A couple days in Lake Chelan

How have we never been to Lake Chelan before?  It’s within 3 hours of Seattle and totally fabulous!  The hubby had a conference there so we tagged along.  I was a little nervous because I knew I was going to be alone with the kids for a day and a half while he was working, so I used these resources to help figure out what to do and I totally want to remember them when we go back again:

Red Tricycle

Savor Washington Chelan/Manson Farm Tour guide from WSDA

Uptake

14-Small Town Getaways from Seattle Magazine (keywords: Cle Elum and Orondo)

The boys (almost 4) still nap a little bit so we plan our long drives to coincide with when they’re drowsy.  We managed to make it to Cle Elum where I love the Pioneer Coffee Company.  We picked up lattes and an apple fritter and kept on driving to Chelan. ( I hope one day we get to stop in Cashmere at the Aplets and Cotlets factory because I am dying to do that factory tour and the stars just never align right.  We were too late on the way there and the boys snored through on the way back but we made a short pit-stop at Anjou Bakery, thank goodness!) In Chelan, we checked into a two-bedroom suite at the Campbell’s resort.  It was a little dated, but roomy (ample room for a family of 4!) and overlooked a little beach so the boys were thrilled that they could see where they would be playing.  We ordered pizza from Local Myth and ate it on our balcony because it was a little late and the boys just wanted to enjoy hanging out with their toys in the hotel. (It was yummy!)

Day 2

The resort had a great beach so we spent the morning there.

We followed this with my first solo pool trip.

a delicious lunch at Sojourners,

ice cream,

(a nap!!!) and then more pool…

When the hubby finished work, we headed to the Chelan Winery that I read had a BBQ.  The boys loved running through the vineyard and twirling in the hula hoops.

And me, I was just happy with my yummy dinner, my smiling family and my glass of wine.

Day 3

I was exhausted from the epic swim day so wanted to stay out of the pool for the morning.  I read that there was a nitrogen ice cream maker and a cider demonstration at  Orondo Cider Works at 10:30am on Saturdays so that was my morning mission.  On the way we found a bunch of tractors to sit on at the Lone Pine Fruit and Espresso stand.

We could have spent the whole day at the Orondo Cider Works. The boys loved this swing that they had hanging by the cider press:

They loved feeding the alpacas and baby goats:

I could barely pull them away from watching the cider being pressed:

But this truck did the job nicely.

The nitrocream was so cool-the kids loved all the “smoke” and thought their ice cream was on fire. (We were too enthralled in the demo so this is the only picture.  You’ll have to see it for yourself.)

And this place also had amazing, freshly-made donuts.  I would go back to Lake Chelan just to hang out here for the day.

The rest of our trip was spent with more eating, swimming and another winery dinner, this time at Vin Du Lac. (It had live music and a fantastic kids’ menu!)

And we left Chelan totally indulged.  It was a short visit but oh so lovely and relaxing and I made a mental note of the giant play structure I spotted at Nefarious Cellars as we drove out of town…..we’ll definitely be back.

(PS. here’s another article to help with trip-planning, it came out in the LA times during our trip.)

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