Like Wesa, I also took the opportunity this weekend to do something that had been on my Seattle to-do list: Visiting Leavenworth.

Leavenworth is a small town on the other side of the Cascades who re-invented themselves in the 1960s as a mock Bavarian village. The town is most famous for its Oktoberfest, a three-weekend long festival that is supposedly one of the most well-attended in the world outside of Germany.

One thing we didn’t realize about Leavenworth was just how much of a tourist town it was- granted, it is a town devoted entirely to tourism, but this weekend was their Autumn Leaf Festival. The next three weeks are Oktoberfest. After that there’s a Christkindelmarkt, then the Christmas Lighting Festival, then the Ice Festival, then the… you get the idea. It makes you wonder when the 2,000+ residents of the town ever get any sleep. They have pottery festivals, choral festivals, ale festivals, accordion festivals, bird festivals… it’s a bit overwhelming.

The town itself, with all its activities is a little overwhelming, but the drive there is gorgeous. And besides, where else can you see pirates jesting with leaf-bedecked cheerleaders or Bavarian-themed Chinese restaurants? Even the McDonald’s looks like it dropped straight out of Munich.