Bachelorette Weekend in Twisp, WA

Our dear friends Catherine and David got married a few weeks ago - it was awesome. But before they got married, we had bacherlor/bachelorette weekends for them! The boys played at a cabin by Leavenworth, Wenatachee. There's no photographic evidence, because they are boys, but rumor has is they had fun, ate good food, lounged in the river, drank beer, etc.

The ladies on the other hand, made their way out to Twisp, WA for the weekend. Even Ashley go to fly in from CO for the weekend, which made it extra cool.

There was an awesome pool, deck, and cabana, lots of beds, and a great view right on a little river. We spent the weekend lounging in the pool, eating good food, celebrating the bride-to-be and even took a little hike. Here are some pictures, all courtesy of Valerie (thank you!).

Beautiful Diablo Lake on the way out. Want to come back for hiking

Cabana. I told matt we need one for our yard

View from the deck

The other way

No boys around = Val & Kenz learn to grill

Reports were that it wasnt too shabby

Silly dandelions on our hike

We didnt actually find the hike we meant to do.

So we walked up a road. 

And then climbed a little mountain.

And it was pretty

Jenna, Kenz, Sarah, Cat, Ash, Val

Lounging in the Seahawk

Headdress crafts

Kenz, Karen, Lindsey, Megan

Val, Steph, Sonja, Katie

Caro, Sarah, Jenna, Ash

So many beautiful ladies!

(thats a lot of mouths to feed)

Happy happy times. Lovely weekend of relaxation and lady friends. 

Switzerland Backpacking Part 2

Check out Part 1 here for some background.

Days 3 & 4 were supposed to be Lauterbrunnen - Greisalp - Kanderstag. We decided night 2 to shorten the trip, and were going to pop out somewhere earlier. After hiking partway to Greisalp on day 3, we learned in Murren that the pass we were crossing that day was still covered in snow and was dangerous without crampons/ice ax. At least we figured that out before getting there eh? The friendly and knowledgeable visitors center suggested a new route for us and provided some rough maps. It was a less dramatic route, but stunning, more relaxed, and more 'wild'.

We had a delicious lunch of cheese and bread, and later found a lovely flat place for a campsite. There was a mountain hut a 10 minute walk up the hill from our campsite, so we struck out for a few drinks before settling in for our Backpackers Pantry meal and some frisbee.

At the end of Day 4 we took bus-train-train back from Saxeten to Mieringen where we had left our cars, had a much needed last meal with the boys, and said our goodbyes. The Alps were stunning, we loved 4 days outside, and had an awesome time getting to hang out with Bernie and Markus again.

We had one day in Zurich after that (already blogged) and had originally planned to fly back out of Munich, but at the last minute landed a much better itinerary home...so ended up calling Markus up about 6 hours after saying goodbye to see if we could crash at his pad the next night. :)  Sadly, there are no pictures but we had a really good time hanging out in Darmstadt, cooking some traditional German food with Markus, and then a tour and drinks out on the town.

This concludes our gorgeous Europe Summer 2013 trip. Finally! Reflections: expensive, easy travel, google offline maps are a life saver, we love having friends around the world, Alps are super rad and not like the mountains we have here, thankful for 6 nights of hotel points, afternoon/evening is plenty of time for weirdos like us in one city, european cities are adorable - period, and according to Matt Bavaria "looks just like Leavenworth"!