America 2015 - part 10

The North Cascades Highway is one of America's most scenic loops and I'd never been there until now. We went in the family van of my sister, with her husband and kids. It was quite an experience to be on a road trip because the kids didn't quite get the fact that the purpose of the trip was the trip itself, not the destination. But they settled into it and we had a blast.

My family has a talent for snacking and we had an astounding supply of food to get us through these passes which are too remote for businesses. In fact, it's impossible to get hungry on a road trip with my sister. I was indulging on purely America things like pepperoni sticks, Montery Jack cheese, honey roasted peanuts, string cheese, broccoli dipped in Ranch, and I bought a bag of Cracker Jacks cuz the kids had never had them, nor my husband. (But Germans don't like popcorn, nor peanuts.)

But I'm not used to being around kids, even ones who unconditionally love J and me, and I welcome the excitement and wonder at life, but at one point I was going into overload because of the inclination of my nephew to vocalize every one of his thoughts, so I tried to distract him with the alphabet game. My family plays a vicious game of alphabet, and my poor nephew, the newbie, hasn't learned the tricks yet.

Naturally he vocalized the game itself as well. "I'm looking for an H. An H, I wonder if anyone else has an H? H, H, h, H, h, H...." Until I tipped him in that one of the rules of the game is to keep secret what letter you're on, and then surprise people when you say Z suddenly. He got that. I shouldn't sound so harsh - I love indulging my childlike side with him, and one of my most cherished memories of my entire July trip was the time I spent alone with him in a deliciously cold swimming pool in Omak.

We listened to a lot of old U2, and TMBG, pretty much my nephew let me pick the music.


This is the view in front of us...


..turning around you see a solid wall of rock.


The glacial waters have an odd hue to them that is not a result of camera settings.





The water really is that color.


Looking down into the most lovely place on the entire loop.


It was glorious, absolutely silent here, you must think of the Native Americans who used this route for so many years, whether they attributed spiritual meaning to this place. Of course.


Imagine camping down there, waking up to this sight.


My nephew runs to the lookout.


Eerily colored glacial waters.


The family, with J reading the info board about the earth cache at this location.








Finally we made it to Winthrop for dinner, which is a town sometimes used to film Westerns.


We walked into this place but had to leave because it was totally packed and a band was playing by the river, and you had to scream to be heard. We eventually found another place that had so many wasps in it my sister just sat outside.


We stayed the night in Omak at another Best Western and enjoyed the air conditioning immensely. When we woke up int he morning, it was clear we were in the middle of Washington state. I swam in the pool with my nephew, and we went from the boiling hot hot tub to the pool repeatedly, and through a large window we could see the dining area and a huge TV with the Pioneer Woman on it, cooking something. I'd never seen her on TV before. I don't really like her but I was curious what her voice sounded like. I couldn't tell from the pool. My nephew said, "She talks like a chipmunk, so just imagine that as she cooks." OK then.


See the sprinklers in the foreground keeping the crops alive? I actually saw, for the first time, one of those circular irrigation things that makes a lovely satellite image. I wished I could look down on it from above.


Sage. How can I resist. I never could. I must always pick it.


This time I did not take care of my sage and it got trampled in the bottom of our rental car, making our car smell delightful for the rest of our trip. Dangit, I wish I'd gotten more and taken care of it. Lots of Native American fans in Germany would love it.


I'm afraid this might have burned up in a fire last week: (


Walking from our car to Lake Chelan, we found a row of peach trees. We immediately started picking and eating. They were wonderful! You can see the trees behind me, where I'd come over to where my husband was hiding from us, afraid that we'd get busted for eating their fruit. Well, there were no signs. BTW, it was so so bloody hot in Chelan. All you can do is think about water.


On arrival at the gorgeous Lake Chelan, 50 miles long, one of the deepest lakes in the world, at its deepest point, 100 meters below sea level. The Indians named it Chelan, meaning "deep water."

My mom said it was the cleanest lake in the world, and I believe it, it's in the middle of nowhere, and it's fed by glacial waters.


You can see the bottom so perfectly. Sadly we did not have our swimsuits, so I just waded. It was cool and warm, alternating.





On our way home, we made a slight diversion through Levenworth, the Bavarian town, to my husband's chagrin. I have to laugh - they have more German flags in this town than the entire nation of Germany (where national pride does not exist).

Next:  Deception Falls, Cle Elum, Roslyn, Leavenworth cabin and honestly that's about it