TRAVEL
Scenes from a Northwest Summer
August 3, 2014How. Hot. Can. It. Get?? Is this really Seattle? Is this really what a Northwest Summer looks like? Have you been loving this crazy weather as much as we have? I swear the few people in Seattle who actually OWN umbrellas are using them to shield them from the sun. This is a conundrum. Do […]
Read More
You might want to check out the Sounders if you’re in Seattle when there’s a game (visiting Seattle with kids)
July 30, 2014Even after four years of going to Seattle Sounders games, I have no problem admitting I don’t really understand soccer. From what I can see, it’s not just about getting to the goal and scoring with your team-there seems to be a little bit of soap opera stuff mixed in with guys falling down pretending […]
Read More
Friday Postcards from a Seattle Summer
July 25, 2014For the past month I haven’t had any will to travel anywhere, the weather has been perfect and Seattle is just brilliant in the summer sunshine. So I have something like 14000 photos from the last 30 days stuck in my phone. About a hundred were of this little armadillo at the Point Defiance Zoo. […]
Read More
Why a Seattle Children’s Theatre Subscription might be a good idea for your family
July 24, 2014Okay here’s some math you might want to try if you’re in the Seattle area and you are thinking about some children’s theater this fall. Last year we didn’t subscribe to any tickets so I totally spaced on ALL the plays at the Seattle Children’s Theatre. (even Art Dog which I heard was AMAZING!!) So […]
Read More
Birth week, the Space Needle and a Lunar Orbiter
July 23, 2014The guys’ turned 6 this week and as usual our birthday celebration has exploded into a birth week celebration and the guys requested that we eat at the Space Needle for their family night dinner. It’s busy in the summer so I made a reservation a couple weeks before and it was pretty booked up […]
Read More
Shopping things I’ve been asked about lately barely making it on a Monday
July 22, 2014Whew. Now that was definitely a weekend. I’ve barely started to put away the decorations from my guys’ birthday but it’s shopping Monday and since shopping is the one thing that gets me through most Mondays the decorations can wait. I’ve been asked a lot about my shopping purchases lately so I totally thought I’d […]
Read More
Cloud City Coffee and Pianos in the Parks (Seattle, WA)
July 19, 2014Some things on a Friday are to wonderful not to share. We wanted to hang out at the park with friends before some errands at Costco (and you know how how I feel about Costco) and we spent the morning at a great park in Maple Leaf. (It even has a zip-line!) And then playing spilled […]
Read More
A Day-trip to the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma (part of our summer staycation in Seattle)
July 16, 2014I can barely count how many trips I’ve put into my trip-finder in Expedia for this summer and then not booked my cart. Cabo San Lucas, Alaska, Costa Rica, Belize, San Diego and the Bahamas have all been super tempting, but the weather here in Seattle is just so beautiful, I can’t imagine leaving and […]
Read More
Where my kids discovered cucumber cream cheese sandwiches and scones (adorabelle tea room, Steveston, BC)
July 11, 2014I always knew my kids would love sushi and perogies because those ingredients are a part of their souls. And they have to love Taco Time because the hubby and I have had some of our best dates on Taco Tuesdays long ago. And they will have no problem understanding the different nuances in different […]
Read More
Seattle Summer Bucket List 2014
July 1, 2014We 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 […]
Read More
Golden Gardens and Pancakes for lunch (Seattle, WA)
June 24, 2014An alternate perfect ending to this adventure would be stopping at the Ballard Paseo window on our way into the park for a yummy picnic lunch. But we decided that we wanted pancakes for lunch that day so we made sure to end our trip with Portage Bay Cafe. We were surprised at how many […]
Read More
Because I’m not traveling on a Monday
June 23, 2014Mondays are better with painted toes and my sis and I managed to have a much needed sister date this weekend at a neat branch of the Absolute Spa Group at the Fairmont Hotel at the Vancouver airport. It was so nice to just sit back, chat and watch our ugly toes turn pretty colors […]
Read More
How nature affects kids’ art (near Granville Island, Vancouver, BC)
June 17, 2014So much can be learned about nature just by going to the beach with kids. I visited a dear friend for an afternoon in Vancouver and we wandered our kids down to the beach near the Aquatic Center across from Granville Island (my favorite place on Earth) so we could sit and chat while the […]
Read More
Little secret garden at Pike Place Market (Seattle, Wa)
June 13, 2014The hubby and I joke about how often we come to Pike Place Market. And since I decided that I love the mint ice cream at nearby Bottega Italia, I think we’ve been coming a LOT more than usual (We visited at least 8 times in the past couple weeks and each visit except our […]
Read More
Running Mantra #2
June 12, 2014And by crazies I sometimes mean bears. This past weekend my sis and I did our 10km with some lovely friends and family up in Whistler, BC and it’s the first time time in my life that I ever saw a real life bear without having some kind of protective barrier like a window, or […]
Read More
Trail Mix and a Brave Adventure with my guys (Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, near Olympia, Washington)
June 11, 2014Every so often I get a whole day with my guys all to myself. I let the dishes pile up. I leave the little messes to figure themselves out until after the kids go to bed. And I plot some ridiculous adventure. And we go. On days like these we’ve ended up at the Northwest […]
Read More
Another Hiking Adventure with our kids (Discovery Park, Seattle)
June 9, 2014So many lovely days start off with pancakes and although this past weekend wasn’t a pancake weekend, (I’ll let you know about our fun and wild adventures from this weekend’s trip to Whistler soon enough!) the morning of our hiking adventure in Discovery Park with our kids was and I hope we can repeat this […]
Read More
Exploring tidepools with the Seattle Aquarium (for FREE in Seattle!)
June 2, 2014Oh you know I already have some serious love for the Seattle Aquarium and their great kids’ programs, but I just found out about their low tide Beach Naturalist program and my guys and I had so much fun exploring Tidepools with the Seattle Aquarium last week. I didn’t realize how many lovely things lived […]
Read More
Because I wanted to ride a funicular (Switzerland with kids)
May 23, 2014I think our travel formula has stayed the same since the hubby and I started traveling together back in college. We always look for places based on the time we have, how much it’s going to cost (and what we can afford or want to pay) and some kind of weird or wonderful thing one […]
Read More
Before you take your kid to see the Seattle Gumwall
May 21, 2014Remember, knowledge is enlightenment. I took some friends and their 4-year-old daughter to the market last week after a lovely but busy morning at the zoo. I gave the little one the market prep-talk because my guys always like to know what to expect in their adventures and it’s always hard to be the one […]
Read More