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A Few Good Facts

^{This section is an add-on from Britannica.com. Each day there is a new fun fact in their All Good Facts section. These are a few that Rachel found interesting.}

If a female giraffe is interested in a male giraffe, she will produce urine for him to taste, allowing him to check for hormones indicating her fertility. (9/15)

In 1932 Ole Kirk Kristiansen founded a company to make wooden toys. He later named the company LEGO, combining the words leg godt, Danish for “play well.” In 1949 LEGO began producing “Automatic Binding Bricks.” (9/17)

While Major League Baseball entertains crowds annually with home run derbies, the Korea Baseball Organization wows its crowds with short, well-placed balls during bunting derbies. (9/21)

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Word of the Day

Will you find it?

^{As a fun challenge each week, Rachel visits Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day when she sits down to write her weekly story. Whatever the word of that particular day happens to be, she must find a way to fit it into her story. Will you find it?}

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Story of the Week

Willkommen in Leavenworth

On Saturday, September 23, 2023, Rachel headed to Leavenworth, Washington to attend the 60^th Annual Autumn Leaf Festival. Leavenworth is a Bavarian village in the Cascade Mountains. It is a very popular tourist destination for good reason. With both summer and winter recreation and activities, there is something for everyone.

The Autumn Leaf Festival celebrates the turning colors of the autumn leaves and is the village’s original festival. There are now several festivals throughout the year, including the Maifest Celebration, which Rachel attended this past May. A couple of the most popular festivals include the Oktoberfest and Village Lights of Christmastown.

After her visit in May, Rachel knew she would make another trip to Leavenworth before the mountain roads were too dangerous for her little car. She was excited to find the Autumn Leaf Festival, partially due to the inclusion of a parade. Who doesn’t love a parade?

The drive through the Cascades was beautiful as always. There wasn’t a great deal of color change but enough to be appreciated. Rachel was able to stop for a few photos along the drive.

Once she arrived in Leavenworth, she noticed that the Tumwater Twister was up and running. The Tumwater Twister is a new roller coaster that was under construction during her last visit. This ride sure did look like fun and would certainly cause Rachel to lose her lunch. She opted to enjoy it from the vantage point below.

Once she reached the main strip of the village, she came across an alphorn horn player entertaining a crowd. An alphorn is a musical instrument carved from solid softwood. There were several performances with the alphorn to enjoy throughout the festival.

She then headed to the main pavilion and enjoyed a performance by the Bavarian Brass. This group also played during the Maifest and did not disappoint. Rachel was pleased to enjoy their performance of Edelweiss, which is one of her favorite songs from The Sound of Music.

Rachel enjoyed her time in Leavenworth watching the live performances and visiting the local shops, as well as eating the local cuisine, but was most excited when it was time for the parade. She had been watching attendees set up lawn chairs along the route all morning and was disappointed in herself for not bringing her chair along. The crowds were growing by the minute, and she was a bit concerned at finding a decent viewing area. As she wandered along the route behind rows of viewers, she noticed a small spot in between two lawn chairs. She asked if the spot was taken, and it was not. What a perfect find. Sometimes it pays to be solo. She would have to sit on the curb but would have a fantastic view of the parade.

This parade was one of Rachel’s favorites to date. It lasted for more than an hour but the time flew by. There was so much entertainment and creativity; it was impressive. The below photos are just a sampling of the fun parade entries.

As with any parade, there was royalty, oh boy was there a lot of royalty. All royalty in attendance was lionized. It was refreshing to see all shapes and sizes. As you will notice, there is a lack of photos in this category, as Rachel was a bit tired of the forced smiles and weird waves. That was until the royalty floats with the dancing princesses, princes, and queens began to arrive. What a fun idea. Royalty of the future take note, get rid of the forced smiles and unnatural wave, and replace those with dance. After all, dance evokes a nature smile. It may have been the Katy Perry song but Rachel enjoyed the energy from these two in the video below. But this wasn’t her favorite.

As far as a favorite, the Prince below simply stole the show.

Let’s revisit some equine love in the feature story, shall we? It was just by chance that Aubrey’s beautiful photo with a horse appeared in this week’s issue, and then Rachel had the opportunity to see so many other majestic beauties during the parade. She wishes Aubrey could have been along to enjoy. Maybe next year.

To finish out the impressiveness of this parade, Rachel saved her favorite for last. She is a big fan of instrumental music, specifically high school bands in parades that know how to get a crowd moving. As she was wandering through town prior to the parade, she saw several large buses arriving. She thought there were a lot and did think it was odd, but also figured it was a parade and groups would be brought in to perform. Never did she realize that there would be 23 high school marching bands performing in the parade. Yes, 23, that is not a typo. They just kept coming, one after another. She was thrilled! Her favorite, the Ballard High School Marching Band is pictured below.

The other 22 are also pictured below; she couldn’t resist photographing them all. There were plenty that were quite impressive. The most impressive thing is the children that opt to pick up a musical instrument and learn a valuable art.

The Ballard group was strides above the rest, in Rachel’s opinion. Enough so that she did a bit of research on them. No, it wasn’t because their band director was extremely appealing to the eye (think actor Vin Deisel), which he was, it was truly because she loved their performance and wanted to seek out videos of other performances.  

Scroll all the way down for a video of their performance in the parade, and to catch a glimpse of the director. It is evident that his energy is instrumental to the success of this band, pun intended. Until next time, be well.

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