There’s nothing better than getting together with a great group of people and visiting around a fire in the evening before the sun goes down. My friends who are in Mexico and are reading this will really be envious of this fact…………..there are NO mosquitos here in Washington! There are no carnivorous insects at all and it’s possible to sit outside and commune with the beauty of nature and not be bothered by any annoying parasites.

When we were at church on Sunday, one of the events mentioned in the bulletin was an evening of fellowship around a fire. Just bring your own lawn chairs. And the setting for this event? A beautiful area surrounded by orchards of pears and steps away from the river. Every time I think the scenery here can’t get any more spectacular I am proved wrong.

We took the North Road off of Highway 2 and began our drive. A hidden bridge was our landmark to turn off the main road. This narrow trail of a bridge afforded a view of the train tracks below. I enjoyed walking across the wooden planks in order to snap these photos.

We then drove for several more minutes on a narrow winding road through orchards laden with luscious pears. We finally reached a clearing where we spotted a number of vehicles and eagerly walked down a small trail to find a number of people gathered around a fire pit.

Being the one outsider, everyone is sure to recall my name although theirs will all be a blur to me until I get to know everyone a little better. One of the first people I talked to was a retired doctor who is also a writer. I met people who had retired to Leavenworth from Seattle. I met younger people and enjoyed watching the children play. People were eager to share their life stories with me and to fill me in on life in Leavenworth. They were intrigued that I was from Canada and that I lived in Mexico.

Of course one of the highlights of this event was toasting marshmallows around the fire pit.

They were then placed on graham crackers along with chocolate to form this delicious treat. Do you like s’mores?