As the snow stops falling up in the mountains we start to get excited about hiking. There are so many easy, kid friendly hikes in Washington, so actually picking where to go first is the biggest struggle. We’ve checked in with some of our favorite Pacific Northwest families and bloggers for their favorite springtime hikes […]
The Seattle area is best seen from the water: sailing, on a ferry, or on a kayak. Just short drives from the city are countless islands and bays to explore. Across the Puget Sound are the Kitsap and Olympic Peninsulas, which are dotted with lakes and waterways, ready to be paddled. Kayaking in the Pacific […]
A few weeks ago we shared some stories of our friends who have spent time in the NICU working with NICU nurses as part of our partnership with Huggies. We have some more cool programs to share today that are all about some relatively unknown needs within our community and others. As part of Huggies […]
One of the most popular places or topics we cover is Olympic National Park. We’ve created so many articles and shared so much because it’s a dream destination for so many. It’s practically our backyard, so allow us to guide you and help you have an incredible time exploring. What began as Olympus National Monument […]
When you visit the Puget Sound area or more specifically the Olympic Peninsula, you’re bound to want to make a gazillion stops. We could tell you that every stop is awesome and worth your time, but we like to direct you to just the best stops. Sol Duc Falls in Olympic National Park is one […]
We’ve got another great, easy hike with kids to share! Our favorite hikes take us places with sweeping views and unusual sights, but we also love huge trees. The Hoh Rainforest is at the top of our list of hikes in the Pacific Northwest with kids, but let’s go ahead and add the Grove of […]
Does anybody think of Washington State as a beach destination? Not hardly, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have the most beautiful beaches around. True, totally missing the palm trees, but we make up for it in other ways. Of all we’ve been to, the most beautiful beach in Washington is for sure Ruby […]
One of our favorite things to do with the kids when we’re traveling is to go biking. We try to do it anywhere possible and it turns out that it’s even fun in our hometown. The opportunity came up to have a “dads day” in the city and we got to enjoying biking in Seattle […]
The Pacific Northwest is a dream destination for so many. Sure, we have our rain and grey skies, but we also have incredible mountains, beaches and forests. Olympic National Park is the perfect spot to experience all of those things, and the west side in the Kalaloch area is really an ideal home base. Camping […]
Unless you grew up in the Pacific Northwest you probably think right away of tropical destinations when you hear the term “rainforest.” We actually have several protected, temperate rainforests here in Washington State. Exploring the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park is our favorite with the kids and we bring a lot of out-of-town guests […]
The Olympic Peninsula is known around the world for its beautiful mountains, its beaches and the Twilight Saga. Well, there’s more to it than that. We’ve spent countless days exploring the OP and not just visiting our old favorite haunts we’ve known all our lives, but also exploring places that are new to all of us. […]
When we’re not lounging on a Florida beach in the hot sun or gallivanting the globe, we love to hike locally. Local, to us, is anything within a few hours’ drive of Seattle. One of our favorite local activities is hiking in Olympic National Park. It’s such an interesting place, with beaches, lowland rainforests, snow-capped […]
It’s no secret that we love the weekends. I mean, who doesn’t? With or without the kids we try to break away to a new city or visit one of our old favs whenever possible, and we’ve partnered with Hampton by Hilton to share some of what we think are the best destinations to be […]
There’s no doubt that the West Coast of the USA is an awesome place full of diverse people, sights and nature. The cities of the West Coast are really progressive and each gives a totally different experience. We’re going to share with you how you can get the full West Coast road trip experience from […]
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 […]
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 […]
It’s been awhile since we’ve shared any details about accommodations while we travel. Well, we’ve stayed someplace now that we must share: Domaine Madeleine in Port Angeles, Washington is the most awesome and perfect bed and breakfast that we have visited. It’s the Olympic Peninsula BNB that puts others to shame. Well, we need to stay […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
We recently put out an itinerary for doing a road trip loop around the Puget Sound here in Washington State. With that, we got a few emails and questions about where to find the prettiest spots in Washington. We thought “Um, that’s such an opinion piece and is going to vary for everyone,” but we’ll […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
So many ways to approach a West Coast road trip. Seriously. You can do the Pacific Coast Highway from the Olympic Peninsula of Washington all of the way to Tijuana, Mexico. Or you can shoot down the i-5 corridor, making intentional stops within an hour or two off the freeway. Or you can wing it […]
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 […]
A dream vacation is this: a nice hotel, hiking, beaches, great food, fancy drinks in non-fancy cups, well behaved kids, an art museum or two, sunshine and massages everyday. An actual vacation is this: a nice place to stay or camp, hiking or chill walks, a beach that you might put your feet in the […]
One of our favorite things to do when traveling is to watch the sunset. The mood changes, the people quiet down (usually) and you say goodnight to the sun. And we do a lot of local travel, so Pacific Northwest sunsets have a special place in our hearts. Here are some of our favorite sunsets […]
One of our favorite movies of all time is Maverick, starring Jodie Foster and Mel Gibson. I don’t know if it’s the humor, the ridiculous story or what, but if nothing else, there’s a lot to be said of the scenery. Deserts, prairies, cliffs, buttes, winding rivers. It’s amazing. If you’ve ever been to eastern Washington, […]
2 dads traveling the globe with their 2 sons, teaching them the value of culture and education, experiencing the outdoors, and giving the kids a broad world view.
