Continuing along from part one of this blog post (read here if you haven’t yet), our first stop after waking up on day two of our weekend was J5. No surprise there! Lake Chelan is a gorgeous one-hour drive from Leavenworth, and no road trip can begin without caffeine. We headed over for breakfast and a boat tour departing pretty early. The weather was exactly what you’d want for a day on a pontoon: hot and humid. We were pumped to get on the water.
We learned a ton about the properties surrounding the lake and history of the area from our tour guide, Mike, the director of the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce—not to mention sample some of the area’s delicious wine! There are a ton of wineries in central Washington (I’ll get to that later), and we enjoyed a bottle of summer water, aka rosé, from Rocky Pond Winery. We had a few other bloggers joining us on this trip, and it was so much fun getting to know Style Miss Molly and Postcards to Seattle as well as our tour guides.
After we made it all the way around the lake, our group split up to get lunch or cool down—and Michele and I definitely opted to cool down. We felt like we’d been baking in the noon heat! We rented a couple of paddle boards from one of the places near the boat launch. If you can’t find it, just keep asking people until one of them will guide you to where you need to go! After floating and swimming for an hour or so, ice cream was calling our name. Cones from B.C. MacDonald’s in hand, we strolled the beautiful riverfront and downtown areas before the sun got too hot and we had to find some shade again.
Yes, it really was that hot.
We decided to head to Siren Song Wines for a relaxing evening, and we had no idea what a treat we were in for. Between the rolling vineyards and sprawling tuscan estate, it felt like we’d walked right into the Italian countryside. If you enter the building and walk past the dining room, you’ll exit into a huge courtyard surrounded by palatial stonework overlooking the lake. I know it sounds crazy, but I was having flashbacks to my day on Lake Como in northern Italy with these views—no kidding.
After tasting a rosé, a white, and a red, we decided to stay for dinner and it was a phenomenal decision. While we were enjoying our mouthwatering caprese bruschetta, the owner of the vineyard himself came over to say hello, welcome us, and tell us a few family stories. It’s definitely a place I’ll stop by again on my next trip to Washington’s Playground. But beyond that, there are seriously dozens of other wineries to try: Tsillan Cellars (pronounced Chelan), Nefarious Cellars, Rocky Pond Winery, Fielding Hills Winery, Mellisoni Vineyards…the list goes on and on.
It’s so satisfying when a weekend trip feels like you’ve been away much longer. You’ve only been away for two nights, but you feel as if you’ve been relaxing for a week. There was so much to do and see in Leavenworth and Lake Chelan that I felt like that, and couldn’t believe we were headed home Sunday. Before we headed back west, we enjoyed an indulgent breakfast at a local golf course overlooking the green (breakfast and a show!) before playing 18-holes ourselves—on the mini-golf course at Icicle Village Resort before we checked out.
It was a great way to wrap up the trip (okay, we grabbed two more Bavarian pretzels go to…don’t judge, they’re my favorite food!) and I can’t thank the tourism and marketing team behind Washington’s Playground enough. I’ll definitely be planning another trip out there and hope you guys will too! Let me know if you do, and use the hashtag #truetravels on Instagram so I can find your photos!
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHELE EQUITZ
Thank you to Washington’s Playground for hosting us.
