Seattle Bucket List

We have just over a year left in Seattle, so I have been meaning to make a list of the things that I want to do before we move again. I am sitting here with about fifty pamphlets I have collected from our previous tourist activities and I am glancing through them. I am also going to include a list of what we have already done for those who live in Seattle and read my blog and need some ideas!

Already checked off the list:

• Northwest Trek-Eatonville, WA. This was a great day trip that we took on Labor Day last year. The kids totally loved it, and so did Joe and I. The Trek sits on about 800 acres and is covered in trees and plants. The predatory animals live in their own parts of the park, while you can take a tram ride and see the other animals. We saw buffalo, antelope, moose, eagles, a grizzly bear and more.



• Port Townsend and Fort Worden-We always love a trip out to the Olympic Peninsula. We rode the Kingston ferry over to the peninsula and drove over to Port Townsend, a great town with Victorian architecture. We stopped at a city park and played on the beach. We walked around the town and visited the shops which was fun. We also visited Fort Worden, an old military barracks turned state park. Fort Worden is right on Puget Sound and has a lighthouse and a nice beach. The whole excursion took a day.



• Mt. St. Helens-Last major explosion in 1980. Another fun day trip for us. I could not believe how much hadn't changed since the explosion. Nothing had grown back around the mountain, and you could still see where the trees had been knocked over by the pyroclastic cloud. There is a visitors center that walks you through what happened the last time she blew her top. Pretty cool.


• Sequim and Dungeness-Another day trip out to the peninsula. This time we visited one of the largest sand spits in the world! The kids loved hiking down to the beach, chasing the waves, and collecting shells. The drive out there was beautiful too, great views of the Olympic Mountains.


• West Seattle and Alki-This is a great local trip, we did it in one afternoon. There are miles of beach where we saw the Seattle skyline from a different perspective. We saw shells, sea glass, and even a sea lion or two(?). We drove around a looked at the amazing houses there. The park that is there now sits where an old park once was from the early twentieth century. There are some signs recalling what buildings used to be there, definitely interesting.


• Snoqualmie Falls-near North Bend. The falls are impressive, and for some local cuisine try Got Rice.


• Victoria, BC-Joe and I rode the Victoria Clipper up to Canada for a weekend by ourselves. We got a great deal on the ferry ride up there and the hotel. This trip would probably be fun in better weather than we had, but it was still worth it. There was so much to do there, and it was such a beautiful city!


• Leavenworth-Joe and I actually made a trip there during our first stint in Washington for a Fall Festival and Parade. There is always something going on in this little Bavarian themed town. The buildings are cool and who doesn't love German food?


• In Seattle we have tried to do a bunch of things. We have been to the top of the Space Needle, visited Pike Place street market and most of the waterfront, been to the aquarium, returned many times the Children's Museum and Woodland Park Zoo. We have also checked out the giant troll under the Aurora bridge in Fremont, and on the same trip visited the Gas Works Park. I went to the Seattle Art Museum, but I want to go back and see the traveling Yale exhibit. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks were truly interesting to watch in action. In high school I took a tour of Boeing, seeing multiple planes in one building is does not happen a lot. I would always suggest a Mariner's game in the Summer, it is fun to get the whole experience at Safeco Field. Our favorite park to visit so far has been Magnuson park, we love the sand, and great views of Lake Washington.

Still on the List:

• Another trip to the Olympic Peninsula to visit the Olympic National Park, the Hoh rain forest, and of course, Forks and Port Angeles for some Vampire Tourism.


• Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.


• San Juan Islands


• Mt. Rainier


• Lavender Festival in Sequim (July 17-19 this year).


• Skagit Valley Tulip Festival (April 1-30 this year).


• Washington State History Museum-Tacoma.


• Museum of Glass-Tacoma.


• Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad.


• There are still a ton of things I want to do in Seattle so here we go: Pioneer Square, Seattle Underground Tour, Pacific Science Center, Monorail, Olympic Sculpture Park, Experience Music Project, take a self-guided tour of UW's campus, Kubota Garden, and probably so many other things that I will never be able to get around to!

This post is mainly for me, now when I have a free afternoon or weekend, no excuses! I am getting out! So Melissa and Stephanie you had better reciprocate and post your lists too!

O Canada

Joe and I got a kid-free weekend (thanks Grandma Kathy and Aunt Melissa) so we took a trip up to Victoria in British Columbia (that's in Canada, Clare). We rode up on the passenger ferry and rented a car when we got there so that we could explore. We drove around the beach and saw various bays and coves. We could see Mt. Baker and the Olympic Mountains across the waters. We also walked around the downtown area and saw the British Columbia Parliament Building (or parliament building, I can't remember). The architecture was heavily Victorian and stunning. We also took a tour of Craigdarroch castle, minutes from the downtown area, built by one of the wealthiest men in B.C. in the latter-half of the nineteenth century. The castle had a fascinating history. The family who built it was plagued by all kinds of drama, mostly of their own making. James Dunsmuir, who commissioned the house, built his empire on coal and mistreating his workers, and actually died a year before the completion of the castle. The castle became a military hospital and eventually a college. They are still restoring parts of it, which was interesting to the process. We had a great time, the Canadians are so friendly we did not want to leaver. More pictures and travelogue to follow...

Heartbreak Hill

On the morning of Valentine's Day, some of my running buddies (Melissa and Stephanie) and I did our first 10k. The race director told us when we showed up that the course was pretty flat with the exception of "Heartbreak Hill." Melissa and I ran together (Stephanie has a lot more speed than we do), and made to our first big hill, which was huge. It was straight up! So after that we thought we were good. Until we realized there was another, more subtle hill that never ended. We had to run the course twice because we were doing the 10k. The hills caught us off guard, but we still did a really great job!

Urban Adventures

Joe had a free afternoon so we checked off a couple of Seattle attractions that have been on our list. First we went to the Gas Works park on Lake Union. This a park is landscaped around an old gas works built at the beginning of the twentieth century. A bunch of the structures are still there. The former exhauster-compressor building has been turned into a children's play barn. Madison, upon seeing the play barn, remarked to Joe that "this park is not for kids, Dad." The park did have some nice views of Seattle, and the gas works was pretty fascinating, but Madison was right: not for little kids.

After the park we headed to Fremont to check out the troll under the bridge there. And there really was a huge troll under an overpass there, and the kids really were pretty scared of it. It definitely gives one an indication of the little things that make Seattle truly unique.

Sequim (pronounced "Skwim") and Dungeness (like the crab)

It was a sunny day in Seattle. Just as rare as a rainy day in the desert. Joe has a huge test tomorrow for which he has been studying all weekend, and planned on going to school to study for today. He left for the bus stop, and I was kind of depressed because it felt like a holiday and it was sunny, but I did not really know what to do to keep the kids and myself entertained. About ten minutes later Madison said "Dad's here," he came in and we formulated a plan to enjoy the good weather! Don't worry he is studying now, so I think he will still do well on the test.

We took the Kingston Ferry over to the Olympic Peninsula and drove out to Sequim where the Dungeness Natural Wild Life Preserve is and also the home the the largest sand spit (FYI: I hate the words Sequim, Dungeness, and spit so this is kind of hard to write about even though it was a fun trip). The spit is 5.5 miles long with a lighthouse at the end of it. We didn't quite make it out that far, but enjoyed being out on the beach. Madison and Joe went for a walk and found some interesting shells and wildlife. Hayes and I looked for uniquely colored rocks and chased some of the waves. We could see Mt. Baker, the Olympic Mountains and Canada from the beach. It was pretty impressive. We left at sunset and got a nice final view of the water and the mountains.

Bye Bye Baby

Yesterday was Hayes' 2nd birthday and I feel like we are leaving babyhood behind! We took Hayes and Madison to the Children's Museum by bus (Hayes' preferred mode of transportation). It was nice to go on a weekday because it wasn't so busy. Hayes and Madison love one of the rooms where the have constructed models of storybooks, like Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Arthur's Pet Business (one of our favorites) and play where their favorite characters live. They also love the kid-sized Metropolitan Market where they can drive around shopping carts and purchase the foods they like! Hayes had a great time.

After the Children's Museum, we hit the real Metropolitan Market to get Hayes' birthday dinner. He is our little vegetarian. He loves fruits and vegetables, so we loaded up on produce. He really got into the present opening this time, and was thrilled that I had wrapped everything in orange, his favorite color. We finished off with the orange cupcakes that he helped me make.

5 Things About Hayes:

1. He can peel a tangerine all by himself. He loves them so much, I always catch him sneaking them, meticulously peeling them, and then devouring them.

2. He LOVES to read. When he won't go to sleep at night, he sits in his crib with a stack of books reading, until I come in later and he is face down in a book asleep.

3. He is very mercurial. Usually he is an easygoing guy. But...if he gets mad, he gets mad, and I am at my wits end trying to decide how to handle him then!

4. He is a true mama's boy. He is more of an introvert than Madison. Last Sunday was the first time he stayed in nursery without Joe or me since our move to Seattle.

5. He likes to tell jokes. If you ask him what's for lunch or dinner and he will say "cheese" or "cookies," and expect you to crack-up because who has cheese or cookies for a meal?

Humanitarian Bowl

The pinnacle of my Christmas break would have been the Poinsettia Bowl in San Diego, but Boise State lost by ONE POINT, so I am waiting until next year...

The new high point of this holiday season was the Humanitarian Bowl at BSU last Tuesday. I went to the game with my brother Max, my dad, and grandpa, Joe, and some others. The Nevada Wolf Pack and Maryland Terrapins had the priviledge of playing on the blue turf this year. The weather was pretty good, not too cold, and the game was fun to watch! Unfortunately, Nevada lost, another blow to the WAC (my second love, behind the Broncos). This was my first bowl game, and it was awesome, just knowing that I was probably in some crowd shot on ESPN is satisfying. I am definitely going to the BCS bowl game that the Broncos make it to next year! (Side note: who would have thought this post would have ever happened five years ago?)