This past weekend, Chad and I decided to cool off Bavarian style with our friends Greer and William by joining a Living Social tour tubing the Wenatchee River in Leavenworth. Chad and I love, love, love Leavenworth. If you haven’t been – GO. It is an adorable Bavarian-style town nestled in the Cascade Mountains.

They have a festival every weekend, it seems, so there is never a shortage of things to celebrate in Leavenworth. But even if they aren’t having a festival, they have cool shops, great hikes, and of course tubing in the Wenatchee River.

After a fun coach bus ride provided by Living Social (during which we enjoyed (and won!) a trivia contest), we met up with Leavenworth Outdoor Center’s staff along the banks of the Wenatchee River. They provided us with tubes outfitted with hammock seats and backrests as well as Frisbees to use as paddles along the way (we later came to realize these low-tech paddles were quite handy).

Our group jumped in the water (which was the perfect temperature on this late August day) and we started our self-guided float. The water was ideal and the rapids very mild, perfect for a family or just a lazy day on the river.

We drifted down river,  past the Leavenworth Golf Club, then past Enchantment Park. Chad took entertaining videos.

We spied lots of wildlife: a sea otter near Blackbird Island, a beaver heading for his den cruised past, dozens of ducks,  a mama and baby deer having a drink by the river – all without a care that we were cruising past them. It was a relaxing journey – we joked about the Class Negative 2 Rapids, because that’s how easy this float was. In fact, the only real concern we had was becoming beached due to the shallowness of the water. Of course, this will change year to year depending on rain and snow melt. That said, we were quite content to sit back in our rafts and enjoy the relative ease of the float.

Our journey ended at downtown Leavenworth. Once back on land, part of our Living Social package included a lunch of bratwurst and of course, the quintessential stein of beer in the beer garden of Der Hinterhof restaurant. From there we had some time to peruse the shops and sites of Leavenworth, grab a locally made strudel, and of course hit up another beer garden, before boarding our bus back to Seattle.

We highly recommend tubing with the Leavenworth Outdoor Center. And if you happen to see this trip offered on Living Social, snap it up! It was so nice to have everything pre-arranged for us, making it a truly lazy, but ultimately relaxing and fun, day in summer.

PROST!