School’s out and many parents are faced with bored children or an impasse about how to spend the day. Following, find some new spots, some old spots and some spots you might have forgotten about to visit with children.
There are more indoor activities in the Puget Sound than days of rain during the summer months, so don’t fret if rain clouds roll in. For starters, the Bellevue Club has an indoor camp for kids with just about any interest. Science buffs can be mystery sleuths for a day or try their hands at uncovering the secrets of DNA in Mad Science Camps. These camps are for 6- to 12-year-olds.
Readers have a new camp to try this summer, the
Magic Reading Summer Camps. Through fun and interactive activities, kids can improve their reading skills. The dancers in your family can try Pre-Ballet or Hip-Hop Camps. Pre-
Ballet Camp is available for children 3 to 9 years old. The instructor, Natasha Keeley, currently performs with Ballet Bellevue, and has danced around the world. If ballet won’t do, there are also Hip-Hop Camps for kids
8 to 18. Taught by Kelly
VandenEkart,
a Sonics dance team member, this camp will get your children moving. For the youngest dancers, there is a session of Kindermusik and two different
Kindermusik Camps. In Kindermusik, your children (and with the youngest participants, you) will dance, chant, sing, play instruments and have fun.
The Club also has many sports-related camps for kids of all ages. These include All-Sports Camp,
Volleyball Camp, Basketball Camp, Karate Camp, Swim Camp, Synchronized Swim Camp and Water Polo Camp. If your teen wants to stay active this summer, he or she can try the Teen Fitness Camps, where 12- to 14-year-olds can try
the cardiovascular and strength machines, indoor cycling, yoga and Pilates. There is also Become an Elite Athlete for 15- to 18-year-olds. This program will help older teens improve the skills necessary for their sports.
For a more active indoor pursuit, try rock climbing at an indoor wall. Indoor climbing walls are quite common in the area, including the Stone Gardens, REI and Vertical World. Each offers lessons and classes for kids (usually 6 and older) through adults. Seattle is also home to the
School of Acrobatics and New
Circus Arts, where kids can learn how to juggle, fly on a trapeze or use a trampoline. For even more bouncing, visit Jump Planet in Bothell or Kidz Bounce in Preston, two companies that have playtime for kids on inflatable toys. Your little artists can try their talents in watercolor, pen and ink, pastels and mixed texture at the Bellevue Club’s Art Camp, available for kindergarten through fifth-grade students. After participating in the weeklong camp, your child will have the beginnings of his or her own exhibition. If a session (or three!) of Art Camp isn’t enough, places like Color Me Mine and Art n’ Play have ceramics available for kids to paint or stamp. The Creation Station in Lynnwood is home to hundreds of nontoxic, recyclable materials that kids can glue, stack and color to create a truly unique art project.
For the culinary artist in the family, children 6 to 12 can participate in a Junior Chef Cooking Camp at the Club. In these camps, NuCulinary helps participants create their own meals, from start to finish. And the best part? Sampling what was made!
If your child is a musical artist, head to Benaroya Hall, the home of the Seattle Symphony. There you can visit Soundbridge, the Seattle Symphony Music Discovery Center, where your children can listen to musical storytelling, explore seven different musical exhibits, take classes and attend workshops or lectures.
After spending time at Benaroya Hall, check out a few unique shops that some children might have fun visiting. These include Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the waterfront, where ushering kids past the trinkets in the front of the store will show them mummies and other preserved artifacts. Uwajimaya in the International District is full of Asian foods, candy, books and other products. Pick up some new fruits or vegetables to try, or buy ingredients to make a whole meal. Pioneer Square is home to Magic Mouse Toys, where you and your kids can find a variety of one-of-a-kind toys. Back on the Eastside, Bellevue Square is home to a Club Libby Lu, where tweens can create their own spa products, have
Museum of Flight
their hair done and even pick out a new (stuffed) dog to dress up. There is also a Build-A-Bear Workshop where you can create your own teddy bear from its stuffing to its outfit.
When the sun shines, there is no better place to be than outside. From “Mountains to Sound,” there is more to do outdoors than you can cram into the three months of summer. Let the little ones exert some energy at the Club’s Tennis Camps or Soccer Camp, where they will practice passing, trapping, dribbling, shooting and throw-ins; or for children 10 and older, try the Club’s Water-skiing or Wakeboarding lessons. Taught by Bill Bonney, an American Water Skiing Association-certified instructor, participants of all levels will improve their skills on Lake Sammamish.
Once camps are over, keep kids active with a visit to Alki Beach, where they can run on sand or on a paved path and you get a nice view of Elliott Bay and downtown Seattle; Ballard Commons Park, a great place for kids of all ages with a wading pool, skateboarding bowl and library across the street; Beaver Lake Park, a fantastic spot in Sammamish for hiking, exploring and fishing; Bradner Gardens Park, a new park in
the Mount Baker neighborhood, that among other features includes a children’s A to Z park; Redmond’s Farrel-McWhirter Park, where children have 68 acres of trails, ball fields, fishing spots and picnic tables to use; Juanita Bay Park, once voted Best Urban Nature Walk for Toddlers; Longfellow Creek Legacy Trail, a trail that follows the West Seattle creek through various parts of
the city; Luther
Burbank Park, a large park with plenty to keep kids busy on Mercer Island; or Mercer Slough Nature Park, where there
are seven miles of trails to ex-plore as well as
a Blueberry Farm where kids can help pick fresh produce.
Woodland Park Zoo
For animal lovers, Woodland Park Zoo is always a fun adventure, but you can also visit Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma, which opened a children’s zoo in 2005; the Cougar Mountain Zoological Park in Issaquah or the Forest Park Animal Farm in Everett, where your children can participate in educational programs or just wander the barnyard with rabbits, ducks, pigs, goats and ponies. Tenino, Wash., is home to
Wolf Haven International
Wolf Haven International, a refuge for all types of captive-born wolves. Here, take a tour and learn about wolves. The nonprofit also has Howl-Ins during the summer, when families can take tours of the sanctuary, watch live entertainment, participate in activities, such as basket weaving, and more. Northwest Trek is another wild animal adventure, where you can take a tram tour of the park and see everything from beavers to black bears. Right in Bellevue you can take the kids to Kelsey Creek Park, which is home to a farm with a variety of barnyard animals to view.
There are a number of farms in the area where kids can learn about fruits and vegetables, help you pick some for dinner and more.
Remlinger Farms is a popular spot, especially during pumpkin season in October. Right now, visit for the pick-your-own strawberries and raspberries. The South 47 Farm in Redmond also has pick-your-own produce and a farm stand as well as activities for kids, including a Farm Tots program for children 5 and younger. Everett is home to Biringer Farm with a variety of family activities, including a corn maze starting in October. If you’re craving blueberry pancakes or muffins, head
out to Arlington to pick your own at
the Bryant Blueberry Farm and
Garden. In addition to its fruit, there is a giant straw mountain, animals to pet and a play area to expend some energy.
For a more urban experience, there are unlimited places to explore in Seattle. Olympic Sculpture Park has paved paths leading to all types of sculptures—just make sure your children are old enough to understand they can’t climb on or touch the art. Head up to Fremont and let your children climb the Fremont Troll, one of the most famous public sculptures in the city. Kids will also enjoy watching boats go through the Ballard Locks, and older children will enjoy learning about how the locks work. There is also a salmon ladder where you can sit and watch salmon climb when they’re migrating in the fall. If you are up for
something more “touristy,” try the Ride the Ducks tour. Children will enjoy going from land to water without changing vehicles, and tour guides keep things interesting with jokes and fun music. If you want to explore places in the city you might not otherwise see, try geocaching or letterboxing. Both activities involve following directions to find specific locations, but the similarities end there. Geocaching includes using GPS to locate spots via latitude and longitude. Letterboxing is more of a scavenger hunt—participants can look up clues online for various letterboxes, which they can then go find. For more on these activities, scroll down the page.
Sporting events are always a good event for families, and during the summer, baseball is in full swing—Safeco Field is always fun, rain or shine. The Pike Place Market is also a good stop for families, as there are plenty of covered shops to explore in addition to walking through Post Alley when the sun is out. Head down to Tukwila to the Family Fun Center, where you and the kids can play miniature golf, ride bumper boats or drive go-karts outside, or play laser tag,
watch a 4-D movie (the fourth dimension is movement) or let the kids run off energy in “Kidopolis.” Older children might enjoy Seattle’s Underground Tour, which takes you both on and under the city’s sidewalks for an entertaining look at Seattle’s start. Small children probably will become bored with the 90-minute tour. If your kids enjoy whacking golf balls, head over to the Interbay Golf Center in Seattle. With covered stalls on the driving range, you and your kids can hit rain or shine. And if it’s chilly, the center also has 40 heated stalls. For even more ideas of places to take your kids when boredom strikes, “Out and About Seattle with Kids” by Ann Bergman and Stephanie Dunnewind and “A Parent’s Guide to Seattle” by Tom Hobson are two great books to check out. Another good resource is www.gocitykids.com, where you can search activities by age, topic or indoor/outdoor location. For more information about the places listed in this story, enter the name into a search engine.
While geocaching started with the increased usage of GPS devices in 2000, letterboxing has been popular in England for more than 150 years, only gaining popularity in the United States in the late ’90s after Smithsonian ran an article about the English pastime. Letterboxing started in Dartmoor, England, in 1854 when James Parrott left a calling card in a bottle along the banks of Cranmere Pool. Today, letterboxes include a logbook and rubber stamp instead of calling cards. In the United States, letterboxes can be found through online clues at Web sites like www.letterboxing.org. Clues range from very easy to extremely difficult—some clues don’t even tell you what state the letterbox is in!
To start letterboxing, all you need is a personal logbook, inkpad and personal stamp. While some letterboxers carve their own stamps, a purchased stamp works just as well. Once you have your supplies and have located a letterbox using clues, you can stamp the box’s logbook with your personal stamp and stamp your logbook with the letterbox stamp. Some people will also write information about the weather, where they are from or other details in the letterbox logbook. Geocaching has many of the same elements as letterboxing, but instead of using a logbook and stamps, geocaching has a “take an object/leave an object” element. And, of course, geocaching requires the use of a GPS device to find locations. Again, geocachers can find clues online—www.geocaching.com is a good starting place.
Both activities are fun for families because clues range from easy to hard, and some require skills in mapping, compass reading, cryptology and more.
