In our ongoing effort to visit every single one of the National Parks in the United States, we made a circle that took us out to Lake Wenatchee and back through North Cascades National Park.  You can see that the boys were bursting with anticipation as we took off.

At Lake Wenatchee, we met up with Neal who was a great partner in crime for Lyell as they terrorized the campground on tricycles.

There was also a great deal of very serious work to be done at the beach.

Our next stop was at the Lone Pine campground in the North Cascades.  We were unable to get a photo of the highlight of that stop, which was a mouse that visited the camper in the middle of the night and ate our chocolate chip cookies.  We hope that he still has a stomach ache.  We did get some good hiking in, though!

Then we got to the pass.  Wow.   For all of you who have never heard of North Cascades National Park - I would like to just say that it is as beautiful as any we have visited.  And we have visited a lot.  This photo does not begin to capture the view from the pass - but - well - go see for yourself!

On the way back down to Seattle, we found a retired, restored steam locomotive that we were allowed to explore.  Lyell loved to ring the bell!

And here, he and mom check the load of coal!

After a stop at Cascadia Farms for some fantastic ice cream and blueberries, well, people were pretty worn out so we headed home.