Central Washington's Gems

We are always fascinated by the interesting travel gems we find as we explore a new-to-us region of the United States. We have really enjoyed Leavenworth and Wenatchee, Washington, but it's also fun to explore smaller villages like Cashmere. This tiny town's main claim to fame is a factory that makes something called Aplets and Cotlets. The computer's spell-check didn't recognize those two words, and we didn't either. But we found there is a huge fan base for these tasty fruit-based nuggets, so we went to the factory tour to find out for ourselves.

Started by two men with a recipe from their homeland in Europe, they bought an apple orchard near Cashmere and started experimenting with this new fruit. They used their fresh fruit puree and nuts to cook together a tasty mixture that is now cooked up in this kitchen. We were here after 2:00 when the cooking staff had already cleaned up for the day.

That fruit and nut mixture is poured into one-inch wooden pallets and cooled over night. Then it will look like a giant piece of thick fruit leather. The worker is just now loading a new piece into the cutting machine, so you can see the thickness and color as he handles it. He will cover it with cornstarch, and then powder sugar, and it is cut into perfect little cubes by this machine.

The last step is placing the little fruit cubes into the partitioned boxes. We could see the finished boxes rolling off the line in the bottom right hand corner, on their way to be plastic wrapped and sealed.

We love a good factory tour, and this was a quick one. We also love the samples that usually come with the tour. We tried many of the Liberty Orchards products, and found a new one that we really liked. These are called "Orchard Bars" and each perfect bar costs $1.29 in its neatly wrapped individual package. But what do they do with all those ends and pieces that aren't quite perfect but still have the same great taste? They smash them together into a lump and sell it by the pound. This is the same product that would sell for $16, now just $6 in the factory store.

We took the back roads home, and we could see that the Liberty Orchards company is perfectly placed among its ingredients. We traveled through a continuous line of orchards in those 10 miles towards home. We are seeing a new method of growing apples here. Smaller trees are grown leaning against supporting A-frames that allow for a tree on each side. Pickers can walk underneath to harvest the ripe apples easily.

In this narrow valley there were orchards on both sides of the road. Even though the Wenatchee Valley is the Apple Capitol of the World, it looks like our valley is predominately filled with pear trees.

We found another little gem just a few miles from town, at Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort. Denisa wanted to go there to see the outdoor sculptures that are scattered around the property. The most notable is the Chihuly glass sculpture. Not far from the Icicle River, it is appropriately named "Chihuly Icicles." 

Mark has never been accused of letting a little boulder stand in his way, so he climbed to the top to get a closer view of the 1,060 glass tubes that even light up at night.

We walked down to the river to see the fish sculptures there. From a distance we couldn't tell what was used to get the interesting texture of these fish scales.

That would be can tabs that had been re-purposed into fish scales.

We might not have a full appreciation for all the art we stumble upon, but Mark really enjoys art with a sense of humor. The artist explains this is "depicting humanity captured by the magic of nature."

On another warm day, we went to Pinnacle State Park. Among miles of smooth golden hills, suddenly there are pinnacles of rock protruding in just this small section. These limestone fins stick out from the hills, making it a favorite place for rock climbing. You can see Mark in his bright orange shirt approaching one of the big rock fins that is jutting out of the hill at a steep angle.

We're not like those crazy rock climbers that go straight up those tall ledges. But we are rock scramblers that like a good view from the top. From this perspective we could see the miles of straightly lined fruit orchards that fill the valley below.

Those rows of fruit trees go all the way up the side of the foothills, and down to the highway at the bottom of the valley. From here we can also see the Wenatchee River winding through the valley. We plan to kayak on it before we leave.

Mark is obviously a better scrambler than Denisa, and he got a good perspective from the top of this boulder. If you look very closely in the bottom left hand corner, you can see the tiny dot that is our car in the empty parking lot below.

It was a tough hike up the hill, and Denisa is surveying the path back down. She's standing in the bottom right hand corner of the picture below, looking out over the zig-zagging trail through the golden side of the hill.

We've seen these golden hills above the orchards, wondering what gave them their color. So we took a picture today of the yellow grain heads that cover these hills.

The pinnacles don't look nearly as impressive from the parking lot at the bottom. But we took this picture because it has one of those crazy rock climbers in it. The lone climber is working his way across the top of the pinnacle on the right, and you can barely see him against the blue sky.

We love the tasty gems, the arty gems, and the adventurous gems that we find in our new backyard. This is a good combination that gives us good exercise to work off the calories we taste along the way.