Seattle Summer Bucket List 2014

We know it’s summer in Seattle when the cruise ships start announcing their arrival, the Ride the Ducks amphibious vehicles pass us every couple minutes on our city adventures and we start to see less visible moisture in the air.  And when we start getting calls from friends to go berry picking, we start making lists so that we don’t miss summer.  We can’t miss summer here.  It’s just too short and sweet and wonderful.

So here goes our list for 2014:

1) We are going to go berry picking and combine that adventure with a stop at Remlinger farm.  We wanted to go last week but we were in Canada, so we stopped at one called Emma Lea farm.  Apparently they’re famous for their ice cream which was quite good. 

And we picked some berries called tay berries too-they’re a combination of raspberry and blackberry but their thorns are quite sharp. The strawberries were definitely sweet and I wish we could have brought them home.  (FYI you can’t bring strawberries across the border.)

So we need to head to Remlinger Farm because we haven’t been in ages, and I think the guys might be getting to the almost-too-old-for-it stage.  I also want to revisit this raspberry recipe from Sunset magazine.

2) We had the Great Wheel on our bucket list last year and we didn’t do that one yet.  I do have a small fear of being in elevators and getting stuck in other enclosed things, so that might be why.  But this summer on a cooler day when our pockets are loaded with in-case-of-emergency snacks and activities and we’ve all gone to the bathroom 10 times in preparation, we’ll definitely try it.

3) We also need to find a couple more biking adventures.  We have our tried and true route to the aquarium and one to Maggie’s bluffs, but we need one in West Seattle and maybe in Woodinville too.  We know we can always bike near the Mohai and end at the outdoor waterpark and that’s always a hit in the summer.

4) I’m realizing that the obligatory camping trip is never going to go away.  I ask the kids if they want to go on an airplane or go camping and they both scream “We want to sleep in a tent!!!!!”  It is hard to believe these are my children.  We’ve taken the kids to a few places in the past, like Fort Flagler and one near a neat game farm so we’ll see where the hubby plans to take us this year.  I’m so thankful that nowadays you can get wifi in most places inside a tent.

5) And we need to head to Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia a couple times too. I’d really like to add a drive to the Tillamook factory and see the Coast with the kids when we head down south and take a detour along Chuckanut drive when we head up north.

Everything else is a bonus. We’re hoping to make it a simple, lazy summer and soak in all of Seattle’s magical summer glory because Seattle is such an amazing place for kids in the summer.  And of course we want to watch as many US worldcup games as possible-this is definitely already a summer to remember.

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)