FAMILY TRAVELS
National Doughnut (Donut!)Day!
June 7, 2013Oh, I love it when we have a great holiday and today’s definitely one we need to celebrate! It’s National Doughnut day and what could be better than making some donuts? In the winter the guys and I tried to make doughnuts. They were pretty enough and tasted fine, but if I’m going to eat […]
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Two family-friendly Seattle-ish restaurants
June 6, 2013I can’t believe I’ve never mentioned Tacos Guaymas before: specifically the one in Fremont. We used to go there all the time before the guys were born because they have really inexpensive and yummy tacos. We could eat two tacos for under 5 dollars and they were stuffed to the brim and delicious. The atmosphere […]
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Stroke the Living Wall (JJ Bean, Port Moody, British Columbia)
June 5, 2013A long time ago in Vancouver, I used to spend a lot of time on weekends going to Japanese school, shopping and eating around the city. Some mornings we’d stop in at Fujiya, a shop that’s still there selling Japanese pantry products and really yummy and inexpensive bentos and sushi. While my mom and sister […]
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Three Fun Mayan Riviera Adventures for families with young children
June 3, 2013Sometimes the hardest thing about being in an adventurous place with kids is when you want to go exploring and you know that it could be really tough on them. In the Mayan Riviera, I totally wanted to see ancient ruins and swim in cenotes. (There is zip-lining too, but we did that recently in […]
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Something Old and Something New: thinking about bridges
June 1, 2013The Skagit River bridge collapse last week made me think about the way we get to places and how much I take these structures for granted. We crossed that bridge so many times between Seattle and Vancouver when I was a kid and it was very eerie to see it with a great big gap […]
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Isla Mujeres with kids and no whale sharks
May 31, 2013Where can you go with Atlanta as your base? I couldn’t believe Cancun was only a two hour flight away. You can practically walk to Florida. And all the Caribbean Islands are just a hop away too. (As a west-coaster I got a little bit envious about how many fabulous places were so close on […]
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Deep Sea Diver and a really wet Folk Life weekend
May 30, 2013The guys are absolutely in love with Recess Monkey since we saw them in concert at Teatro Zinzanni last year and we were recently sent their new album, (their 9th!!! by the way!) Deep Sea Diver to check out. The tunes are really catchy and I know I’ve heard them sing one of them called […]
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Two stars and a wish for the Georgia Aquarium
May 29, 2013As with all our trips, we are always excited to see animal friends on our travels and at the Georgia Aquarium I had a mission: a co-worker had told my husband that you can actually swim with whale sharks on Isla Holbox and Isla Mujeres in Mexico and the hubby wanted me to take the […]
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Picking a hotel in Altanta with kids
May 28, 2013Normally, we rent a car when we holiday so it doesn’t really matter where we stay, but this past trip in Atlanta I knew I would be doing a lot of adventures with the kids on my own while the hubby worked all day so I didn’t really want to have the burden of trying […]
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A coffee shop in Atlanta with Washington roots
May 27, 2013A few weeks ago we were sitting in a lovely restaurant in Atlanta after a long red eye flight and the hubby thought his coffee tasted really good. He made a note of it just in case it was roasted in Atlanta and we had time to stop by. Imagine our surprise when we found […]
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If you’re looking for kid-friendly Seattle hikes
Long before the kids, the hubby and I used to like to hike around Seattle, and now that our kids are a little older, we’re having fun exploring trails with them too and we’re always looking for kid-friendly Seattle hikes. With kids you have to be a little bit more choosy when you plan your […]
Read MoreGlobal Entry: A Trusted Traveler Network
May 24, 2013I’m lucky that the hubby keeps up with passport and international travel news. We’ve had a Nexus card forever and it’s saved us hours going back and forth to see family in Canada. Recently he heard of the Global Entry program and it sounded like a great program to reduce time in airport lines when we travel […]
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Stickers are a mom with a preschooler’s best friend (most of the time)
May 23, 2013I keep tons of stickers on hand. They are great for adding extra pizzazz to crafts and they’re so handy when you travel as long as they don’t get stuck on windows or other things but I’m usually stuck in the middle of the duo so it’s easy to keep tabs. The hubby recently bought […]
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Happy Anniversary Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum
May 22, 2013I’m on the Chihuly Garden and Glass mailing list and when I saw it was their first anniversary this week I couldn’t believe it’s already been around a year and I haven’t visited them yet. My mom and dad were in town and up for some touristy things so we decided this would be a […]
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An inexpensive and adventurous way of getting to the airport in Seattle
May 20, 2013Sitting at the bus stop near our house I got a text from my neighbor that went something like: “omg my hubby just saw you at the bus stop-we could have totally given you a ride to the airport!!” And as much as that was so totally sweet and we probably looked ridiculous sitting there […]
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Zoo Atlanta post-rain
May 19, 2013One thing I’ve learned about going to zoos is that some of my best days have been on rainy ones. You tend to linger a little longer at exhibits that are indoors that you might blow past on sunny days, the animals often behave a little differently and there are far fewer two-legged animals wandering […]
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Choose your carry-on items wisely
May 18, 2013Tip #1: do not bring a table as a carry-on. Of course this is not my table. I’m perfectly happy with the just over 8.5 x11 size tables we get in my regular airplane seats. But if you were thinking of bringing a table with you on a flight I can tell you for certain […]
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Memorable stay in Costa Rica (Arenal Observatory Lodge)
May 16, 2013If you are looking for an amazing affordable place to stay in Cost Rica, the Arenal Observatory Lodge is a place we’ve been twice and we we totally fell in love with it each time. The first time we went it was years ago when Arenal still roared through the night with explosions. We were […]
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Eating fish while watching fish (Downtown Denver Aquarium, Colorado)
May 10, 2013Usually this kind of thing would freak me out. Eating fish, while watching fish. (Eeew! Totally morbid!) But, I’m the one who made the reservation because I so badly wanted to go to the aquarium in Denver last year when we were there for a family wedding and this was the only way we were […]
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A friendly cup of coffee in Seattle (Slate Coffee, Ballard)
May 3, 2013Sometime last week I heard a rumor that a truck called Slate Coffee was selling my favorite Fuji Bakery pastries, so I had to go check it out. Nevermind that I am not a big fan of food trucks (gasp!). I just didn’t realize that they have sinks and real cooking facilities inside. Until we […]
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