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Harry Potter, Picasso & Purses: Fall Museum Round-Up
Wow, cool exhibits are in Cascadia! From Vancouver, BC to Portland, Oregon, here are my picks for the very best fall exhibits in science, art, history and children’s museums. Most end in January or February, so visit before the exhibits pack up and roll down the highway to the next town. — Harry Potter: The Exhibition Pacific Science Center, Seattle; October 23, 2010 – January 30, 2011. This hands-on exhibit is a dream come true for Harry fans: A walk through Harry’s world. View the movie’s costumes and props, try pulling a mandrake from a pot, sit in Hagrid’s leather chair and toss a Quaffle. Online ticket purchase options include daytime…
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Kid Picks for Seattle Restaurant Week
On Sunday, October 17, Seattle Restaurant Week kicks off. For almost two weeks (October 17-28), Sunday through Thursday, diners will enjoy three-course dinners for just $25 at over 100 area restaurants. Evado PR helped me collect information on kid-friendly restaurants that offer children’s menus. I’ve highlighted menu items that might be more adventurous, along with the standards. Of course, these menu items are offered the other 51 weeks, so you’re not limited to dining during SRW. Don’t see your favorite restaurant listed here? Don’t stress. Call ahead and ask whether they make special accommodations for kids, whether smaller portions or appetizer options. Go to the Seattle Restaurant Week site to…
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Stormwatching at the Coast: Tips and Hints
Winds howl outside at 55 miles per hour – fast enough to tip over a toddler. Waves explode on the beach, each one more spectacular than the last. The lights flicker, but stay on. Your family is inside, dry and happy, playing “Apples to Apples†with a warm drink (Hot chocolate? Hot cider? Hot toddy  — just for grown-ups) in hand. During this season of storms and seas, some upscale resorts even offer a “stormwatcher’s package,†like this one at the Wickannish Inn in Tofino. But you don’t have to spend a fortune to enjoy the wild weather at the coast. Here are tips for enjoying stormwatching in the Pacific…
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Families Travel! Breitenbush Hot Springs with Kids
Over the 2010 Labor Day Weekend, Portland mom Jennifer and her husband Tony (owners of Portland’s Milagros Boutique) took their two children to Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat and Conference Center in Detroit, Oregon. This resort, founded in 1977, is old-school crunchy Oregon, through and through. It’s a worker-owned cooperative featuring geothermal heating, eco-conscious structures and an off-the-grid lifestyle (no phone, no TV, no wi-fi). The laid-back attitude extends toward clothing, which is optional in the tub areas. “A family uncomfortable with nudity would not feel comfortable in the bathing areas of Breitenbush,†Jennifer says. “The majority of folks in the bathing areas are naked.†So this may not be a resort for everyone – it depends on whether you’re OK…
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Hot Springs in Oregon and Washington with Kids
If you were a miner back in the 1880s, how did you get really clean? You planned a trip to the closest hot springs. Hot spring trips have long been a traditional pastime in the BC-Washington-Oregon region, says Jeff Birkby, author of Touring Washington and Oregon Hot Springs, a history-rich guidebook to hot springs in the Pacific Northwest. Hot springs are formed when ground and rain water sinks below the Earth’s surface, then heats in volcanic pots deep below the surface. The mineral-infused water springs back out once it’s at a boiling point, then cools in pools. “Hot springs were social centers,†Birkby says of olden-days hot spring spots. The hotter…