This year we didn't take much of a vacation. Kristina doesn't have much PTO accumulated yet since she just started her new job in April, and our trip to Idaho this year didn't work out for various reasons either. That being said, we decided that we needed to get away for town at least for a little while. Jared has been itching to check out the Methow Valley ever since we moved here, and especially the Methow River. We found a house to rent that had the river going right through the property on vrbo.com, so we jumped at the chance to get away for a few days. The rental allowed dogs as well, so Jared, Kristina, and Indy hopped into the truck and headed to Winthrop, WA for an extended weekend.
We left town after work on Wednesday and drove the US 2 route to Winthrop. We didn't get to see a lot of the sites along they way because it got dark fairly quickly, but once the sun rose the next morning, it was just gorgeous. Here are a few shot of the place. It was a nice rental, but the property was the REAL winner!
The entire back side of the house faces the river. It is just spectacular, and the property goes along the river for quite some distance. Luckily for us, some of the best fishing holes were on the house's property.
We didn't stick around long on Thursday morning. We were starving and the grocery stores were closed the when we came through town the night before, so we headed to Winthrop to find breakfast. Lucky for us, we found Rocking Horse Bakery right when we got into town. It was a super cool bakery with great coffee and hot chocolate, and more pastries than one could ever eat. We definitely started the day out right.
After breakfast Jared wanted to explore a few lakes in the area: Cougar Lake, Campbell Lake, and Davis Lake. They were all to the north of town and in the same general vicinity, so we headed that way. We hit Cougar Lake first.
Thanks to the zoom function on the GPS we were able to locate it. Signs were rare, and it wasn't near the road as the maps had indicated. You could tell that there had been a fire there in the recent past, and it was recovering. However, it looked like a potential spot for a future visit.
Next we tried to go to Campbell Lake, but the road was washed out. The fire a few years back had hit pretty hard and the fires were followed by rain (which happens alot), so the road was blocked. That's ok though because you could hike in, but we opted not to do so that day. Good thing too because later in our adventures Kristina overheard a conversation among some fisherman that indicated there are tons of snakes around Campbell Lake -- and that is definitely something we wanted to avoid this trip.
Lastly we tried Davis Lake. Very nice lake and had lots of good spots around it. People were fishing the day we showed up, but they were using bait. We threw a few casts with the good ol' Panther Martin and a fly and bubble with no luck. That's ok though, we didn't try that hard, and it was time to find some lunch.
We had lunch in Winthrop again. Winthrop is a very cool little town with a nice little downtown area. So after lunch we mingled around the town, and Kristina did a little shopping. She wasn't looking for tennis gear, but oddly enough she found a decent amount of it, and it was on sale.
After we were done downtown we headed to the market in Winthrop to pick up some groceries. Our plan was to have simple breakfasts, pack a PB&J for lunch, and then go somewhere for dinner. We were on vacation weren't we? So we picked up a few must haves and headed back to the house and enjoyed a nice afternoon of fishing along the river.
Around 5pm, we headed into Winthrop again and had some pizza at East 20. We highly recommend this place and we will definitely be back when we pass this way again.
Headed back to the house after dinner, and it was getting quite chilly and dark...so we got the maps out for the area and started planning for tomorrow.
