Sunday 23rd July

Time to leave the glorious Twisp River Suites. We grabbed another healthy breakfast and saw our friend owner Joe.

Joe strolled the aisles at breakfast and took interest in anything and everything. Elliotts interest in s’mores, another couples plans for the day, the phone, the lack of spray cream and the structural integrity of the building. Joe is living his best life and seems to be enjoying every day. We would hate to work with him, but 5mins with Joe was fun!

The boys wanted to play down by the river, it was impressive to see the effort that Joe had put in. There were chairs, tables, hammocks and fans to enjoy the calm river.

We jumped into the car and headed to North Cascades National Park. Before hitting the National Park we passed through Winthrop which everyone in the hotel had mentioned was beautiful.

We noticed straight away how fewer cars and people there were in North Cascades. We didn’t have to show our America The Beautiful Pass, which made us think it should be more busy! Our first stop was an amazing lookout over the mountains.

We moved onto our first trail. Mummy decided to hike the trail in flip flops which was a first.

We did the shorter trail to the waterfall rather than the full 2.2 miles to the lake. We passed people sweating and wheezing as most of the trail was uphill.

We even passed a Dad pulling a small trailer up the hill which contained fishing equipment. He was smiling but pouring with sweat.

Mummy decided to drink the creek!

Nate fell over twice on the walk back up the hill. With his sideways sunglasses and dirty clothes he looked like he has been on a messy night out in Basildon.

Diablo Lake is one of the most famous reservoirs in the world. Another glacial runoff, but this one is so blue and turquoise green that it can look unreal.

We were amazed by its colour and scale, it just boggles the mind to try and think about how big this country really is.

Using the Hunter method, we drive into a busy car park and wait for someone to pull out of a space right in front of the entrance. This technique worked again today!

We sat and watched the boys do what they love, to sit and create imagination games. Nate was pretending to fish, while Elliott was making a surfboard out of wood.

Ell trying everything he can to have a go at ‘fishing’!

Nate found a ‘snake’ (and an ‘elk hoof’ and an ‘eagle claw’!) today!

Lots of people were stand up paddle boarding, kayaking and just chilling. Mummy is set on getting a stand up paddle board when we get back to England. The wind today was pretty strong and folks had to work hard to get away from the shore line.

We made a brief stop in the visitors centre to grab the details to send away for the Junior Eanger badges. We spoke to the Ranger and they agreed if the boys sent in their forms and work they would receive the badges.

We arrived at the Airbnb in Rockport, the hosts were out running an errand. Mummy received a message that stated we will be back later we have 4 large dogs just in case you hear them! Grimace emoji face, Mummy and Elliott are very nervous around dogs and even worse large dogs. After a few messages the dogs are actually inside in another building.

We are staying in the guest house which is named Camp Spring and John (the owner) built this apartment specifically for wounded veterans. We have seen on this trip, but the Americans treat their veterans completely differently. Being a veteran is like having a golden ticket of approval from everyone.

John is also an EMT and in charge of Johns Guided Tours taking folks fishing or hunting out near Rockport. The apartment is filled with pictures of the successful hunts, fishing is fine, but pictures of bear hunts is not.

We enjoyed the apartment and separate games room (still under construction). Daddy teaching Elliott how to play pool and hold a snooker cue, while Nate played magnetic darts. Mummy using the microwave cooked up some s’mores!

Daddy found some interesting reads to lookup in the local library back home.

Tomorrow, we head further West towards Seattle, we have a ferry booked to travel back (ten years later) to San Juan Island to try and see some orcas (killer whales) – exciting!