Leavenworth is a village in Washington state, approximately 5 hours N of Portland, Oregon or a little more than 2 hours east of Seattle. Or, instead of driving, take the Amtrak to Leavenworth "Icicle" Station (LWA) .

In researching this town, I was impressed by the
Leavenworth City Website– they have really good website information architecture,
including one whole section where you can be guided for more information
on exactly what a resident cares about, varying from building things on
your property or destroying/getting rid of things or paying for various
utility services. Good job website designer for the city of
Leavenworth!

What makes Leavenworth unique is that this former logging town, trying to save itself when the Railway Company rerouted elsewhere and the sawmill closed ending the logging business, decided to turn Leavenworth into a Bavarian-themed tourist destination. Their bet was to draw visitors in by offering a taste of Germany, leveraging their natural snow capped alpine mountains (the Cascade mountains to be exact) around them and a little extra work to the town itself. This includes Tudor revival architecture to give the impression of an Alpine village, old fashioned lamp posts and imported German chefs, a Bavarian Village style shopping area of Front Street boasting beer halls and nutcrackers and chocolates and bratwurst, an Autumn Maifest, one of the largest Oktoberfest celebrations outside of Munich, and an annual Bavarian Christmas celebration.

This will be our destination for Thanksgiving. During the weekend immediately following Thanksgiving, it still be too early for their full Christmas celebration season, as it is still before their Christmas Lighting Festival (which occurs the next 3 weekends when it's December proper). But, they will have a Christkindlemarkt all weekend right after Thanksgiving. These are Christmas markets that are in towns where local tradesman and artisans sell their craft, so are usually full of lots of unique homemade items for sale and which will include some items which are specialties of that region.

I've always wanted to have a European holiday experience. Yet, the very first time I went to Europe was just earlier this year. My trip then was for work and only included a few days in Germany (mostly Munich- although I did get to stop and have a visit at Nuremberg on the way there from Frankfurt)- work obligations had me continue on to Asia for more work instead of being able to visit a little longer. Being there in February gave me a chance to enjoy some of the snow crunching under my boots (which I then discovered had a hole in them!) and chilled crisp air, but without the benefit of the smell of sweet candies or spiced breads or sights of nutcrackers and other carved handicraft goods.

When I lived in Chicago, there was a Christkindlmarkt that they had downtown that I would visit every year, and I could never say no to the latkes and pierogi and spiced cider and stollen… but it's been 4 years since I have visited one.

So, I can't wait for Leavenworth! Can you tell I'm quite excited!?! Here's some examples of my list of hopeful to-dos in Leavenworth… we'll see what I report back.

• Christkindlemarkt
• Icicle Brewing Company beer, either at their Tasting Room or Munchen Haus with their impressive varieties of sausages and mustards
• Gingerbread and ginger snap ice cream at The Gingerbread Factory
• Cheesemongers Shop and Cured by Visconti to put together a lovely cheese and charcuterie platter after we arrive
• Famous German restaurant Andreas Keller for their very beer haus experience and classic dishes such as Schweinshaxe (pork hock) and Schnitzel (breaded cutlet)
• A refreshing gelato or sorbetto break to cleanse the palate at Viadolce Gelato
• And some walking along Waterfront Park

There are also a lot of wine tasting room options, though I won't list them now. But I will leave this Woody Goomsba video, which is a character starring in a  video among several in his Youtube channel created to promote tourism to Leavenworth, here…