After a restful night in a beautiful and quiet cabin on the lake, I awoke ahead of my family so I could pick up breakfast for them two miles up the hill. I was greeted with a beautiful morning, plus bunnies and then a deer munching on the nearby grass. They didn't mind my presence at all. I had to sneak around the back of our cabin so that I don't scare off the deer. I couldn't do much to avoid the bunnies because, no matter how hard I tried to escape, the bunnies completely surrounded us. Should I place a Bunny Anxiety icon here?

When I returned to the car, I found that it was undisturbed and ended up with a full charge, exactly as intended. I unplugged and retrieved my cable, restored the washing machine to its outlet, and drove to the Lodge. Along the way I was able to sightsee, including a nice view of Patterson Lake where our cabins were. I retrieved our breakfast and brought it down to our family, which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Because the cabins did not have WiFi, my wife was anxious to get up to the Lodge so she could "finish some work." We packed up, loaded the car, and drove up to check out. Meanwhile my wife and daughter shopped at the gift shop, then my wife stayed in one of the libraries to work for her employer for a while. I took the opportunity to look at the views from the Lodge in the morning of the valley, which really was quite nice. The problem was that this delayed our departure by an additional hour. I can handle the resulting shift of lunch and dinner, but can my family?

After returning to Highway 20, we rejoined the Cascade Loop Scenic Driving Tour. I knew in advance that there would be no restaurants where we were going to be (in North Cascades) at the time we would be ready to eat lunch, therefore today was a day we should pack a lunch. In advance I found the Methow Valley Thriftway was on right on our way. Some construction on the way on Route 20 delayed our arrival. Once our cooler was fully restocked with lunch, drinks, and snacks, we were on on our way.

The road towards the east entrance to North Cascades was very scenic. It started with views of trees on warm-brown prairie-like hillsides, but as we climbed in altitude the tree coverage increased, reminding us strongly of Montana.

As we climbed we saw increasingly jagged peaks then came across Washington Pass, which was an impressive sight.

Among the National Park book's "Must See" locations in North Cascades National Park, it included the hike to Rainy Lake, which is technically outside the park. It took a little while to locate the right parking lot since there were multiple activities here named "Rainy". We had time only for a short one. Time Event Range Remaining 11:05 am Departed Winthrop 304 12:01 pm Arrived Rainy Lake Trailhead 234 Range/Distance ratio: 1.79 Conditions: Uphill, Mountain highway

The hike was short and quite easy, just right for my daughter. There were many streams and small waterfalls to see as we passed through a very pleasant forest. Other hikers were around but it wasn't too crowded. When we arrived at Rainy Lake we found only a small viewing area without a clear way to walk to other views of the lake. The lake itself it was quite pretty, and despite having snowpack-fed waterfalls from high tree-covered ridges, it didn't quite impress after seeing Avalanche Lake in Glacier National Park last week.

We made our way back to the trailhead, loaded up the car, and continued west to enter North Cascades National Park. The beautiful trees and mountainsides along all this way for a very scenic and enjoyable drive so far. The first major site in the Park was Ross Lake. This region is the northernmost part of the Cascade Range in the United States, driven up by millions of years of subduction under the North American plate, which also explains volcanic activity along this coast. The result is mountain ranges high enough to still retain snow in August. Much of this water flows down into rivers and lakes which power the hydroelectric dams that help make Washington's power grid reduce its carbon footprint.

We came across our first view of Pinnacle Peak, Paul Bunyans Stamp, and The Needle.

Since the earliest days of my plan, a visit to Diablo Lake was on the itinerary. Originally I wanted to us to hike across Diablo Dam as well, but that is closed during the pandemic. So I settled for the Diablo Lake Vista Point, pictured at the top of the page and right. Time Event Range Remaining 1:21 pm Departed Rainy Lake Trailhead 233 2:01 pm Arrived Diablo Lake Viewpoint 227 Range/Distance ratio: 0.23 Conditions: Downhill, Mountain highway

The turquoise color of Diablo Lake was especially stunning, created by the glacial silt in the water. The weather was very windy but otherwise very comfortable and very easy to see the views. The quickly moving clouds across the mountain tops were a nice picturesque touch too.

We then decided this was a great place to have lunch, with a view of the turquoise-colored Diablo Lake and mountain tops like Davis Peak. If you're going to have lunch outside during a pandemic, it's hard to find a better view than this.

After a very satisfying lunch, we took some time to roam around this view point and take several pictures and read the displays to learn about what we could see from here. This was a great stop.

Because we were about 90 minutes behind my original schedule, we did not have time to stop by the Visitors Center much less attempt Junior Ranger badges. We had to keep moving for the rest of the itinerary to work. So we continued west on our route along the Skagit River, whose curves I found very enjoyable to drive.

Time Event Range Remaining 2:36 pm Departed Diablo Lake 226 4:13 pm Arrived Burlington Supercharger 160 Range/Distance ratio: 0.917 Conditions: Downhill, Mountain highway Cost to Charge: $0

By the time we exited North Cascades, my family needed a restroom break, even though the car did not really need the charge. The Burlington Supercharger was along our route, and in advance I anticipated our family's need for restrooms here. However we discovered when we arrived that the Jack in the Box did not allow the public into their building, so we took turns using the public restrooms at the Fairfield Inn, which was kind enough to allow us in. It took a while for all four of us to use the one restroom. I was trying to get us out of there fast (see below).

After briefly crossing from the east side to the west side of I-5, we continued west on Route 20 to venture onto the islands in Puget Sound. It was my deliberate choice to take this route so we avoid Seattle completely, staying so far away from Seattle we cannot even see their famous Needle. The goal was to completely avoid downtown traffic or any aspect of its urban environment.

Time Event Range Remaining 4:23 pm Departed Burlington 204 4:55 pm Arrived Deception Pass State Park 184 Range/Distance ratio: 1.25 Conditions: Rural roads When I was researching this part of the trip, I found Deception Pass, a beautiful place to stop, particularly Rosario Beach. It is famous for its tidepools and the Maiden of Deception Pass. While the tide was too high to view the tidepools, we did take a good look at the famous Maiden of Deception Pass and took many pictures of the area.

The Maiden of Deception Pass, known as "Ko-kwahl-alwoot" in their native tongue of the Samish Tribe, is memorialized here as a two-sided wooden statue of a woman holding up a fish representing the abundance of food available in the seas here.

The other milestone we reached just now is that, after 11 days and 2693 miles of travel to inland forests, mountains, and deserts thus far, we finally returned to the Pacific Ocean, but north of Seattle rather than south of Los Angeles where we started. The area is also famous for scuba diving. As much as I would have liked to spend time diving, or otherwise visiting the beach for a longer period, we had to go: we had a boat to catch. We already missed the 4:15 pm ferry, the one I originally planned for us to catch. Following our hike today I've been trying to make up for lost time, now only about an hour behind schedule, by skipping and shortening stops. However, if we missed the 6 pm ferry or did not get to the ferry in time before it filled, getting to the hotel would take much much longer than I had in mind, involving travel that may (gasp!) take us into the City of Seattle; perish the thought! I could not make a ferry reservation in advance because I could not be certain when we would get to port; that depends entirely on my family. I should post a Miss-The-Boat Anxiety icon here, because that's what I was experiencing. I rushed my driving as fast as I felt I could get away with on these surprisingly busy rural roads. Meanwhile the car had plenty of range.

Time Event Range Remaining 5:06 pm Departed Deception Pass 184 5:45 pm Arrived Washington Ferry Coupevillle 151 Range/Distance ratio: 1.03 Conditions: Rural roads, traffic, Miss-the-boat Anxiety When we arrived at quarter before 6, I checked in and bought our tickets for the stand-by lanes. The ferry staff member manning the kiosk was obligated to point out we were not guaranteed to board, however from his experience he judged there was enough room. I checked in and bought our tickets for the stand-by lanes. Soon the ferry arrived, unloaded its vehicles and passengers, then let the reservation holders here onboard.

Then we made it! It was our turn to drive onboard the ferry, and we were good to go. Whew! After North Cascades we attempted to explain to the children how we were getting to the hotel. They couldn't understand when we said we're using a boat. "But then the boat will bring us back to the car?" they asked. The children thought the boat could only take people on board. Even when we told them "The Ferry is a boat where we can drive the car onto the boat", our children were still in disbelief. They've never seen such a boat before, so today would be their first time ever riding on a boat that can carry cars.

Yeah, I think that was pretty good way to blow their minds with this kind of excursion. I'm sure local residents wouldn't think twice, but, again, that's why I'm taking my children: to give them new experiences. But also this is the only time I've taken an all-electric car on a boat ride. Mine was the only all-electric car on that ferry ride. It's even more unlikely because it's a BEV with California plates on a Washington Ferry.

In normal times, passengers would be invited to mill about the upper decks and shop for gifts and snacks. I'd prefer to go up also because my family might get seasick sitting in the car on a rocking boat. Because of the pandemic we were "asked to remain in your vehicle."

However, my daughter had to use the restroom at this time, so I took her out of the car and found a restroom on the passenger decks for her to use. We of course used our masks. I took this opportunity to take pictures of the views from the upper decks.

It wasn't long until the ferry reached Port Townsend. The journey was very pleasant, without too much rocking. After the traffic in Port Townsend, the drive was very short to our hotel in Sequim. Time Event Range Remaining 6:31 pm Departed Port Townsend 149 7:13 pm Arrived Holiday Inn Sequim 115 Range/Distance ratio: 1.17 Conditions: Port traffic, Surface streets, then Fast, 65°F Cost to Charge: $0

The Supercharger in Sequim was conveniently on the grounds of a Holiday Inn Express, so months ago I booked a reservation there this evening. Tonight we checked in and unpacked in the room. Next door was also a Black Bear Diner where we had a very enjoyable dinner while the car filled up at the Supercharger. After dinner the car had plenty of charge, so I moved it to a hotel parking location.