| At almost the last minute, we decided to join our Berner friends for Maifest | On the way to Leavenworth, we stopped at a snow-covered trailhead just off the highway | Especially having spent much of the winter in Singapore, the kids were ready to play in the snow | Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to stay very long, but it was still fun | A very tiny waterfall | Looking for rocks | Before dinner, we enjoyed the traditional music |
| These guys were quite good | The moon rises behind the downtown facades | Close-up of the dulcimer player (dulcimist?) | At the traditional Maifest Berner club dinner we were lucky to get a place at the table with some of our favorite Berner friends | After dinner, we took a walk past the goats | We stayed at a rental just off the main road. Here’s the dining and kitchen areas. | The unit occupies the whole floor above a three-car garage. There’s a sitting area between two “bedrooms”. |
| Neither bedroom had real doors, just curtains. But the main bedroom did have a wall partition at least. | The kids stayed in the other sleeping area, with more of a real wall but still a curtain for the door. | Saturday morning we had breakfast in town and then got ready for the parade | Here the big maypole in the middle of the main street is ready for the parade | Ready for the show! | The parade led off with the horns | Here the feet at the end of the horns, used to support them while playing, can be seen |
| I’m not sure what the checkered flag is — perhaps the City of Leavenworth’s flag? The other two of course are the US and German flags. | The main attraction (well, for us anyway!) | We have been away too long, and don’t recognize most of the Berners or their owners ☹ | The dogs are all looking their best! | Berners and more Berners, oh my! | Finally, a familiar face: our friend Kathy! | Bernese Mountain Dogs aren’t the only Swiss mountain breed — Maifest attracts Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs and these guys, the Entlebucher Sennenhund |
| There might actually be more of them, but Berners win by weight ☺ | The parade includes lots of other traditional groups | Unfortunately, I’m not informed well enough on the importance of each group, but they do make for a wonderful parade! | We decided it’s our turn to be on the other side again | We delayed large numbers of Berner owners so that we could say “hi”, pet their dogs, and otherwise try to make up for some lost moments | The weather this weekend was challenging, but luckily it rose to the occasion as needed, and the Berner picnic even enjoyed some sun | The traditional lodging for the Berners is Der Ritterhoff. They have lots of room, and a great cooking area for grilling burgers, brats, etc. |
| Debra and Innaias chat with the Thompsons near the auction tent | No Maifest Berner picnic would be complete with the owner/dog events | Various teams practice their water-carrying technique | It’s amazing Debra didn’t try to smuggle one of these puppies back home ☺ | I don’t know how well Susan holds her liquor, but she does just fine here with the water! | There was also the agility tunnel, a slalom, and maybe some other games I don’t remember at the moment | The mini-golf place had been closed when we tried to go earlier, and then it started to drizzle. But we were determined. |
| The course was well-maintained, as this photo shows reasonably well | It was actually a very pleasant outing. The rain kept the crowds away, but we still had lots of fun. | The course was quite nice too, including this miniature water-wheel feature | By the end, it was getting a bit dark, and then it poured hard on us when we walked back to the condo, but it was worth it | Sunday morning, the weather was still very rainy, so we decided to drive ten minutes down the road to Cashmere | The main attraction there is the aplets and cotlets factory, but turns out amazingly enough there’s no production on Sunday, thus no tour | But fortunately, the pioneer museum in Cashmere was open. We do love ourselves a good pioneer musuem! ☺ |
| One of the displays was a reproduction of a trapper’s cabin, complete with a selection of traps hanging on the wall | There was also this impressive workshop, with lots of hand-planes, saws, augers, and other stuff. | Innaias checks out the steam engine | Some of the antique machines were out in the open | Innaias and the mine entrance | One really fun aspect of the museum was the scavenger hunt they had for the kids | The kids had to find a variety of artifacts, including the previous brass elephant, and this iron |
| Those were both found in this restored one-room cabin | Like the cabin, many of the structures with the museum are pioneer originals, moved from other locations to the museum site | All kinds of buildings are represented, such as a post office, blacksmith, assayer’s office, etc. | Flynn takes a look at the schoolhouse | They also had a short section of track, showing various railroad equipment and even some cars | It was drizzling, but we still had fun wandering around outside | A restored, original waterwheel, which had been used to irrigate the orchards |
