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Families Travel! Geocaching with kids
Geocaching may be the perfect Cascadia sport. It’s a puzzle (appealing to our inner geek), it’s an outdoor excursion (appealing to our inner jock), it’s a social trading game (yes, even cheerleaders can play). Geocachers hide containers with tradeable trinkets – pick one and keep it, and leave your trade inside. Cache stashes could offer small plastic toys, movie tickets, foreign money or stickers. Note your visit in the logbook with a stamp or signature, also kept in the container. Caches can be tucked away anywhere: city park, campground stream, old-growth tree or a mountain peak. How do you find these containers? With your Global Positioning System (GPS) device or cellphone, after retrieving instructions from a geocaching website (the most…
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Transportation Deals
Check out these travel deals and promotions from regional train and ferry operators. BC Ferries: Vacation Packages and Mid-Week CoastSaver Summer Rates Clipper Vacations:Â Promotions (Victoria, San Juan Islands, Seattle) Amtrak Cascades:Â Special offers (BC, Washington, Oregon, includes family deals like kids ride at 50% off) Black Ball Ferry Line:Â Online travel specials (Victoria, San Juan Islands, Port Angeles) Want to suggest a page? E-mail me at lora AT cascadiakids.com
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Maifest! May family festivals and events
Mayday! What are you doing this month? Plan your weekend getaway after looking over these family-friendly options. May 2010 May weekends. Celebrate the 30th anniversary of Mt. St. Helens blowing her top in Washington State. May 2. Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day). Portland, Oregon. In Portland’s stunning Japanese Garden, kids are more than welcome – they’re celebrated! Try a kids’ teatime, create paper koi kites and enjoy the deep thump of taiko drums. May 7-9. Maifest. Leavenworth, Washington. A “Lookin’ Good in Lederhosen†contest, maipole dances, children’s activities and Bavarian-style parade. Oh, and some beer. For you, not the kids. May 8-9. Mother’s Day Weekend at the Aquarium. Vancouver, BC. Free mother’s…
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Tulips & Daffodils: Spring flower festivals for families
There’s still time to see a tulip, although the daffodils have mostly come and gone. Here are some general tips and book suggestions to consider — do you have any tips for field-goers? Any favorite restaurants? Please leave ’em in the comments! Tulip Festival, Oregon In Woodburn, over 40 acres of tulips and daffodils paint the Willamette Valley’s Wooden Shoe Farm. Daily activities include a children’s play area, photogenic fields and weekend music jams and pony rides. Skagit Valley Tulip Festival, Washington Washington State’s North Cascades area welcomes spring with a riot of color and events. Drive between flower growers, bakeries, artisan stores and restaurants. Roozengaarde Nursery is the largest bulb…
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9 Great Things to Do with Kids in Victoria, BC
My family and I visit Victoria twice a year for long trips – and these are the places we don’t get tired of, and the spots the kids ask to return to, again and again. Victoria Bug Zoo. It’s not necessarily the bugs that are the draw here – there are plenty of places to see a cockroach or an African millipede. But the tour guides make this attraction one of our favorites in Cascadia. The guides dispense education with entertainment and genuinely kid-friendly attitudes. Whether describing how a bug eats her mate or using a millipede as a moustache, the enthusiastic employees always provide weird facts and fun. Butchart…
