things to do
Going Local
Living here, in the Pacific Northwest, we have an endless amount of things to do, places to visit and sights to see. And yet, am I the only one who frequents places like the zoo, the aquarium, the parks, the beach and the public market over and over again, missing the million other points of interest in between? Believe me, it isn’t for a lack of interest, it is more because I’ve fallen into a rut - allowing these all-too-familiar (and fabulous) stops to pull me towards them, thus forgetting all about the places I said I wanted to take my kids this summer, places like Jetty Island, The Space needle, EMP, The Underground Tour. I know they’d love visiting The Future of Flight, The Water slides at Birch Bay and Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, not to mention The Reptile Museum.But, how am I going to squeeze all of that into the remaining few weeks of summer, along with taekwondo camp and the beginning of soccer season?At least our recent out-of-town guests provided some diversity to our usual summertime routine. I am always amazed at how easy it is to transport your usual busy self, running here and there and hardly stopping to smell the roses (if there were any), into a tourist in your own state. It isn’t hard at all.We discovered that pouring over a map of Washington in our living room, while everyone drank coffee (this is the java capitol of The United States, right?) and traded ideas on what to see and do, became our greatest resource in choosing our destinations. We remembered places our parents brought us as children, we remembered places we’d only heard of but longed to visit. We remembered why it is we live in this marvelous corner of the country after all.
I have never, in such a short amount of time, covered more square miles of Washington (by ferry, feet and automobile) than we did during those 2 weeks. We went as far north as Anacortes, and as far south as Puyallup (or Elbe, if you want to be technical). We were in Yakima and Ellensburg, and up and over 3 of our state’s passes (Stevens, Snoqualmie and White). I saw the insides of all the rest stops too (oh, goody, my favorite part!). Did you know there is free coffee at nearly every rest area in Washington? Too bad my kids don’t care for it. We threw rocks off the waters of Whidbey Island, and snuck up on deer in the meadows of Mt. Rainier National Park. We slept in a log cabin. We ate questionable food, and glorious meals. We even saw one local celebrity (Chris Ingalls - local news anchor extraordinaire and no, I did not ask him for an autograph, although I chatted up his wife and Katie almost licked his new baby daughter).
All in all, an excellent time.
When it was time for our Danish guests to leave, there was only one destination that we’d left off our list: Seattle. Being that it was Seafair Weekend, we voted that we’d go to Fort Casey instead and leave the crowds in Seattle to do as they pleased. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a more empty ferry boat ride (which is a blessing).
Upon our return, exhausted and tired, I poured through all of the photos I’d snapped, the funny stories I’d heard from the kids and the memories of the moments spent asking “are we there yet?”. And I remembered this specifically, on one of the Mt. Rainier trails, when I turned into my own mother. I was frantically grabbing onto the hoods of the kids sweatshirts so that they wouldn’t fall from the extremely high and dangerous overlook into the Nisqually River below (good grief, I don’t know how we ever survived) and tried desperately to ignore the growing lump in my throat as I realized how small we really are, in comparison to that glorious mountain.
And how lucky we really are, to live here, in Washington.
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Hi Carrie,
We have visitors coming in two weeks. Since we just moved here, we are at a disadvantage as where to go. We will be visiting a lot of first as well. Can you give me your top ten places to go with visitos. We were thinking of course the Space Needle, Pacific Science Center, Snoqualmie Falls, a ferry and Day trip to the San Juans. Where else did you go?
Thanks!
Scout’s Honor,
Like David Letterman? Just kidding, but here is my “list” for places to go — we’re north of Seattle so there aren’t too many southernly locations, not that I wouldn’t go there, but you know, TRAFFIC does play a role sometimes -
1. Take the Mukilteo/Clinton ferry to Whidbey Island, go to Fort Casey for a picnic and hiking then drive home via Deception Pass (breathtaking!).
2. Mt. Rainier National Park. The road is still closed between Paradise and Sunset, but just about every other route is open. The new Paradise Lodge is slated to open in May, 2008. I can’t wait!
3. Golden Gardens Park/Beach.
4. Wallace Falls Hike (located east of Goldbar just off of highway 2 - Stevens Pass).
5. Ocean Shores, if you want a loooong drive. I recommend an overnight stay! Beautiful, sandy and ever-stretching beach.
6. Jetty Island, Everett. “The Mosquito Fleet” is the name of the company that operates the *free* ferry from the marina.
7. Edmonds/Kingston ferry, visit adorable Pt. Gamble (cute antique shops) and travel north to Pt. Townsend, Pt. Angeles - from there it is necessary to see Hurrican Ridge, in the Olympics. So. Much. Fun.
8. Shopping and Lunch in historic downtown Snohomish. Lovely, quaint and something for everyone!
9. Seattle Art Museum sculpture garden and dinner at The ‘Ol Spaghetti Factory. Sounds like a perfect day to me!
10. THE ZOO. We have an annual pass to Woodland Park and I couldn’t live without it, although with the traffic, I haven’t been in about a month! But . . . I love the zoo, and visitors would too.
Hope this helps!
Carrie
Also, every visitor to Seattle must pay homage to the troll under the Freemont Bridge! Then wander around the art galleries and shops before having a delicious lunch. The kids love it, and it is one of those things that not everyone has the opportunity to do.
Thanks Carrie. You rock. I appreciate the time you took. Parents will be here next week, so I must clean, scour, disinfect–basically convince them we don’t live like animals.