GRISWOLDDAD
Parenting, Entertainment, and Travel Tips
Things to Do in Washington
*For Washington's top yearly events, click here.
Cascade Loop
Cascade Loop is Washington's scenic loop highway, which starts just north of Seattle and circles through the Cascade Mountains, goes by the Columbia River Valley, to Lake Chelan (a summer swimming hotspot), Methow Valley, North Cascades National Park, then back to the Puget Sound area. There's plenty to do while site seeing, like swimming, hiking, climbing, kayaking, and lots of pulloffs for good views.
During the path, you go through a number of small, fun towns, most notably, Leavenworth. Leavenworth is a Bavarian style village with German food, a brewery, hand-crafted cuckoo clocks, pastries and chocolates, skiing, and plenty of Bavarian themed town festivals!
Cedar Pass
Kalama
More unique stops in Washington, this time you'll find the world's largest totem pole made from one piece of wood and the high school used for the Twilight movies, Kalama Middle/High School. This is where Bella met Edward! There are four totem poles grouped together as one structure, with the tallest being 140 feet. Built in 1974, the totem poles have been weathered over time, and the tall one has been taken down. Kalama plans to maintain the pole to allow visitors to continue seeing it. The shorter three poles still stand in Kalama's park.
Mount Rainier
Rainier is the 5th tallest mountain in the US. Filled with granite peaks, wildflower meadows, like Paradise and Sunrise, rivers, waterfalls, like Comet and Narada Falls, springs, lakes, this is nature at its best and most scenic. Visitors can hike, on Skyline Trail, Snow Lake Trail, Tipsoo Lake Loop, or others, they can ski at Crystal Mountain Resort, cross-country ski, fish, camp, and climb.
Mount Ranier
Mount Saint Helens
Mount St. Helens (right beside Mt. Ranier), is the location of the famous volcanic eruption in 1980. The volcano is actually still active but its park is safe to visit. Volcano watching and photography is the number 1 past time in the park, but you can also hike, climb, take helicopter tours, fish, horseback ride, view wildlife like Elk, and explore the Ape Caves.
The Ape Caves are actually lava tubes, formed 2000 years ago, that were left after the lava flow stopped and cooled off. These are the longest lava tubes in the US. Why are they called "Ape Caves?" Well, it depends on who you ask. Either they're named after the Bigfoots...Bigfeet...in the area who have been "sighted" in nearby Ape Canyon OR the scout troop who explored the caves back in the 50's, sponsored by "Brush Apes" (what the loggers were called back then). You decide!
Mount Saint Helens
Olympic National Park
This is a huge national park just outside of Seattle. Beautiful stops can be found at Lake Crescent, Ruby Beach, Hoh Rain forest, Hurricane Ridge, and nearby town of Forks. There are the normal park to-do items like hiking (Cape Alava Loop, Hall of Mosses, and Ozette Loop Hike, for examples), fishing, beaches, canoeing, and scenic drives.
There's also tide pooling, which can be fun, educational, and lead to some really cool pictures. Top tide pooling locations are at Ruby Beach, Second Beach, and Third Beach.
This park, however, has two unique things you won't find in any other US national park: rain forests and movie set locations from the Twilight films! Rain Forest locations include Hoh, Bogachiel, Queets, and Quinalt. One of the best rain forest hikes is the Hall of Mosses trail near the Hoh Visitor Center, a .8 mile loop.
Hall of Mosses Trail
Twilight fans would want to head to Forks to look at Forks Hospital, where Bella was rushed to the ER, and Bella's truck at the Forks Chamber of Commerce. The restaurant for their first date, Bella Italia, is one town over in Port Angeles. There's even a cool sign from the movie, in La Push, that designates the treaty line where vampires aren't supposed to cross into werewolf territory.
San Juan Islands/Puget Sound
Kayak the Sound, hike trails, climb Mount Constitution, swim, relax on the beach, go zip lining, paddle boating, horseback riding, sailing....or experience this area's biggest claim to fame: Whale Watching!!
The best time of the year for seeing the whales is between March to October. During this time the tour companies move around to get the best viewing spots as the whales shift areas around May. One of the coolest towns to launch from is Friday Harbor. Be sure to look around the quaint small town before you disembark. Great shopping and food await.
Whale Watching Tours: Island Adventures, Clipper Vacations, San Juan Safaris, Western Prince, San Juan Excursions, among others.
Whale Watching
Seattle
Seattle is known for the Space Needle, which has an observation deck (520 ft up) and the rotating SkyCity Restaurant (500 ft up). You should of course see the Space Needle while in town, but don't stop there, much more awaits to be experienced.
Go to Waterfront Park and the Seattle waterfront area to see great views of Elliott Bay and Seattle itself, a nice boardwalk, Pioneer Square (historic area known as Seattle's first neighborhood... in which you can do an underground tour of the ruins of early Seattle!), lots of restaurants and shops, like Archie McPhee's store of the weird and Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, which has been open since 1899. Both of these shops are very strange and sell odd items with even odder things on display like shrunken heads and rubber chicken museums. Then, there's the scenic ferry rides, the Seattle Aquarium, rides like the Seattle Great Ferris Wheel, and the world famous Pike's Place Fish Market, a public farmers' and fishermans' market where they throw the big fish at each other while selling them. Also, the original Starbucks is at the entrance of this market, but it's called 1st & Pike.
If swimming is what you're looking for, go to Alki Beach, which is one of the nicer and most visited beeches in Seattle. Another park that should be on your must-see list is Olympic Sculpture Park. This park has a 9-acre outdoor sculpture museum and beach. Speaking of sculptures, don't miss the Fremont Troll! The troll creepily hides under the George Washington Memorial Bridge in the
Fremont neighborhood.
Seattle, being a bigger city, also has an Art Museum and Zoo, of course. The zoo usually ranks high on lists of zoos for family fun. Kudos to them on their website! Of all the zoos in all the world, they're the ones that scored www.zoo.org! Another art museum in the area is the Chihuly Garden and Glass, which showcases the studio glass creations of Dale Chihuly.
If you'd like a history experience which highlights the Native Americans from the area and Chief Sealth (aka Chief Seattle), you'll want to venture to Tillicum Village, where you can explore the village, eat at the "Salmon Bake," and see a show and dancing reminiscent of something you'd expect to find in Hawaii. The whole experience takes about 4 hours.
Just 16 minutes outside of Seattle, in Renton, you can find Jimi Hendrix's grave at Greenwood Memorial Park. His grave site is just off the main road and easy to get to.
Space Needle
Pike Place Market
