Lake Wenatchee State Park – our first 48 hours on the road

Oh friends. . .that last 48 hours have been so full I’m not even sure where to start. We left our home in Olympia on Tuesday, June 16 around noon. The house officially closed with the county just a couple hours later while we were heading over the mountains – it’s bittersweet to say goodbye to that home – it’s been such a place of memories for us. But we’re closing that door and opening the next one with anticipation.

We took our sweet time driving up to Lake Wenatchee State park getting here around 5 p.m. We have a nice pull-thru spot in the North campground. We got parked, leveled, unhitched and settled just in time to make an easy dinner.  The park is so quiet – not many campers at all. Although the spots are close together there is so much greenery it feels secluded and we look out onto a field of trees being on the outside of a loop.

After being in the car for so long the kids were ready to run! We hiked (ran) down to the lake to get a feel for the area. The scenery is gorgeous.

The old trees make this beach a wonderland for kiddos – so much to climb and explore!

Lots of big rocks, great for climbing and the kids had fun throwing rocks into the lake.

Wahoo! We’re finally here.

As a mom, I love seeing the awe and excitement as my kids explore a new place. Birds, rocks, trees, water, bugs – they see things we can’t, appreciate things we don’t, and they bring an energy to the exploration that only kids can.

For example, my daughter spotted this heart in the side of a tree I’d walked by three times. There is beauty in so many forms – everywhere you look – as long as you’re really looking. 🙂

We headed back after our evening hike and fell into bed after the first day of our adventure. As tired as I was – I couldn’t sleep. I lay in bed so grateful to have arrived safely. As brave as I’d like to think I am – I was nervous about driving over the mountain pass pulling our HOME,  worried about the winding roads leading up to Lake Wenatchee, worried what our campsite would be like and getting settled and set up. It is all new territory for me and I just kept putting on my “be brave” hat all day. I’m so glad I did.

Day two we woke up and were ready to explore! I spent the early morning working and posting deals – but around noon we headed down to the lake. It was about 80 degrees with a breeze – perfect! The water was still took cold to swim in, but the kids jumped in, splashed around, played in the sand and had a great time.

The water has a gorgeous color to it and the landscape surrounding the lake is picture perfect. It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves!

Lots of trees for natural shade along the shore – lots of logs for sitting. It’s a great place to set up a spot and watch the kids play.

Most of the beach is rocky but there is some great sand right at the edge of the water. Lots of fun rocks to be found – all different colors and sizes.

We left from the lake and drove the 20 miles into Leavenworth. We had heard South was a good restaurant in town, but they were closed so we ended up at Fresh Burger – which had great reviews on Yelp and was on the same street. They get their beef from right over the mountains and use as many local ingredients as they can. The kids meals are just $5.50 and probably big enough for an adult. The signature burgers are amazing (see the menu here – it’s hard to pick!) – we were really pleased. We sat out on the patio with awesome views and shade from the afternoon sun. It was delightful on so many levels! In hindsight – we might have tried a bavarian pretzel or sausage – since it’s what the city is known for – but our kids were clamoring for burgers. It ended up being the right choice at the time and we’d definitely go back!

After eating we walked through downtown Leavenworth – what a beautiful downtown. So much to see. We did some window shopping – so many fun shops to look through!

I had downloaded the Geocaching app on my phone and although we had never geocached before – we opened it up and ended up finding our very first geocache in downtown Leavenworth. We just followed the map on the phone until we found it – my kids were HOOKED after finding the first one. How fun, how easy – and it’s FREE entertainment!

This geocache was just a simple log book – so both the kids signed their names. Such a simple pleasure brought so much joy and excitement to our afternoon. After a scoop of ice cream and a stop at Safeway to buy groceries for the week, we headed back to camp.

The kids had so much fun finding the first geocache in Leavenworth that when we got back to camp I promised to take them to find the one we’d seen on the app near our campsite. It was about a 1 mile hike/walk from our spot. A little trickier to find then the one in Leavenworth – this geocache is part of the Washington State Geocache tour – a celebration of 100 years of Washington state parks. In a large ammo box it was full of treasures. We left treasures behind and each kid picked out something – Liam picked a golf ball and Hadley some toy binoculars. How fun!

About 10 minutes into our walk back to our camp site I asked where our plastic water bottle was. My son had been the last to have it – taking a drink at the geocache spot. He thought I had grabbed it. I hadn’t. This meant trekking back to the geocache spot to retrieve our water bottle – a GREAT lesson for my kids in not leaving behind debris or garbage. Although left completely unintentionally, I don’t think either of my kids will forget something like that again. 🙂 We grabbed our empty plastic water bottle and headed back to camp.

After a very full day – we all took hot showers using the campground showers. Although our trailer has a shower – it’s small and then we fill up our grey water tank faster – so we’ll probably opt for campground showers when we can. At 50 cents for 3 minutes – it didn’t cost much and we were refreshed and cleaned up after a lot of sweating and adventure.

We had a light dinner (turkey/avocado sandwiches) and played travel Sequence (Amazon: Travel Sequence) before bed. We had never played Sequence before – but I found a travel version of the game in downtown Leavenworth today and picked it up. What a fun, fun game. Easy for the kids to understand but still interesting enough for the adults.

We all fell into bed after what was a fun-filled day. Not everyday will be this full of adventure – we just hit the ground running. Today we’re taking it easy and sticking close to home. Tomorrow we head to our next campsite, Sun Lakes State park.

More later. Until then, get out of the fast lane and enjoy the view. #TakeThatExit

Checking out the Leavenworth map and recalling the places we’d visited earlier in the day.

Have you been to State Wenatchee Lake State Park? Have you visited Leavenworth? Share your favorite places, hikes, activities or restaurants!