The change in the scenery of Washington state is astronomical when you cross the Cascades. From green and wet to dry, flatish and yellow. An intense contrast. I keep joking that in the winter I need to take a trip out to eastern Washington to get more sun. But that also means that I'd have to drive over the passes - might be just easier to fly to Hawaii or Cali?
Two of my teammates and I went on a day trip training in Kennewick and decided to make a road trip out of it. Kennewick is 3.5 hours from Seattle drive, and in addition to that we took the long way back through Leavenworth. The trip to the training started at 5am and was made without stops - got to make it to training. :) After a fun day of training (this was a 'customer connection' training where we listen in to call center calls - I found it super interesting), time to head back.
The first detour was taking the Yakima Canyon Road instead of the highway. Not that you would have noticed, because we were driving at highway speeds. If somebody has a BMW, you should drive it as such, right? Anyways - it was a roller coaster, but oddly fun. The above photo was taken in the canyon.
The next detour was driving up to Leavenworth instead of taking the I-90 pass over the Cascades. There was 'rock-blasting' on I-90 so the northern pass seemed like less stops - and going fast was one of the requirements for the trip (one again, the BMW). Leavenworth is a "Bavarian" village in the northern Cascades. Adorable, and a complete tourist trap. But it has a great Munchen Haus with bratwurst and beer. I've stopped there on every pass through Leavenworth and loved it. Not expensive sausages, and amazing mustards and sauerkraut to cover them in. Fun trip. :)
