Family Travel Ideas
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Oregon Water Parks
Oregon’s water parks are few and far between — most people flock to the sunny Oregon Coast to fill up on watery good times. But as if to make up for the lack of water parks, Oregon offers wonderful municipal aquatic centers. Here are Oregon’s water parks, aquatic centers and water slides. Wings and Waves Waterpark at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. McMinnville, Oregon. It’s an air museum. No, it’s a water park. Well, it’s both. Although admission is pricey ($32 for an adult), you’ll get to enjoy a wave pool, a vortex pool, fountains, slides that take you right past an airplane (and nine more slides), along…
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BC Water Parks and Water Slides
Cultus Lake Water Park, Fraser Valley, BC. This waterpark offers a two new rides in 2013. The Boomerang takes up to four passengers in a raft  in a double-figure-eight slide, down 60 feet before diving to the ‘boomerang’ landing canal below. The Bazooka Bowls dares the daredevil — it takes riders through a black-hole flume, into a 30-foot bowl slide where they’ll rotate before dropping into a 9-foot bowl below. Too scary? There’s a spray “Pirate’s cove” that’s very cute and suited for younger children. OK to bring in your own food, and great discounts on the Cultus Water Park’s website. Bridal Falls Waterpark, near Chilliwack, BC. This BC water park is pretty straightforward…
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Camping Grub That Kids Will Love: Kid-Friendly Camping Food
Recently, I had the good fortune to interview Emily Trudeau, a veteran camper and one of the three cofounders of the camping-food blog Dirty Gourmet, along with Aimee Trudeau and Katherine Kwan. She encourages first-time campers to get out there — even if you’re not typically comfortable with sticks, dirt and bugs. “Being outdoors is a healing experience,†she says, whether you’re sitting around a campfire, counting stars in the night sky or watching your kids play (with sticks, dirt and bugs). Camping doesn’t mean you have to leave the comfort foods of home at home — particularly with kids. Yet, if you’re sick of hotdogs by the summer’s end, I’m…
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Harrison Hot Springs with Kids: Where to Eat, Sleep & Splash
My kids and I recently went on two trips to Harrison Hot Springs, which is about 90 minutes east of Vancouver, and two hours north of Seattle. And we loved it. The hot springs of the town’s name are located inside Harrison Hot Springs Resort. While there are little restaurants and hotels in the town of Harrison Hot Springs, this is a town that takes up all of about four blocks, and in order to use the hot springs, you must stay at the resort. So for that reason, check out the family deals and specials offered through the hotel’s website. The hotel itself, although called a “resort,” is a…
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Long Family Camping Trips in Washington State
Seattle-based parenting consultant Jenni Pertuset and her 8-year old daughter Meg like camping. No, scratch that – they love camping. The duo have camped for thousands of miles around Washington State for the past three years. Each year, they wrap a different theme around their two-week camping trips. The first year, mother and daughter toured Olympic Peninsula destinations Jenni visited with her parents, when Jenni was a child. She revisited these places, in part, to remember her father, who had recently passed away. The second year followed Lewis and Clark’s westward water route in Washington by road, starting from Canoe Camp in Idaho, following the land along Washington’s Clearwater, Snake,…
