BLOGS

Unplug the Xbox. Forget online movies. Cancel the trip to Disneyland.

In 2011, the Wenatchee Valley had enough distractions to eat up just about every spare minute that we weren’t working or sleeping.

Politics, sports, economics, arts and sciences and even natural disasters competed for our attention. It was an exhausting array of free entertainment options.

Here’s our list of 2011’s top 5 distractions:

1. Town Toyota Center: The arena, arguably the best public addition to Wenatchee since the Loop Trail, stood imperiled through most of the year. Its near-death spiral into default wasn’t fun to watch, but it sure was fascinating — like a hyper-reality TV show unfolding right before our eyes.

2. Apple City Roller Derby: Tatted-up tuff girlz have a certain sexy charm, and the babes on the local roller derby team (in photo) flaunt it in spades. They’re rowdy and raucous on the track, of course, but also in local parades, at cancer fundraisers and, heck, just walking down the street. With names like Royal Crush, SlaYer Sorry and Aim’N Low, you expect some ’tude, and there it is — in yer face. Slogan: “No whiners, snivellers or cry babies need apply.”

3. Spring floods: Whoa, momma, where’d all that water come from? In May and June, the Columbia River backed up behind Rock Island Dam to flood riverbank trails, swamp boat ramps and even threaten a few structures. Daily checks — how high will it go? — revealed the same calamity connoiseurs gathered at river’s edge, all hoping for real disaster. Creepy. But kids absolutely loved playing on park benches a foot under water at Confluence State Park.

4. Woody Goomsba: One droopy ledershosen and Leavenworth’s Bavarian fashion police will clonk your cuckoo in a flash.

So it was shocking in late 2010 to see the bump-and-grind, hip-hop frauleins of “Gitcha Goomsba Up,” the town’s tourism video that went viral early in 2011.

Media attention quickly piled up around the kitschy creation that — like it or not — gave the somewhat lascivious Woody a new star status.

5. Wenatchee’s First Fridays: Almost an instant success, the downtown art walk offered storefronts full of creative talent. And snacks.

Galleries featured some of the area’s top artists and their works — paintings, ceramics, sculpture, photography, fabrics. And snacks.

As summer progressed, the list of participating galleries and restaurants grew almost too long. Art-loving snackers had to map out a strategy to, ahem, digest the evening’s offerings.

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beeve     4 months, 3 weeks ago

Off the clock: 2011's top 5 distractions

These were all fun, but my favorite distraction of 2011 was the Wenatchee Scavenger Hunt that went through the summer. I hope it comes back again next summer.

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