Great Weekend . . . Beautiful Weather!

Joe and I arrived in Leavenworth on Friday, April 25th. We met up with our friends Jim and Kathy and their little pup Bandit. The weather was absolutely beautiful! After unpacking the truck the four of us, errr make that the five us left our condo and walked into town. We browsed the shops and then stopped in at the Munchen Haus for lunch. After lunch we walked around a bit more before walking back to the condo. Around 5 o'clock we went to dinner at King Ludwigs and then walked to the Ale Fest at the Leavenworth Festhalle. Joe and Jim sampled many beers. A featured singer, Vicki Martinez and her band, were playing at the Ale Fest on Friday night. They were great! Finally around 9 PM we left the hall and headed back to the condo. After all we had a big bike ride to do tomorrow and it had an early start!
I was up at 6 AM. Joe and Jim did not get up until 7 AM! Finally around 7:30 we left for the Ale Fest Bike Ride. We stopped and had breakfast at Kristalls first. We finally arrived at the start around 9 AM. Even with the sun shining against the bluest sky it was still a very chilly morning. There was also a lot of snow still on the ground but we were very excited about the ride, the sun, and scenery! We were ready to ride!
We did pass by some gorgeous scenery as you can see from some of the pictures that I took.
This is Joe and Jim chatting at our first rest stop. We were quite warm by mile 12.5 and we were all getting into the ride! The other bikers were feeling the same. I saw many happy faces and positive chit chat going on. Everyone I spoke with agreed it was a perfect day for a bike ride!

Here's a picture of Joe and me at the first rest stop. With snow and sunshine as our backdrop!

My Bike at the start of the ride leaning against . . . SNOW!
Our friend Jim all bundled up at the start of the ride with his bike.
A cyclist coming down the road walled in on both sides with SNOW! There was very little, almost zero traffic! The 75 mile course was cancelled because of snow. That left the 25 and 50 mile courses. Joe, Jim, and I did the 50 mile course. We had a great ride! The weekend couldn't have been more perfect! It was really hard leaving Leavenworth this afternoon to come back to the west side of the mountains. Don't you just love great weekends?! I sure do! I can't wait for the next great weekend!

Fun Weekend Coming Up!

I am so looking forward to this up coming weekend! Since January the weather,work, and the day to day routine has really gotten to me. And today at work, the day just dragged by! But finally the 2:20 dismissal bell rang and I almost cheered! My weekend had just begun with that dismissal bell. Joe and I each took a personal day. So tomorrow rather than going in to work we will be driving over to Leavenworth for the Leavenworth 2nd annual Ale Fest. They are also having an Ale Fest Bike Ride! Woo Hoo! We had initially signed up to ride the 75 mile course but received an email about a week ago from the ride director stating that the 75 mile course is cancelled because of SNOW! So we will be riding the 50 mile course. The temperature and weather for Leavenworth for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are AWESOME! I am on cloud nine at this moment. Work is over, the weather for our getaway will be beautiful and my day to day routine will be interrupted! AND I will be riding my bike! I will ride on Saturday in the Ale Fest Bike Ride but I am also going to ride tomorrow when we get into Leavenworth. Oh yea, I will first settle into our condo, maybe have lunch, unpack and then go for a ride! :-D We plan to leave EARLY for Leavenworth tomorrow morning. Probably around 9 AM. It's a 2 hour drive over so we should arrive at our condo between 11 and noon. So plenty of time and day left for a nice ride! :)

On my way home from work today I stopped at Papa Murphy's Pizza and picked up my favorite pizza, their chicken, bacon, artichoke, thin crusted pizza. I am also doing laundry and packing. I was initially on the desk top computer upstairs in our office but then I remembered that I wanted to watch Oprah today. Her guest is the family from the Learning Channel. The little people big world family, the Roloffs. So I grabbed my laptop, came downstairs, and here I sit. Watching Oprah, doing laundry, baking pizza, and typing an entry in my blog!

Well Joe should be pulling into the garage any minute now. The pizza smells wonderful and my washer just stopped. So I guess I better end this for today. Stay tuned for a report on my weekend getaway! With pictures I hope!

Cold Cold Spring!

I cannot believe the weather this spring here in the Pacific Northwest. Very unseasonably COLD! The last three days for example; that’s this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 18-20 we received rain, snow, hail, sleet, and high winds. The morning temperature all week long has been in the low 30s. Highs have been in the low 40s. Needless to say no biking was done by me all week. Last weekend I thought FINALLY spring had arrived. It was just a tease though by Mother Nature! Dang her anyway! Last Saturday it was in the mid 70s. It was sunny with very clear blue skies, warm, and just a gorgeous spring day. I actually wore shorts for my bike ride and no jacket! I was actually sweating on the ride too! Last Sunday wasn’t as warm or as nice as Saturday but it was still a decent day. I rode in the 33rd annual Daffodil Classic. It was my last ride for the week because on Monday the arctic weather moved back in. The only exercise that I did get to do on Monday – Friday of last week was at the gym. I was hoping to give up going to the gym with the arrival of April but no, spring decided to take an extended vacation.

On the brighter side, the weather report tonight looks just a tiny bit promising. If I can get a ride in tomorrow afternoon after work GREAT! If not I will be at the gym once again doing my usual workout. Sigh . . . here’s to warmer weather SOON!!!!

And here is the weather report for the week of April 21-25, 2008 by two of our local TV stations:

First from KIRO 7 TV

And from King 5 TV

Also from King 5 TV plus 5 more days

It looks like the nicer weather will not arrive until the week of April 26th! I was hoping for nice weather for the weekend of the 25th, 26th, and 27th of April. Joe and I are going to Leavenworth for the Ale Fest and we also signed up to ride in the Ale Fest Bike Ride. Stay tuned for a report on that ride! They closed the 75 mile route due to SNOW! Yep, I got an email from the people putting on the ride and the 75 mile route is closed. Can you believe it?! So Joe and I will be riding the 50 mile course. I will make sure to pack our warmies!

Desperately seeking spring . . . Sue