Issaquah, WA Park Reviews: Lake Sammamish State Park

This is a neat park with a lot of beach area on the lake. It was too cold for swimming but they had two pretty large swimming areas roped off that I am sure are fun in the summertime. The sand area was not real big but there was some sandy beach for digging and playing,

There are two play structures that we saw in the park, and several trails that are good for exploring. The main thing about this park is the large grassy areas and huge number of picnic tables and grills. This is definitely the spot for your next barbecue or picnic. Plenty of room for your group, no matter the size.

There are, of course, plenty of bathrooms and a very large parking lot. There also were lot of sunny spots for those sunny spring or fall days where you need the sun to be warm!

Seattle with Kids : Hiking Wallace Falls

This is another fun hike, this one out Hwy 2 in the Cascades. The waterfall is really big and really beautiful. There are several options, a lower, middle and upper viewpoint.

We only went to the lower viewpoint as the boys were not very enthusiastic. I did not think this hike was the hardest we had done but they did not want to go any further. The viewpoint is quite nice and about 3.6 miles roundtrip. It is a beautiful view but if you go further you can get much closer to the falls. But I have heard you have to be careful nearer to the top as it can be a bit precarious for little ones.

At the start of the trail, you walk under humming power lines and wonder what you have gotten into. But in the next section you walk through the woods by a beautiful river and there are lots of scenic spots. It was somewhat steep in places. There is an option to take a longer trail up that is flatter but would add 1 mile to the distance. I might would try that next time.

I'd love to try this again next year and see if we can make it higher up.

Seattle with Kids: Hiking Little Si

There are lots of great hikes around here to do. A very popular one is called Little Si, out in North Bend. Do not get it confused with the Mount Si hike - that one is WAY harder. Little Si is still a pretty difficult hike. The round-trip is a little less than 5 miles with a 1500 ft elevation gain. I would not take beginner hikers on this one. You may want to plan easier hikes to "work up" to this one. The trail is very nicely maintained but there are very steep sections where my kids had to use all-fours. When we went, my kids were 4 and 6 and they made it with lots of rest breaks. I think it took us 3 hours to get up to the top, but significantly shorter on the way down so be sure to allow enough time.

A tip on parking. There are two lots. Go past the first one, as the second one is the one right at the trailhead. If that one is full, head to the overflow lot which you already passed. It is a very popular trail so go early on a weekend. When we arrived at just after 9am, the primary lot was already full.

Seattle with Kids: Discovery Park

Since we live in the Seattle area, I realized it was about time to mention some of the activities we enjoy with the kids nearby.

A few weeks ago, we headed down to Discovery Park. This is a huge park, the biggest in Seattle with a very long and beautiful coastline. It is definitely worth checking out. And I don't want to forget to mention the wonderful lighthouse right on the point. Such a scenic spot with views on Mt Rainier and Mt Baker!

As you enter the park, there is a very helpful visitors center. Most of the parking requires a hike down to the beach but if you are handicapped, have small children, or elderly with you, then you can get a special pass there that lets you head right down to the beach to park.

Besides the scenic coastline, there are quite a few hiking trails though the park to enjoy, so have a great day!

Portland with Kids: OMSI

I wish I would have re-read this post from Debbie at DeliciousBaby the night before we went. We had a little trouble getting started at OMSI. Not getting there, we asked the front desk staff and our hotel and got good walking directions, but once we got there.

When we paid our $40 (!!!!) admission (not including any of the additional items like the submarine), they did not give us a map. So we just headed up the escalator and ended up in the Life Sciences room. We spent about 15 minutes there but clearly everything was targeted at an older crowd than we had (our boys are 6 and almost 4). I knew I had heard there were hands on activities for little ones and left the family in there to scope it out.

Sure enough, right next door was the Science Playground which is geared towards 6 year olds and younger. It was pretty crowded but our kids did not care at all. They loved it. There were so many activities they enjoyed. They spent almost 1 hour solely in the sand area and eventually we decided to move them along to something else. Is it possible they could have played there all day? They spent about 30 minutes at the amazing water table and got totally soaked, even in the smocks provided. Definitely wear the smock and the boots and BRING A CHANGE OF CLOTHES. I knew it had been suggested to do that, but my kids don't usually get wet in water tables. Bring the change of clothes - they were DRENCHED!

There are also art projects, a grocere store, buckets that go up and down on a pulley and so many other fun things for younger kids to do. After several hours in the Science Playground, we moved downstairs to the Turbine Hall. This is the most amazing part of the museum. If we would have understood the layout of the place, we would have headed straight here when we arrived.

The hands-on activities here are suited for bigger kids or younger kids with their parents assistance. There were so many interesting things here that my kids really loved. Our favorites were probably the ball room (I don't even know how to explain it - it was just totally cool. Go and see it!) or the bottle rockets. We also did actual chemistry labs together and built buildings to withstand earthquakes.

We spent the entire day there. We got there a few minutes after they opened at 9:30 and left right at 5pm as they were closing. We went on a Friday and there were lot of people there but it wasn't so bad we could not do everything we wanted. I imagine it might be harder on the weekends. It was a great day that we all enjoyed even if it totally wore us all out.

*Note: I have written a bunch of posts about Portland so if you want to read more, click on the Portland Label at the end of the post, and you will see all the Portland entries.

Portland with Kids : Chinese Garden

We had a beautiful sunny (but somewhat cool) afternoon to spend in Portland so after hitting the Portland Saturday Market (by the Skidmore Fountain) we walked a few blocks over to the Classical Chinese Garden.

In addition to a self-guided tour guide, the volunteer staff was nice enough to give us a children's scavenger hunt packet which was a laminated booklet of pictures of things to search for in the garden. This was a great addition as it gave the kids something to do while we walked around. The gardens and buildings are beautiful and the area is so serene and restful. (Would have been more so had we not had kids with us that I was worried would fall right into the easily accessible water)

The admission charge was about $24 and we were probably there about 1-1.5 hours.

*Note: I have written a bunch of posts about Portland so if you want to read more, click on the Portland Label at the end of the post, and you will see all the Portland entries.

Portland with Kids : Pearl District

The Jameson Square fountain is so neat and fun. The weather wasn't even all that good when we were there so we weren't able to get wet but it was still lots of fun. There are rocks to stand on and stay dry while the area fills up all around you, and you can always run from the filling fountain like you would the tides at the beach. We had a really fun time playing around and watching the water cycles.

We did not have a lot of time in the Pearl District as we needed to catch our train, but we also checked out Powell's Bookstore and the Pearl Bakery (yummy croissants!) We will definitely check it out again next time we are in Portland. We also went to the Whole Foods right near Powell's to pick up some lunch for the train and use the restroom facilities.

To get there, we took the streetcar and got off at the last stop before leaving fareless square (10th and Glisan)

*Note: I have written a bunch of posts about Portland so if you want to read more, click on the Portland Label at the end of the post, and you will see all the Portland entries.

Portland with Kids : World Forestry Center

The World Forestry Center is located right by the Portland Zoo. It is very easily accessible via the light rail line heading west out of downtown.

We spent about 1.5 hours working our way through the exhibits. They had some really neat hands on exhibits which appealed to our young kids. It is not a huge place but it seems very nice and new. It was almost deserted which was a big plus for us as we were able to enjoy everything at our own speed. For example, our kids spent quite a while at the pretend tree planting station.

Since this is an indoor activity, one idea would be to spend some time here before heading to the zoo right next door once the day warms up. Instead, we headed over to the Chinese Garden for the afternoon.

Our family of two adults and two children paid $26 admission. As I said, we enjoyed our 1.5 hours there and are glad we got a chance to check it out.

*Note: I have written a bunch of posts about Portland so if you want to read more, click on the Portland Label at the end of the post, and you will see all the Portland entries.

Hiking In Portland

When we decided to visit Portland, I requested a pile of books from our local library. I am loving looking through them all, even if it is a bit overkill for such a short trip. I just like to know what my options are and also just enjoying looking at travel books.

The ones I am looking through today are Portland Forest Hikes and Portland City Walks.

Our family really enjoys "hiking." I put it in quotes because some people may call what we do "walking" with 2 young children. But we really enjoy doing active things and like to have some options on vacations that do not involve crowds and spending money. So that is why I requested these two books - one on walking in the city and one with nearby nature hikes.

Portland City Walks looks like it has a lot of good information in it. But dragging the kids along city streets for several miles has the potential to go poorly. I am going to hang onto this book so we can maybe do sections of walks that correspond with where we will be walking anyway.

Portland Forest Hikes also looks like a really handy guide. I quickly sifted through the hikes and came up with 2 options (there are 20 in the book) that meet my requirements for length, elevation gain and ability to get there via public transit. (More on how we will not have our car later!) The two hikes I found (#1 and #5) are 3 miles or less and reachable via TriMet bus.

I'll have to add these ideas to my growing list of possibilities which I will need to narrow down at some point.

*Note: I have written a bunch of posts about Portland so if you want to read more, click on the Portland Label at the end of the post, and you will see all the Portland entries.

Unplugged Project : Float

We participated in this week's Unplugged Project again. The theme this week is FLOAT and we decided to do more science projects. My kids are pretty little so this was super simple, but we really had a fun time making predictions about what would happen and trying different things out as we thought of them.

The original idea came from yet another library book - this one called Boats, Ships, Submarines and Other Floating Machines by Ian Graham.

So basically we started by filling a bowl with water and talking about how some things float and some things sink. After discussing that heavy things sink, we talked specifically about play-doh. When I put a ball of play-doh in the water, it sunk of course. But when I made the play-doh into a boat like shape then it floated. This is to show that it also has to do with the shape and not just the weight.

After that we floated a metal jar lid and I let the boys mess around with it to figure out in what situations it would float and when it would sink. They really had a nice time with that, and got a little wet which is always a plus for kids.

I confess I also tried another activity from the book to make a submarine but was not quite able to get it to work. Maybe tomorrow we will give that another shot.

I did take photos but this project was not very photogenic so there wasn't really anything worth posting.

Resources for Portland Activities with Kids

Here are a few internet resources to take a look at to get ideas of things to do with the kids in Portland.

www.metro-parent.com - This is a local parent magazine. You can view the current issue online which includes a calendar of events for the month. Right now the Jan issue is up but I am going to check back closer to our trip and see what is going on the week we will be there. I already learned a few neat things, like OMSI has a cheap admission fee the first Sunday of the month.

They also have the results up from their reader survey of family favorites for all sorts of categories here.

There is another local magazine - Portland Family - that also allows you to view the issue online and check out their event calendar.

This blog - http://www.pdxfamilyadventures.com/ - looks cool too. It goes into lots of details about each attraction it mentions. I love that so I can feel really prepared. It reviews favorably several attractions like the Forestry Center that I was curious about but had never talked to anyone who had been before. Looks like a great resource!

I think at this point I have way too many ideas of what to do on our trip. It is amazing how much information is out there!

*Note: I have written a bunch of posts about Portland so if you want to read more, click on the Portland Label at the end of the post, and you will see all the Portland entries.

Make your own Puzzle

Another activity idea from the Busy Book . I made puzzles for the kids out of old boxes. I had macaroni and cheese boxes in the top of the recycle bin so that is what I used.

I wasn't really thinking and I started to do this activity with my 4-year old. The puzzle was way too easy for him the first time I cut it. I cut each piece in half again to make it harder, but by then he had lost interest. I am hanging onto it to pull out at a good time to try again.

So I tried again with my 2-year old and had great success. Well, I guess that depends on how you define success. He did not run off to spend lots of independent time working on and improving his puzzle skills. But we had a fun time playing together with a free and easy toy. He really liked watching me cut the puzzles, so he asked me to make one from all 6 sides of the box. Then, after spending a little time putting them together with him, he found an old plastic butter conatiner to store his new toy in, and carried it around a bit.

Ice Cube Activity

We got another activity idea out of the Busy Book today. My husband and I thought it was pretty cool but I am not sure it was the best activity for the kids.

You make ice cubes in the three primary colors - red, blue and yellow. Then you put them into three bags like this red&yellow, red&blue, yellow&blue and wait for them to melt. Yep... wait for them to melt. It takes longer than you think. Maybe this should be a summer activity.

I tried to be really laid back and let the kids play with the bags while we waited but I did not succeed. My four year old was pretty rough with the bags and I was afraid they would bust.

Anyway, once they start to melt, you can see that yellow&blue make green etc. In fact, it is really cool because you can still see the two colors of partially melted cubes, plus the new color water in the bag. Like I said, my husband and I liked it. The kids, not so much!

Source for Fun Ideas

My kids are really good at playing by themselves, or with each other. Of course when they are playing with each other, they tend to need some refereeing. I have recently realized that when things are not going well sometimes they need a little break from doing their own thing and need a little time with mom.

Sometimes I offer to read with them (that rarely gets a no) and sometimes I just pull out a toy they haven't seen in a while, but sometimes it is fun for all of us to do an activity together. Unfortunately, I am way short on creativity, so I appreciate having resources to go to for ideas.

That is why I was happy to see this post from MomUnplugged. I immediately headed to my library's website to see what I could find. I really wanted the Preschooler one but my library does not have it. I ended up requesting the Toddler one and the Arts and Crafts one.

We have started off with a very simple one. There is an idea called "Sticky Feet" where you tape contact paper down to the floor (sticky side up) and then let your kids run, jump, play and crawl all over the sticky paper.

The kids really, really liked it. It lasted about a week and then all the stickiness was gone. I think it was a great sensory activity. My oldest did not like to touch it with his hands at first but over time got used to it. My youngest avoided the whole thing for a few days before he got into the act. They had fun coming up with their own ideas of silly things to do on the sticky paper.

I am excited to see what other activities we can do from these books.

Fall Leaves Project

Inspired by our successful unplugged project we decided to do another fall project. This one wasn't quite as hands-on for the kids because of the ironing aspect. The boys collected the most colorful leaves they could find in the yard. When the little one was napping, the big one and I arranged the leaves on wax paper and then I ironed another sheet onto the top, making our patterns permanent. Now they are hanging in our kitchen for us to enjoy. They look great on the window with the light shining through.

I got this idea from someone's blog but I am not sure who!