May 2, Hitty Anne Sullivan Arrives
Hitty Holly was so excited, when she heard that her sister, Hitty
Anne Sullivan was on her way to visit. She began making plans for all
the things that we would do during my visit. When I arrived, Hitty Holly
couldn't wait to help her mom open the box and give me a great big hug.
It had been well over a year, since we had seen each other.
Hitty Holly lives in Leavenworth, Washington, which is a small
Bavarian community, nestled in the Cascade Mountains of Central
Washington. Because I am a teacher, I love learning new things and I
realized that even though I may never get to go to Europe, that this
would be the perfect opportunity to learn about Bavarian culture and
customs. I also like learning about nature, and wanted to study the
flora and fauna of the local area. Hitty Holly told me that I had come
at the perfect time to do all of these things, because May is full of
festivals that celebrate spring in Bavaria and nature of all kinds.

May 2, My New German Dress
Margie, Hitty Holly's mom made us both matching German dresses,
call "Dirndls", so that we would look like real Bavarian "Freulines".
That is a German term that refers to a young, unmarried girl, which we
most certainly are.

May 3, Our Nature Walk
Today, we went on a nature walk and toured the local fish
hatchery. We learned about the life cycle of salmon, who their predators
are, such as eagles and other birds of prey, what they eat, what part
they play in our environment and what man is doing to save and further
their survival. We even got to see the baby salmon swimming in their
holding tanks. That is where they live until they get big enough to be
released into the wild.
After our tour of the fish hatchery, we walked through the
forest, looking at all of the beautiful wild flowers that were in bloom.
There was mock orange, balsam root, lupine and even a wild apple tree.
We also found some lichen, which is a type of moss that grows in the
trees here.
Before we knew it, we found ourselves next to the Icicle River,
looking up at Sleeping Lady Mountain. It is called that because it looks
like a lady laying peacefully on her back, sleeping. There was a big
figure of a salmon there by the river that Hitty Holly and I sat on and
pretended that we were riding him up stream, to the place of his birth.
We also found some beautiful rock sculptures of a life sized
otter and wolf. I enjoyed having my picture taken with the otter,
because they are kind, fun loving creatures, but I must admit I was a
little nervous about the wolf. Hitty Holly assured me that I was safe
because it was only and statue, and besides, he was asleep, but he looked
so real and when I look up at him, I realized that he was only asleep on
her side. My side was very awake and he was looking right at me!!! We
did not linger there for very long and I was very happy to be on our way.

May 4, Nutcracker Museum
The next day, we went to a Nutcracker Museum. The Germans are
famous for their wood carvings and nutcrackers are a big part of their
culture. Not only are they useful, but a lot of them are made to
represent German story book characters and important people in their
culture. This museum has over 5000 different kinds of nutcrackers, made
of all kinds of materials, such as wood, ivory, and metal. They range in
size from a few inches tall to over five feet tall. Some of them not
only crack nuts, but also play music. The people at the museum were very
kind and allowed us to play with some of the nutcrackers and music boxes,
to see how they worked. Hitty Holly showed me how to move the lever that
opened the mouth of one of the soldier nutcrackers. I loved listening to
the music as she turned the crank on a little music box with a little
German man on it. We even found a snow globe music box that had the town
of Leavenworth inside it.

May 7, Bird Fest
Today, Leavenworth celebrated Bird Fest. This is a time when
all of the activities center around enjoying and learning about all of
the birds that live in the area. There were lots of games and activities
in the town square that we could do. We played bird bingo, made paper
birds, colored nature pictures of bird habitats, took quizzes to find out
how much we knew about birds and they even had a real Canadian Goose
there, that we could pet.
After a very exciting morning of learning about the birds in the
area, we went to a lovely restaurant and had a European delicacy call a
shrimp crepe. It was perfectly delightful.

May 14, Maifest
Maifest is Leavenworth's biggest festival in May. They start out
the day with a big outdoor All You Can Eat Pancake Breakfast. The
pancakes are so big that Hitty Holly and I could only eat one, between
the two of us.
Next, they have a big parade and Hitty Holly and I decorated our
little German goat cart with flowers and marched in the parade with our
pet goat Hansi. There were also Alpen Horn players, horse drawn wagons
and lots of people dressed in Bavarian clothing, including the Bavarian
Dancers. But our favorite thing in the parade were the Burnese mountain
Dogs. They were pulling carts all decorated with flowers and there was
even a little puppy, riding in one of the carts.
After the parade, we walked around town, visiting the shops,
while we waited for the music and dancing to begin. First, we visited
the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. They gave us some free sample of
chocolate and let us have our picture taken with their Caramel Apples,
which were as big as we are. A visit to a German candy shop would not be
complete without having some Gummie Bears.
On our way back to the town square, we passed the Hat Shop and
there in the window was a "Chicken Hat". Hitty Holly and I just had to
have one, so we could dance our favorite dance. We went in to see if
they had any in our size, and sure enough they did.
The rest of the day was filled with lots of German music and
dancing. The Maipole Dance is beautiful to watch. The dancers gather
around a pole that is decorated with lots of beautiful ribbons. Each
dancer holds a ribbon and dances around the pole, weaving in and out,
around the other dancers. When the dance if finished, they have woven a
beautiful basket design with the ribbons around the Maipole. My favorite
dance however is the "Chicken Dance". As soon as the music began, we
dawned our Chicken Hats and had a wonderful time dancing to the lively
accordion music. It seems to be every ones favorite song. The band
played it many times through the day and every time they played it,
everyone would stop whatever else they were doing and join in the dance.
Another of my favorite things was when the Alpen Horns played. They are
huge horns, made of wood. Hitty Holly and I took turns playing on our
little Alpen horn. It wasn't as loud as the big ones, but we had a lot
of fun anyway.

May 21, River Fest
In the spring time the rivers in and around Leavenworth run
fuller and faster than they do at any other time of the year, because of
snow melt and run off in the mountains. This is the best time of year
for white water rafting, kayaking and other water sports. Hitty Holly
and I decided to go white water rafting and enjoy the scenery and
wildlife along the river banks. It was quite exciting when we hit the
rapids. We learned to keep our paddles inside the boat at those times,
so that we wouldn't lose them if they got hung up on the rocks and jerked
out of our hands. Besides, when you are in the rapids, sometimes you
need both hands to hang on, just to stay in the boat. I was very glad
that we had life vests on.