Part One: The Crossing

On Wednesday we ditched school…I know, I know, I was so excited to get started. Short attention span. We crossed the mountains and headed east to Lake Chelan.

We took the North Cascades Highway, which I’d never driven before (a fact which left Adam’s cousin Kristie shocked, amazed and horrified). We’ve now rectified that situation and I can kind of see Kristie’s point. It was amazing and I’m glad we went. It is a beautiful and dramatic ride and I always enjoy the contrast of going up one side of the mountain in one climate (dense moist forests thick with moss and ferns) and going down in a different climate (dry with incredibly straight and tall pine trees).

At a rest stop, this gorgeous view was on one side:

The pretty Skagit River was on the other side:


And in the middle these little beauties:


They somehow felt out of place.

We stopped in Newhalem at the National Park Visitor’s Center. We could have spent several days just there. Braeden (of course because he chats with everyone) chatted with the rangers and answered their “Question of the Day” about the eating habits of black bears. When he answered their further question about how you can tell from a bear’s teeth that they are omnivores they were so impressed they were high fiving him and telling him that someday he should work there.

I’ll have you know that I didn’t tell everyone standing around. “Hey, I’m that kid’s teacher. A little credit?”

I was thinking it though.

Slug love

Our next stop was Winthrop, which is a little town that someone decided to turn into Frontierland at Disneyland. It works.

Sandal feet on the boardwalk

We enjoyed homemade ice cream cones and watched the world of Winthrop go by.

Braeden said he was going to get saddle sores from eating his ice cream.

mmmmmmm...

We found our hotel in Manson, right along Lake Chelan. Everyone except me went swimming in the pool and we rested up for another day of fun.

Nice to be out of the van