There are days or weeks when we are just worn out; sometimes it’s from traveling a ton and sometimes it’s just because life can be a lot to deal with. That’s why we always try to relax on our weekends and get a good recharge. We’ve partnered up with Hampton by Hilton to both help us find new ways for
More often than not we find ourselves visiting places we’ve been 10,000 times. We don’t live far from Port Townsend, Washington and that’s where a lot of our family is so we are there quite often. We love Port Townsend, as most Pacific Northwest residents do, and it’s our duty to share just why and what you can expect from
We love our hikes. Winter, summer, whenever. We also love visiting beaches. Have you ever done beach hiking? Beach hiking is an awesome challenge because it is so different than hiking on a hard rock trail. The Dungeness National Wildlife Refuge is a perfect place to experience beach hiking as well as have some fun in our Pacific Northwest coastal
When you’ve lived in Seattle for a long time, you stop trying to find new things to do or you forget the fun things you used to do. When we were much younger, Chris and I lived very close to Volunteer Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. The Hill is one of Seattle’s oldest neighborhoods and is also the “gayborhood”.
Since summer keeps us going going going we are always a tiny bit excited for fall. Fall is the perfect time to chill for a bit (for at least three weeks straight), prep for the next big trip (usually a warm couple weeks in Mexico) and do our pumpkin thing. Yes, most families have some fall traditions and ours always
We’ll never get tired of sharing certain types of things with the world. We have our favorite destinations and activities and we’ll share lots of different ways to experience them. Port Townsend, Washington is one of those destinations and something we love there is Fort Worden. And at Fort Worden we have discovered the Port Townsend Marine Science Center. We visit
Okay, new favorite thing to do on a Thursday afternoon: destination dining. Whaaaaa? Yep, it’s the coolest and most unusual, but most Pacific Northwest thing you can possibly do. The Pretty Fork, a local Seattle progressive dining tour operator, has got the concept of destination dining down. I heard about destination dining with the Pretty Fork through some friends and
Every year we get together with our family for a big family reunion trip. Hold up, that’s a vague statement because our family is enormous. We get together annually with our immediate family for a week at Lake Cushman on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. We love it there; it’s beautiful. We love even more though creating the most
Until I moved to San Francisco in my early 20s I’d always heard of Tahoe and people going to Tahoe for the summer or staying in a lodge for skiing at Tahoe for the winter and I never got it. It seemed so common and yet so exclusive. Well, it turns out that we have our own similar destination in
We get a lot of questions about visiting the Pacific Northwest with kids. People want to know the obvious like “what are the can’t-miss sights?” or “should we really pack for cold weather in July?” We’ll answer that second question first: yes, it rains. For the other questions though, here is the first of 3 plans we’re going to share
We travel a lot, right? Do you ever wonder what actually sticks with kids and makes a lasting impression? When you’re planning your own vacation, do you seriously talk to your kids to see what they want to do or where they want to go. After interviewing our own 4 year old, it’s become a bit more clear as to
We’re going to do a stereotypical and highly ridiculous thing. A lot of writers will tell you about the “only sight you need to see in…” or the “absolute most perfect…” and we try not to do that. Ever. Tell you what though, we are going to tell you about the best most worthwhile hike in Mt Rainier National Park:
It’s probably been a long while since you have sat down and watched Northern Exposure, right? Yeah, I can’t say that I’ve seen an episode in the last 20 years, but we went a had an awesome family weekend in Roslyn, Washington where they filmed it and the town is just as rustic, quirky, and cool now as it was
I’m sure we all have memories, either recent or from childhood, that are grossly inaccurate. A great example is when you can recall a great hike and it’s been years and you think taking your kids on it will be a blast… and then you realize that it’s a hike along cliffs and above churning tides. Hiking at Deception Pass
Apparently our new hangout is Anacortes. We’ve now had several trips up, all for different reasons and love it. We just returned from another awesome trip, this time specifically camping and spending the weekend at Washington Park in Anacortes. We’d visiting the Park once before and it was fun, but this time we dedicated our weekend to enjoying the many
Family travel usually keeps us doing things like hiking and animal related activities, which we completely love, but what if we said that a new thing happening in Washington State adds a fun new aspect to family travel: wine tasting. That’s right, family friendly wine tasting is happening in the Pacific Northwest. We travel to the Columbia River Gorge frequently,
The Pacific Northwest has countless spots where you can look around and say “Wow, I love it here!” Seriously, every view is different and beautiful. It’s also a place where kids can run wild and play on the beach (almost year round). Fort Casey on Whidbey Island is such a place. From forest trails to bunkers overlooking beaches, a day
So, if you read our article about Anacortes, you know that the town totally surprised us. We always thought of it as a town that we just had to drive through to get to the ferry for the San Juan Islands, but we discovered it’s much more than that. While there we stayed at the Majestic Inn of Anacortes and
Once upon a time we wrote this great article about why you shouldn’t write off a destination and basically said that you should always give a place a second chance or even just go experience it for the first time despite what others have said. Anacortes, Washington is one of those places. There are so many things to do in
From the first day we moved to Suquamish, Washington we had friends telling us about the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island. Always being busy and never being bored, we'd never carved out time to visit. Well, we finally did and it was amazing! We're going to keep it brief because the best way to explain the Bloedel Reserve and how incredible
Beaches and bunkers. That’s what we did this weekend. We loved every moment of it. If you’ve not lived on a US coast, you might not have ever been to a pre-WWII fort. Close to home for us is Fort Worden State Park in Port Townsend, Washington. Fort Worden rocks for a family travel day for a bunch of reasons
If you live in Seattle you know that you’ll never be bored and that there are 10,000 day trips you can take in and out of the city. Well, do you know what the best day trip just outside of Seattle is? It’s actually a trip to Snoqualmie, both the falls and the town. Snoqualmie Falls is incredible, either for
Even though we love going to Olympic National Park, Mount Rainier National Park is one of our favorite spots in the state of Washington. One of the things we love about Mount Rainier is that you can enjoy the North or the South Side and have very different experiences. On the north side there are far fewer people to deal
There are few things that we’re just suckers for: lighthouses, bathrobes, and waterfalls. When you’re heading to the mountains to go hiking, you can only count on getting one of those boxes checked off, and it’s waterfalls. Mt Rainier National Park is an easy day trip or multi-day camping destination for any type of traveler, and with this comes several
We live in the Seattle area of Washington State and we love it! It’s got everything from the mountains to the Puget Sound. Heck, even the ocean isn’t too far for a day trip. We also have some really amazing small towns. One of our favorites is Leavenworth, Washington. It’s cute. It’s quaint. It’s manufactured. Huh? Yep! There’s a great
Let’s just be cheesy up front and quote some Johnny Mathis: “Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing, ring-ting-tingle-ing too; Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.” Well, it was lovely weather when we were recently in Leavenworth, Washington and we did go on a sleigh ride even though it wasn't even the holiday season anymore.
I’ve had a few interviews in the last couple of weeks and been asked what sort of family travel we love to do. The answer is always so quick to come to my tongue: hot, sunny beaches. And it’s true. We just aren’t snow people. Snow is pretty but it’s never our first choice, even in the winter. We decided
There are so many approaches you can take to writing about a brewery. You can highlight the unusual brewing process or talk about the great food they pair with beers. You could tell the story of each beer’s creation. How about we do a little of all of that to share about Icicle Brewing Co in Leavenworth, WA? Icicle Brewing
We are always up for an unusual dining experience. We love sushi when there’s the chef’s choice or ordering “catch of the day”. Um, what’s it gonna be? We also love when the dining style is totally unexpected. Example: you’re seated for fine dining and discover that it’s a buffet style dining room with really incredible dishes. That’s what we
As we stay in more and more hotels it becomes clear what we like and don’t like, what is good for family travel vs couples travel, and what’s just awesome. We snuck away without the kids again (really, it’s not our norm) and got to celebrate our anniversary weekend across the mountains at the Sleeping Lady Resort in Leavenworth, Washington.