Romance with Roslyn

Our visit to Roslyn, WA was unexpected.  The plan was to leave Seattle and drive over the weekend to Spokane, WA where we would stay the week. There is nothing special about Spokane, except it is half way to our next destination in Great Falls, MT, where my sister and brother live. 

Anyhow, days before leaving, Joe tells me the town where Northern Exposure was filmed, is on our way!  We are both HUGE fans of this early 90’s sitcom that fictionally took place in Cicely, Alaska, but was actually filmed in Roslyn, WA.  So we made it a point to overnight there on our way to Spokane!  It was just a short 1.5 hour drive from Seattle to the golf course we were staying at near the town. 

We immediately set up and drove the additional 15 minutes to the town of Roslyn, WA.  Oh My God!!!  It was so cool!!!!  We (I mostly) TOTALLY dorked out as we entered the town.  It looked JUST like it does on the show (of which I’ve seen every single episode at least twice)!!!  If you are not a fan, then just bare with me for the next few paragraphs.



The Brick!!!  Identical on the outside to the show, but completely different on the inside.



This is Chris with KBHR!

Dr. Fleishman's Office (Now the show's tourist shop)



Maggie's House



After making Joe drive through the tiny 4 block town of less then 1000 people at least a dozen times, we stopped to eat at Roslyn Café (I couldn’t believe I was eating there)!!!  It was actually pretty good.  Then we were off to go and explore the show themed gift store, where we got our bumper sticker (We are collecting a bumper sticker for each place we visit, only missing Ashland, OR and Seattle), and then to tour the characters houses, including Maurice and Maggie’s homes.  Eeeek!!!!



Maurice's House

I seriously didn’t want to leave the town, but it was getting late and COLD, so we headed back to the RV.  Once back at home, we found out two things, the place we were planning on staying in Spokane was booked solid for most of the up coming week with no other possibilities, and Joe and I were both totally in love with Roslyn.  So we decided to stay right where we were for the week.  Yay!

We did find a better place to stay besides the golf course, at Eagle Valley in Cle Elum (practically the same town as Roslyn, just closer to the Hwy and a major grocery store).  Only electric and water hook ups, which means we’d have to hook back up and drive to the dump mid week, but we had the place totally to ourselves, it was beautiful with room for the kids to run, $1 ice cream cones, and only $13 a night!!!!  Bliss!

Eagle Valley



We got an ice cream just about every day.



Playing mini golf. 



We ate outside as often as we could, having finally left the rain.

We spent as much of the week as we could hovering around Roslyn, playing on the parks playground, walking the town, driving the town, ridding our bikes around the town, etc.  We loved it so much, we even called a Realtor to show us a foreclosed house that was on the market for $60K (Major foundation issues, go figure). 

We went to story time at Cle Elem Library and L made a spider snack.



L got half an hour of ridding lessons on Sweetie Pie.

She taught her how to stop and turn the horse.  L LOVED IT!

Bean even got a turn.



We played at Cle Elum Park, where L ended up making lots of friends.

 

Before leaving on Saturday, we went to the Independence Parade.  L racked up on the candy!

The Fire Fighter staged a big water fight between the Cle Elum and Rosyln Stations.  It was great!

In addition, we also drove into the National Forest just north of Roslyn, visited a Ranger station, got a haircut for Loralai (which she later took upon herself to improve upon, gonna need Krissy's help on this one), and went on a long bike ride around Roslyn.

Roslyn has an interesting history as a historic coal minning town.  There are all these "sheds" in peoples backyards that are actually coal miners cabins from the 1800’s and because they are historic, cannot be torn down or even repaired, so they are just falling over.  But the town is very charming and set in the foothills of the Casscade mountains.  The views are amazing and the weather was so nice, with a much needed break from constant rain.  Who knows, maybe we will return someday for a longer stay.

Roslyn