as they say). So that was one of the "hills" that were alive. Just a note, one part of the trail was a switch back of about 1 mile that took almost a half hour to slowly descend. Where were my hiking poles? Oh yeah in the truck....

Once down the hill we headed quickly to our next stop. We barely arrived, checked in to our motel, Alpine Rivers Inn, and headed up the local ski hill for live theatre. Yes we saw The Sound Of Music outdoors! It was really good. A little cool but we kept warm. What a perfect setting, fresh air, great sound system, the moon rising, great acting and you knew all the songs (no singing out loud, except a singalong Edelweiss). The hills were alive with the sound of music!!!

Norm being escorted to his seat by one of many nuns. A quick shot of the Von Trapp children before show time. 

Yes we are in Leavenworth, Washington, the Bavarian capital of the state. (Pictures to follow next day).

Here is just a touch of the Bavarian theme in our room.

And the view from our room is beautiful, beside the Wenatchee River.

We are now off to explore the town. Who knows where we will be next.