Category Archives: children

A Quick Visit to Lake Cushman

Our attempt to visit the famous hiking trail “Staircase Loop”, located along Lake Cushman in Hoodsport, WA, was thwarted by a Park Ranger and his truck with blinking lights. The trail head area was congested with too many other hikers. We were a little bummed but understood and knew that we were taking a chance of even getting to the trail on a Saturday. Note to self for next visit: Go early!

Instead we parked and walked across a bridge at the headwaters of the lake that allows residents to get to their homes on the other side of the lake. It was a pretty chilly day but there were so many visitors. Some were lounging next the water and others braved it and jumped in. It was great to just people watch. It was almost like things were somewhat normal.

It is such a beautiful lake. Everything is lush, green and and serene. The private campground that we’ve stayed at before is closed for the season, due to Covid-19. Hopefully things will be back to normal by next Summer so we can enjoy a stay. Skokomish Park

Here are just a few pictures on the lake. Not the best pictures because I’m still figuring out using the manual setting on my camera for distance and moving pictures.

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Some white flower weeds found alongside the lake.

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Madrona Tree

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Skokomish Park

Lovely Lavender

We were able to enjoy the lavender fields at Graymarsh Farm. You cut your own bunch but we opted to purchase already cut bunches that they had available. They smell terrific!

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Graymarsh Farm

Berry Picking

We love berry picking! We haven’t been to Graymarsh Farm in years and it was a wonderful outing to do with our kids. The strawberries were mostly spent but the raspberries are just coming in beautifully!

Our Visit to the Tulip Festival – FOTD

Yay! We finally made it to the Tulip Festival for the first time. We have lived here in the Pacific Northwest (Washington State) for over 20 years and I can finally check the “Visit Tulip Festival” box on my bucket list.

It was the usual rainy day for Washington and most of the tulips were still not in bloom in Skagit County but the flowers that were in bloom, including daffodils, were amazing to see. We were very happy to make it over despite the chilly weather. Here are some of the pictures I was able to capture during our visit to Roozengaard in Mount Vernon, WA.

Our daughter wanted jumped from one flower to the next, not really taking in the different varieties of tulips that were available for our eyes. She just loved the colors of all the “pretty flowers”.

Our son on the other hand is much older and took his time to observe the different flowers. He was even able to capture some of his own photos with his phone. At times he seemed really interested but for most teenage boys looking at flowers are not at the top of their “Spring Break” check-list. *wink*

What a beautiful sight. I can only imagine what it looks like when the rest of the tulips are in bloom. We decided we’d love to go back again. Hopefully next year… and the next… and the next.

Tips for our next visit…

  1.  Watch the weather closely.
  2.  Remember to bring rain boots. Our daughter had fun in the puddles.
  3.  Plan for mid-April visit.
  4.  Stay a little longer to check out other attractions nearby, including the Outlet Mall. *wink*

Note: This would make a wonderful sisters, mother & daughter, or girlfriends trip!

Roozengaarde

Tulip Festival

FOTD

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Visit to the Kitsap Live Steamers

We live in such a wonderful community with so many great family friendly and budget friendly things to do. One of the activities that we are fortunate to have is the mini train rides from the Kitsap Live Steamers. Our mother in-law has been asking us for years to take her to check it out and this weekend was the perfect weekend to do it. She loved it so much they let her ride twice in a row. It was definitely an activity enjoyed by all!

The Kitsap Live Steamers is a non-profit organization and provides mini train rides for donations. The mini trains are located right in the South Kitsap Regional Park (Port Orchard, WA.) It is a beautiful park with walking trails, a large grassy field, a picnic shelter and a huge playground for young children to play on.

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https://kls.clubexpress.com

https://www.facebook.com/kitsaplivesteamers.org

 

Train Ride Trip to Portland Part 3

Our second day in Portland was quite rainy but full. We began with a complementary breakfast in the dining hall of our hotel (Embassy Suites Downtown Portland.) It was very convenient with a good selection of food. This is perfect for families with picky eaters.

We chose to try out the light rail (Trimet) to Washington Park for a visit to the Oregon Zoo. We only had to walk a few blocks to get to the nearest station but it was easy to purchase our tickets and hop on. It was a very short wait to get on light rail for the 15 minute ride to Washington Park. It was so nice not having pack everyone into a car to drive over. Plus it was neat being able to show our teenager another form of transportation.

Trimet

When you exit the light rail at the zoo you are several hundred feet underground.  There is an example on the tunnel wall showing how deep you are with an arrow of where that falls on a cross-section of a core sample performed at the site.  A timeline describes how the area (Washington Park) was formed over millions of years as a result of sedimentary buildup as well as very early volcanic flows.  We had walked on around the corner to the elevator only to realize that my geeky husband was still transfixed on the wall’s data, slowly making his way through the years.

Up on the surface we were back in the present, and the elements.  Since it was pouring rain we opted to start indoors with the World Forestry Center. It was neat for our kids to see how important it is to replenish our forests and keep them alive and healthy. The kids seemed to really enjoyed seeing and visiting the hands-on exhibits.  Our toddler’s favorite part of the visit was pretending drive the all terrain vehicle. She was generous enough to take turns with her big brother – after gentle prompting.

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After a nice visit at the center we headed over to the Oregon Zoo just down the road. Most of the exhibits as are central to the light rail and a central parking lot, which makes it very convenient. The city really did a great job when they planned out Washington Park as there is much to see and so much to do.

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The Zoo was a hit! The kids were absolute troopers and while the rain kept coming down we didn’t let it stop us from seeing all the sweet, and not so sweet, animals.

Train Ride Trip to Portland with Kids Part 2

Yea! We made it to Portland!

Train from Jay 2

It was a smooth ride so far. Portland’s Union Station was a little different from Seattle’s station. A little dark and gloomy but getting our baggage was at least quick and easy.

We decided to forgo getting a taxi and walked 12-15 minutes to our hotel. It wasn’t too far of a walk but just like any big city, Portland has a few sketchy spots around the transportation centers. So we walked as quick as we could with our overstuffed backpacks.

By the time we reached our hotel we were ready for a nap. My husband made a point and said if we took a nap we probably wouldn’t leave the room to go out again. So off we went in search of the hotel’s dining hall for their complimentary drinks and snacks.

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We were also able to have a beer and cider on the train.

My husband had a beer and I had a wine. Snacks consisted of veggies and dip, tortilla chips and all the fixings. The dining hall was loud. We headed out to find more food with a little quieter atmosphere. The bellhop at the door of our hotel suggested Huber’s Cafe.

Huber’s was a cute little restaurant contained within an “old Portland” bar dating to the 1890’s. It had what we needed and the staff was friendly and attentive. Their apple/blackberry cobbler was yummy! Part of the “loud” from the dining hall seemingly followed us to Huber’s as in the bachelor party or class reunion was seated next to us … again.

After we ate we finally headed back to the hotel room. Our son was happy he was able to go swimming in the pool. A hotel with a pool and hot tub was my husband’s request. He wanted a place to relax at the end of the day. There were two hot tubs here. He was happy.  It worked out great!

It was a wonderful end to an adventurous day.

Note: We were so busy looking around and carrying our bags that we didn’t get any pictures when we arrived in Portland. I just included some of the train pictures that my husband took with his phone.

~Deb

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Smile – It’s a Giraffe!

While on our trip to Oregon we visited the Oregon Zoo. It was a rainy day but our children were troopers. One of our favorite animal to see was the giraffe. There were two of them and they were the cutest. Big smiles all around.

Smile

A smile is a light in the window of the soul indicating that the heart is at home.

~Author Unknown

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Train Ride Trip to Portland with Kids Part 1

Planning to take a trip on a train with kids? We have discovered that it is completely doable.

Taking a train ride was one of the items on my bucket list. This Spring Break we were able to take a train ride from Seattle to Portland. It was most certainly an adventure for my husband, myself and our 2 younger children.

The ride was about 3.5 hrs each way. It was an experimental trip to see how things would work without driving. On our last trip to Portland our daughter was then 2 years old.  She cried for a while on our way back home. It was quite stressful and quite dangerous trying to get in and out of traffic to take care of our very uncomfortable toddler. On this present trip we really wanted to see if it could have much more relaxing vacation.

We started our trip from Bremerton via the ferry to Seattle. It was a free trip to Seattle. We had sandwiches and snacks that we had prepared in the morning. It was a quick and relaxed hour ride.

Once in Seattle, we walked about 10 minutes to Tat’s Deli, a cheesesteak place that my East Coast husband has been wanting to try. We were already quite full but my son and I agreed to share a sandwich and some fries. The food was great and well worth stuffing ourselves! Our almost 3 year old daughter happily had a lot of ketchup with few yummy fries. Apparently, her favorite vegetable is ketchup.

With our over-filled bellies we headed to the train station. It was about a 6 minute walk but it took us a little longer to get situated because we also took a booster seat in case we needed it for a taxi or Uber in Seattle or Portland. (Note: We ended up not using it.)

The King Street Station in Seattle is BEAUTIFUL! It is very well maintained with an amazing vaulted ceiling to gaze at while you wait to board your train. There were lots of designs in the marble tiled floor and my wily husband had the two year old walking the outlines hoping to use up some of her energy.  We purchased our tickets online at Amtrak.com. The check in process was simple and the check in area was well defined with signs, roped off areas for the line, and a counter.

In Seattle they boarded passengers with children, or in groups of four, first.  We were able to grab a table with four facing seats on the train and it was best thing we could have asked for. It allowed us to spread out our refreshments, our activities and most importantly it allowed us to talk to each other.

Before the train rolled on, our children and I each had a dose of Dramamine, just as a preventative measure. I get motion sickness very easy so this is a great tip for those who have issues with motion sickness. Thankfully, we had no problem. We all even got a short nap on the train ride.

We took with us a small bag full of activities for our toddler. The most popular of the activities was coloring with the twistable crayons. It was new to her. We also took along stickers, a sticker book, lacing cards, and some of her favorite snacks. Our teenage son was responsible for packing up his own activities and snacks.  He was fairly occupied with his new-ish iPhone 5.  Amtrak has decent WiFi onboard for internet access and social media, but not enough for streaming media.

We had movies and TV shows downloaded on our mobile devices as a great back-up activity for all of us. We were able to plug our chargers right into the two convenient outlets under our table.

Overall, the ride to Portland was comfortable and pleasant experience. The scenery on the way was spectacular. Our teenager was happy and our toddler did great.

~Deb

Textures – Toddler Activity Project Fail

I often browse through Pinterest looking for various activities to keep our toddler occupied throughout the day. As I find ideas, I think to myself, “I can do this. I can go to the dollar store and find items to come up with a project of my own.”

A short visit to the Dollar Tree near us and low and behold, I found two great items to create a quiet project to keep our toddler occupied… or so I thought.

A small storage container with compartments and a bag of colorful pom poms = color sorting activity. I hot glued a piece of pom pom to the bottom of each compartment and added a few more pom poms of the matching color to each. I thought it would be a success.

This sorting activity has been our nemesis the past few days. The wonderful itty bitty pieces of colorful fuzz seemed to multiply and explode onto our carpet each day.  They have become awesome pretend food.  We finally gave up trying to teach our toddler and decided to just join in the fun and pretend to eat the little colorful pieces of pretend pie, tea, cake or whatever our daughter cooks up.

I hope maybe someone can at least use this as an idea for a project of their own. I do have to admit, the pom poms have been a great, quiet tool and quite a hit at keeping my daughter occupied for long periods of time. I think the textures and the colors are what appeal to her. Perhaps someday she’ll want to actually sort them or maybe I’ll find another learning project to create with these fun, mini, fuzzy spheres. In the meantime, we’ll just enjoy the happiness they bring to our little girl.