A Night in Leavenworth

If you've ever been to Leavenworth, Washington, I don't even have to explain to you how absolutely magical it is. If you haven't been there, Leavenworth is a cute little Bavarian town over here in Eastern WA. It's got the cutest little town square where accordion players sing old time German themed songs and tourists browse various kinds of shops and sip on German beer. It gets comfortably hot in the summer and snowy in the winter and everything about Leavenworth is picturesque. When I found out Zach had a show at a sweet little place called King Ludwig's in Leavenworth I was so excited! Plus, he was going to be opening for country star James Otto. So yesterday we packed up our Ford truck and hit the highway towards paradise.

When we arrived, we were greeted with beer and good company. Not only was everyone who worked at the establishment the most kindhearted, generous people I've met in a while, Zach's manager had set up a pretty cool stage for him to preform on. I broke out our little Canon Rebel to get some shots of the show, since I am usually the one on photo duty during gigs.

Show days are a little weird for me. Zach is my boyfriend, and to me he will always just be a man I'm in love with. On a normal day, we are goofy and chill and lovin' all over each other. But on show days, we are different people. Zach's got a lot of pressure on him. Not only does he need to put on a good show but he also has to make sure he's got what he needs, listen and learn from his manager, and talk to fans after the show. There are a lot of eyes on him and a lot of thoughts zooming through his mind all at once. So when show days arrive, I've learned to sit back and take cues from him as to what he needs my help with. Usually, I'm simply a shoulder to lean on, a sense of support on the most extreme level. I'm his love, that's how he'll always see me and that's exactly what he needs me to be for him in the middle of the chaos that is a gig. I'm a constant. And then if I can carry a suitcase or snap some photos in the meantime, that helps too.

After the show was over and the guests cleared out, I was glad that Zach had the chance to sit and chat with James Otto for a while. Not only did he give some good advice, we also got to snack on some amazing German food from King Ludwig's that was out of this world (expect a lot of food talk in my blog, I've been eatin' like my 6 foot 3 boyfriend for two solid years now..and I love food). James is a great guy, and the he gave Zach some of the best advice I've heard: to make friends that do what you do, keep those friends close, learn from them and work with them and you'll never be unsuccessful.

I'm so glad we went to Leavenworth for a gig because we did meet a few purely good people that if we went back again, would do anything for us. We had a great time and Zach totally killed it. I really didn't want to leave beautiful Leavenworth this morning, but Zach has another gig today, so we took the highway home to our next adventure.

-B