Van Trip 2012 - North Cascades, Leavenworth, WA, Mt. Rainer

 What a fun vacation we took, road tripping North, to the North Cascade National Park (least traveled National Park) - An alpine landscape, with jagged mountain tops in view and glacier water a flowing... and vibrant!  We camped 3 nights and did small hikes with the girls and a good visit to the Visitor's Center.
From there we traveled through Winthrop, WA - an old town with the wood sidewalk that attaches each building.  Tourist spot but great little town to stop and grab some ice cream.
We drove by Lake Chelan (and so wanted to get into this awesome lake, especially after driving through smoking hot weather on our way to Leavenworth, WA - such a cute Alpine Bavarian

 village where we stayed in a hotel for 2 nights and freshened up, ate out and visited with the Bavarian town.
Then we finalized our trip to Mt. Rainer National Park - which was spectacular.  The weather was great, blue sky's and the mountain was everywhere to be seen.  We learned it was the 5th National park and used the same template with park planning and more for future National Parks.  The mountains wild flowers were the best and I believe August was the perfect time to see so many!  The girls had a great time camping, eating marshmallows, playing in the water, hiking, and mostly playing in the hammock.  :)