We spent a night in Leavenworth, a town that has remade itself as a Bavarian village.  They’ve really embraced the concept.  All of the buildings are decorated with murals and gingerbread, there was a German band playing in the park gazebo, and waiters in lederhosen and dirndled waitresses.  Lots of German restaurants.  So – Sarah and I ate at a really good Indian restaurant.

Our next day took us to North Cascades National Park where our plans were thwarted by the weather.  We had planned to do an easy hike that was supposed to take us to a lake, a waterfall and views of a glacier.  The parking lot entrance was blocked by a snowbank and then, true to its name, it started raining on Rainy Pass.  We made a few quick stops on the highway but it was cold, rainy and windy so we didn’t spend a lot of time outside.  At one stop we were surprised to run into Debbie and Bill Hart from Springfield!  How weird is that?  They were on the return trip from Olympic National Park and we both just happened to stop at the same waterfall at the same time in North Cascades!

Dropping out of North Cascades, it was obvious that it rains there A LOT.  It seemed that everything that hadn’t moved in the last 48 hours was covered in moss.  Trees were covered by moss as were roofs and even vehicles.

We were in North Cascades Monday, June 13.  Early the day before, 49 people were killed at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando.  We were in the car almost all day Monday and listened to CNN and MSNBC as the story of the tragedy unfolded.  We listened to the live, unedited FBI briefings and speeches by President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  It was a sober day. As we drove out of North Cascades in the rain, we encountered a guy walking along the highway with a giant sign simply saying PEACE.