Tourist Information for Leavenworth, WA

April 1st found us on the road to Leavenworth, no foolin’! We took off after work. We already had reservations in Leavenworth at Dream House Suites. We’d stayed there for one night in 2010 and made it our base of operations this trip.

We’re always relieved and thankful to get on the road. Dinner was a quick stop at Zips Drive-In in Ritzville. It was very busy on a Friday night and the Fish n’ Chips were not nearly as good as what we usually experience at our hometown Spokane Zips restaurants. Next time we’ll wait for a stop in Moses Lake if we can’t wait until Wenatchee or even Leavenworth.

It’s staying light so much later every day now that we had good traveling light pretty much until the Quincy cutoff from I-90. It was interesting for us to realize that we’d never driven that direction on WA-28 in the dark before. We often leave Leavenworth late in the afternoon or sometimes evening, but we hadn’t traveled to Leavenworth so late in the day before. The road was quite good, with no construction going on at the moment. But that can change rapidly in Washington as the road construction season is so short here. It’s really a good idea to check with the Washington State Department of Transportation before traveling anywhere in the state. You can get travel alerts, construction information and pass reports all in one place. I’ll write more soon on the WSDOT and the valuable service they provide travelers in Washington State.

We drove into Leavenworth at about 9pm and made a quick stop for half-n-half and a gasoline fill-up at Safeway. Then it was on to Dream House Suites.
We had reserved suite #4, since the other suites were not available for all 3 nights of our stay. Suite #4 is not really a suite, but a roomy studio. It’s the most recently remodeled of the four suites and doesn’t face Front Street. There’s a kitchenette with a microwave, coffee maker, toaster, refrigerator and tableware, glassware and cutlery. The comfortable queen sized bed had plenty of good quality pillows and crisp, white sheets.

The only drawback to our room was a lack of sound-proofing. We could hear activity in the next room and guests coming and going. The entrance to the building’s suites area was next to our room so we could hear guests banging luggage on the wall, discussing loudly their plans for the day, and slamming the door on the way in and out. The next time we stay at Dream House Suites we’ll book one of the other suites and see if it’s any quieter.

The suite opened onto a large, shared deck, with comfortable outdoor furnishings. In the summer and autumn months it’ll be a lovely place to enjoy morning coffee or an evening glass of wine. The deck has a great view of the nearby mountains.

There’s not daily maid service in the Dream House. There are plenty of large, comfy towels, and there’s dishwashing liquid available to wash your own table service items.
We’ve experienced really welcoming service at the Dream House suites. We’ve gotten a call during our trip to let us know our room is ready and another to ask us if everything is as we expected. There’s a phone number available to contact management if you need anything during your stay. It’s not a typical accommodation. It’s small and private and the rooms are right on Front Street so Leavenworth is literally at your door. Suites 1 and 2 open onto Front Street and have decks overlooking the village as well as fireplaces and jetted tubs.

On Saturday morning we got up early to have breakfast at Anna Pension as guests of Gary and Michele Thebault. The Thebaults are delightful hosts and eagerly shared with us their love for Leavenworth and their beautiful pension.

We enjoyed the hospitality of their lovingly decorated breakfast room and delicious German breakfast. I loved the dense, dark, German style pumpernickel bread. It was delicious with butter and marmalade. Gary, dressed in authentic Bavarian trachten, sat with us and told us all about how they discovered Leavenworth and purchased the pension from the original owners over 4 years ago.

Since that time they’ve visited Bavaria (the real thing) in order to drink in the culture and shop for authentic clothing (trachten) and furnishings to augment the Black Forest crafted pieces already in the hotel.

Anna Pension has only 16 rooms, but each is far from ordinary. As Gary put it, “We don’t have any ‘standard’ rooms.” Each is unique and outstanding. Everywhere you turn in the hotel you’ll see beautiful examples of carved and painted wood furniture. Some of it is truly antique, all of it is lovely.

Next to the hotel is an historic chapel that was moved to the property in the 1970′s and now provides some of the most unique accommodations we’ve ever seen. One three room suite, the Alte Kappelle, has an elegant king sized bed, a sitting room, a large jetted tub and a sleeping loft with twin beds. It would make an excellent place for a family to stay while exploring the Bavarian Village and the surrounding area.

Be sure to visit the Rates page on their website and click the icon to see photos of each room.

It was obvious to us that Gary and Michele love the Leavenworth area and really love taking excellent care of their guests. The details in the hotel made me want to stay there and explore the nooks and crannies. Gary told us that it takes them 3 weeks to decorate the hotel at Christmas time. They’re often booked a year in advance for festival weekends. I can see why.

Anna Pension offers something no one else in Leavenworth does in the form of their own Leavenworth-dedicated iPhone App. And if you don’t have an iPhone, don’t worry. Anna Pension has you covered there, too. They offer you the use of an iPhone as your personal concierge for the duration of your stay with them. You can use the iPhone to find out what’s happening and where to eat in Leavenworth via our website, Accidental Bavarian, and to take photos and video. Upload the photos to Facebook and your videos to YouTube while you’re still on vacation. The use of an iPhone at no additional charge is one example of the way the Thebaults offer extraordinary service to their guests.

After our visit to Anna Pension, we left Leavenworth for North Seattle. Scotte’s uncle passed away recently and we were on our way to attend his memorial service. A recent mudslide meant that we couldn’t take US 2 through Stevens Pass, without a detour through Plain, WA, so we made the trip south from Peshastin via US 97 and Blewett Pass.

In upcoming blog posts I’ll talk about the trip over and back on Snoqualmie and Stevens Passes and our two days exploring Leavenworth. We ate at new places, found some new shops opening and met new friends and I want to tell you all about it.