Being in Seattle, my German experience comes mainly through pubs like Von Trapps, Die Bierstube and their delicious sausage variety to wash down with cold and brilliantly crafted beer selection!
But if you really want to brush up on German you learnt in school or celebrate oktoberfest like a German (sorta :P), Leavenworth is just stone's throw away (2+ hours to be little more specific!). It's a cozy Bavarian town close to abundantly gorgeous Wenatchee lake, all makes it a perfect weekend getaway!
This being my dad's first weekend in the USA, I thought I would show him something that reminds him of his roots - naturally rich coastal villages in Konkan, India! We decided to rent a cabin for Friday and Saturday night and drive there on Friday evening!
En route we stopped at 59er diner - a cozy western diner that takes you back in the times of jukeboxes, Elvis Presley and Cadillacs! Lovely service and convenient hours (we're open until we have customers, says a cheeky young gal serving us!) After sumptuous servings of fries, rings, fish, chips, burgers and what not; we had hard time resisting a homemade apple crisp topped with Vanilla!
Off we head to our cabin just after it's dark! A three story chocolate colored wooden house that opens into the lake through brushing pines. This is going to be good!, I said. Tired by the hectic post-work long drive, coupled with slowly setting food coma, I hit a comfy bunk bed!
[Next day morning] Dad: Wake up! there's a rainbow! Me: (half opening my eyes) What? Let me sleep dad, it's Saturday morning! Dad:And it's reflecting on water, maybe there's couple of them. Doesn't happen everyday.. Me: What now?
I woke up pinching myself twice so as to make sure this is not one of those half-asleep morning stupors. Then bolted barefeet towards the lake..
Serene waters, shimmering morning sunshine through the greens and yellows on the other side of the lake, a hill half-covered in cotton clouds/snow! A magnificent double arch reflecting on the Wenatchee lake showing the best of the color palettes nature has to offer!
Makes you believe in magic!
As the magic wore off, I looked around just to be amazed maybe one more time..
Floating houses, magical rainbows!
After a home cooked breakfast (something I got after long time!); we forced ourselves to head to the Bavarian village we came all the way to see! After usual tourist errands, checking out Bavarian folk performances and indulging on some quality sausage and beer selection at Leavenworth Sausage Garten (best I've had so far); we decided head back to the quieter surroundings!
Pick your poison!
Origin of yodelling..
A park in Leavenworth..
Cousin: Oh look, there's a rowboat! Me: Alright then, we know what to do now!
How I thought it was going to be:
How it really was, which was honestly pretty f$#%g good!
I'm on a boat!
As if that was not enough. I decided to dip in the freezing cold waters! Bad idea, bad f%##%g idea, is all I remember from that!
A cabin weekend is incomplete without a hearty barbecue. So we obliged.
Men. Fire. Food.
This was all enough to put me to sleep like a baby. Next day, before heading back we decided to check out the other end of lake Wenatchee. It's a lake or a seashore? I thought.
It's a lake. It's a beach. It is both!
As you can see, the getaway was awesome enough to make me write about it immediately after coming back!
My grandfather owned a retail shop in a rural village in India. He would bring goods from a nearby city around 20 miles away and sell them to the locals - everything from notebooks to potatoes! He hardly watched any TV, walked around the village and met with people face to face, hosted his kids and their families over summer and other festivals and was physically present in all our childhoods.
Imagine the same in today's world! All my cousins live all across the world and we seldom meet each other, mostly over whatsapp, phone or skype! We still hang out once a year, but this is becoming somewhat of a rarity as we grow up. We all realize that the quality of interaction we used to have as kids has gone down, but what has bonded us together is that quality time we spent with each other that allowed us to build those deep personal ties!
If I imagine what the world and nature of human connections would be like 10-20 years down the line, my heart shudders and almost feels miserable for the next generation who probably won't get to experience that level of deep personal connection! Sad part is they probably won't know what it is really like because they wouldn't even have a frame of reference to compare it with.
For the generation Z, the social connection starts with Facebook and ends with SnapChat!
So, this is my old man take on all this! I often tell my friends I am an old man trapped in a young body! Let's say what my young boy instincts say now -
Over the course of millions of years, the nature of human connection has changed over time. Starting with just a body language, to mono-syllable sounds to an evolved language as the frontal lobe kept on expanding and brain started growing! The change in the nature of human connection has evolved slowly, which determined the rate at which humans adapt to change.
Ever since Industrial revolution, things have started moving drastically though! From a normal, farmer lifestyles; human being are moved to big crowded cities and started living markedly different life than before. All of a sudden lifestyles changed and new set of lifestyle related diseases evolved!
Anyways, that aside - the future generations are defining their ways of establishing those deep connections - through whatsapp or snapchat or vines! They are willing to share way more than all the historical content combined! They have different problems to deal with - not to find some information, but to sieve thru dirtload of information, not to worry about electricity and clean waters; but the speed of wifi and connectivity of cellphones!
As generation Z becomes Y, and us Ys become Xs; new set of necessities and social norms would evolve! As an individual you can still be part of whichever group you like; but in general
We too are gonna reminisce about the days of the yore
We too are gonna miss the days of GI Joes and barbie dolls!
We too are gonna envy the new kids on the block
We too are gonna smirk on the stuff they are getting wrong!
We too are gonna laugh at their stupid ideas and sensibilities
We too are gonna cry at their stupid mistakes and idiosyncrasies!
We would be nostalgic too to the tune of that old song
We too are gonna look inside when our kids are what we were!
We too are gonna grow old and act like wise men!
We too are gonna learn to live well every once in a while!
All in all, George Bernard Shaw said it the best
Youth is indeed wasted on the young (and the restless)!!
