Category Archives: Family Fun

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Farm fresh produce and fall just seem to go together like
comfortable shoes. On October 5 and 6 thirteen Skagit Valley Farms invite you
to visit and discover where your food comes from. The Skagit Valley Festival of
Farms runs from 10 a.m.-4p.m. each day with opportunities to visit educational exhibits, take farm tours, view gardening demonstrations, taste mouth-watering samples, let your kids try farm activities and everyone can navigate corn mazes.
Best of all, the basic tour is FREE. Each stop may also have
prepared food or the produce, meat, dairy products, etc. that they are known
for available for purchase.

Here’s a brief preview of what you’ll discover on this tour.

At Taylor Shellfish on Chuckanut Drive in Bow, Wash.,
you’ll meet shellfish farmers, watch oyster shucking demonstrations, urge crabs
along in their own races, build a fairy house on the beach, see the world’s
only lighthouse made of oyster shells and taste steamed Manila clams or
barbequed Pacific oysters.

: Stop by Samish Bay Cheese in Bow and taste the phenomenal Arugula Ladysmith cheese that Roger makes.

At Sakuma Bros. Farms in Burlington, take a tractor-pulled
wagon ride, find out what a raspberry machine is, take part in a pie eating
contest and sample fresh berries, chips and salsa made with locally grown
produce and honey from Belleville Honey Company.

Although the Tulip Festival has come and gone for this year, you can still find out all
about this beautiful flower at RoozenGaarde in Mount Vernon. Gather ideas from the experts on layouts and plantings that you can do in your own landscape. Let the
children try the scavenger hunt and before you leave, shop for bulbs and gardening tools.

Wineries, dairies, cattle ranches, produce farms and more complete the tour.

There’s so much to see you might want to spend the weekend.
I highly recommend Candlewood Suites in Burlington
as a comfortable option. Rooms have full kitchens so you can bring back your
bounty and eat it freshly cooked or store it in a full-size refrigerator.

Petting Farms

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I drove my granddaughter, Kita, to her preschool field trip yesterday. As we made our way to Windwater Farm in Auburn, I decided to use our time together in the car as a teachable moment. I got what I deserved.

“What animals do you think you’ll see at the farm today?” I asked.

“Cows, horses, chickens and unicorns,” Kita answered confidently from the backseat. I laughed to myself and secretly wished I had her imagination.

When we first arrived at the farm, while one of the helpers was placing blanket-wrapped rabbits in the preschooler’s laps, I questioned the farm employee about the unicorns.

“Yes, we have three,” she said, expressionless. (I’m still looking for them.)

Kita feeding a guinea pig.

Kita wanted to feed the rabbits, but unfortunately when they were swaddled they didn’t have an appetite. So her bunny was replaced with a guinea pig that gnawed on the carrot she held to his mouth. She looked like she was holding a baby and wasn’t it just yesterday that she was the baby?

The kids fed goats, a pig (who was definitely not gluten-free – he preferred bread over carrots), sheep, a donkey and chickens (they ate corn). Since I’d done a cursory search of the farm’s website in the morning, I attempted to share my knowledge with Kita.

“They have chickens here that lay brown, white and green eggs,” I told her.

“Then, is their poop pink?” she asked, using her 4-year-old logic.

The highlight of the day came when Kita and her friend were lifted into the saddle of Dolly, the horse. The lady that had assured me about the unicorns led them around the pasture slowly and carefully. And Kita has now ridden her first horse. She beamed with pride over her accomplishment when she dismounted.

Kita, in pink and brown, on her first horse ride.

Unfortunately Windwater Farm is only open for field trips and private parties. But here is a list of other local farms where you can have similar experiences.

Farrel-McWhirter Park in Redmond

Fox Hollow Farm in Issaquah

Remlinger Farms in Carnation

City Goat Farm & Zoo in Spanaway

Old McDebbie’s Farm in Spanaway

Morris’s Shadow Mountain Stables in Auburn

You’ll Never Get Closer to Elk: Oak Creek Feeding Station

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At the beginning of March, two other travel writers, a VisitRainier employee and I experienced the feeding of the elk at Oak Creek Feeding Station, off Highway 12 near Naches in Eastern Washington (yes, it was a press trip). We got close enough to these four-legged giants to make eye contact.

This supplemental feeding program, began in 1945. It was adopted so that the elk wouldn’t venture into any of the agricultural areas nearby looking for food in the winter. Depending on the weather, feedings begin sometime in December and continue until March. If you visit in January or February, you’ll have the best chance of participating.

Everything is free – you just have to sign up and put your John Henry on a disclaimer. Then you can ride out into the field in a U.S. Army truck and witness the feeding of as many as 700 elk at a time. While you patiently wait your driver dispenses facts and figures about the program and cows and bulls snuffle and shift positions anticipating the upcoming buffet of hay. Then two other vehicles roll out and automatically start dispensing the bales while the regal animals jockey for position.

A bull can weigh up to 600 pounds, but they have no interest in the humans staring at them. They only want the food so you’re safe.

I have never witnessed anything like this and highly recommend it as a family outing.

Here’s a story my friend Carrie Uffindall wrote about it:

Arrive before 1 p.m. to check in, visit the small museum and watch the elk head down the hill for lunch.

White Pass Stages a Winter Carnival

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This should fall under the heading, “Did you know?” Every year on the first weekend of March, at the summit of White Pass a Winter Carnival beckons snow lovers. I just experienced the 27^th annual carnival and found the wealth of activities a delight.

White Pass is located on US Highway 12 on the White Pass Scenic Byway. Many Washingtonians haven’t even visited this ski area and are surprised learn about what goes on there. It offers 1,500 acres of Alpine terrain, Nordic trails and lodging. Snow enthusiasts can downhill and cross country ski, snowboard and snowshoe. The lodge handles equipment rental, has child care, serves food and beverages and houses a well-stocked pro shop.

But back to the carnival. Several volunteers, many who work in the construction business, build a snow castle that becomes the showcase sculpture for the event. More than 15 people helped to create the castle this year. It is made with forms packed with snow. Each element of the structure contains a number of forms, so it’s a slow process, but it’s done that way to make it safe. Throngs of folks walk through the castle at the event, something the kids especially treasure.

A safe, snow structure is subject to a most unpredictable Mother Nature.

“It’s crucial that it stays cold for the castle. Rain and wind beat it up,” said David Ruby, a Packwood resident and lead volunteer.

The normal time frame to complete the castle is two weeks; that’s without any unexpected weather fronts.

Touring the castle and using the slide inside is free for everyone. Other activities may involve a fee.

During daylight hours on Saturday and Sunday, skiers and boarders race, take lessons or just tackle some runs for fun. On Saturday evening, a dinner of prime rib or spaghetti is available for purchase. As the night draws to a close, the entire ski patrol carries torches and crisscrosses on skis down the main hill. That signals the beginning of the fireworks show and the end of the evening. Sunday sees more of the same.

I urge you to mark your calendars for the first weekend in March, 2014, so you too can take part in the festivities at White Pass. Or visit anytime to play in the snow.

For other winter activities available now, look at Visit Rainier.

“Exploring Washington’s Backroads” Paints a Perfect Picture

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John Deviny, author of “Exploring Washington’s Backroads,” was kind enough to give me a copy of this most intriguing book. It’s a short, concise volume packed with trips throughout our state that anyone, traveler or local, would enjoy. Photos on every page just make the enticement more alluring. Deviny has divided the state into what her calls “Backroad Trips,” 17 of them to be exact.

View from Skamania Lodge in the Columbia Gorge, which is also mentioned in the book.

Each of the trips describes the general location, “Sights and Scenes” not to miss and a route to follow that truly depicts the culture and personality of the area. For example, “Backroad Trip 2” loops you through the Black Hills of the Puget Sound region in Thurston and Grays Harbor counties. In our Capitol, Olympia, you begin the journey and then drive through forested hills above the Chehalis and Black River plains through old timber towns and quaint businesses. Be sure to investigate the magical Mima Mounds.

You visit towns like McCleary, which actually holds a Bear Festival (July 12-14, 2013), and where the door factory is still in business wafting off the smell of sawdust to remind you it’s a mill town.

Each trip holds surprises and new information (even to me) so when you’re ready to discover small-town Washington, I urge you to order this book, pile the family in your car and head on down the road. You’ll be glad you did.

Deviny advises you to explore on your own, beyond what he describes in his book, “A good road trip is an art form, and the open road is your canvas.”

Soap Lake, also mentioned in the book, has a new sundial.

Walter’s Fruit Ranch: What a Find

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Outside of Spokane, in an area called Green Bluff near Mead, you can find produce, cheese, farm animals and more, at more than 40 farms. You can easily spend a day here and not see it all.

An Angeles peach - so juicy you have to tilt your head back to eat it to keep the sweet juice from dripping on your clothes.

If my experience at Walter’s Fruit Ranch in Green Bluff is typical of the other farms, you’re in for a real treat. My day started off with a yummy Greek quiche made with eggs, feta cheese, ham and green olives plus the flakiest, most buttery pastry crust I’ve ever tasted. I couldn’t get enough of the crust, so I ate a slice of apple pie for dessert. Kudos to the pie baker and co-owner Arlene Morrell. At one time or another, the café offers 32 different varieties of Arlene’s pies. Arlene or a baker she has shown the way makes them and freezes them; she says they taste better after freezing.

One of the very vocal sheep at Walter's Fruit Ranch

Fueled for the day, I hopped on the Fruit Loop Express, a tractor-train contraption, and headed for the fruit orchards where I discovered 22 varieties of apples, five varieties of peaches, three of apricots and cherries. When the fruit is in season, you can ride the Express into the orchards where the driver will deposit you in a prime spot and you pick all the fruit you want. The train continuously meanders along the same route through the orchard all day so that when you’re ready to leave, you get on and it takes you back to the farmhouse.

I visited in the fall so owner Mark Morrell who drove the Express that day let me shoot an apple out of an air gun aimed at a pumpkin. If I hit the pumpkin, I got to take another pumpkin home. No worries there – I don’t have very good aim.

My friend, Dana Haynes, aiming for the elusive pumpkin

While you’re there don’t forget to visit the gift shop, which sells some already picked produce, plus lovely home décor items.

Explore the Recycled Spirits of Iron Sculpture Park

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When I visited the place where Dan Klennert creates and displays his artwork, I had no idea that my husband had been there a number of times before and had taken several of his friends and a brother to see this amazing art. It turns out we even had taken some of the very same photos.

Guess who this native Northwesterner is.

Klennert recycles in the broadest definition of the word and what he makes from what most of us would think is junk turns out to be beautiful. He keeps a room full of driftwood and another with 60 tons of horseshoes in it. A larger-than-life thoroughbred he made was created almost entirely out of horseshoes. In another room, he has several piles of “stuff” and he can tell you just what each pile is going to become as soon as he has the right part to complete it or has the time to get to it. A motorcycle, a bird, a sea creature…

His love of art began when he was practicing welding for a job. That welding morphed into artworks and he’s been creating art from recyclables for the past 40 years. He’s shown them around the U.S.

Daniel Klennert, artist extraordinaire.

This amazing four-acre sculpture park is located in Ashford, Washington, on the way to Mount Rainier. Klennert is happy to have you look around, take photos and ask him questions. And he hopes his art will put a smile on your face. It did mine.

While visiting, you're welcome to use this award-winning outhouse.

Get Into Soap Lake

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As you might imagine, Soap Lake is a body of water, but it is also a town of 1,500 in Eastern Washington. I’m pretty sure they all know each other, because while we enjoyed a tasty restaurant dinner there at Don’s everybody else in the eatery recognized each other and chatted with them.

Soap Lake and the newly installed sun dial sculpture.

Soap Lake was formed by a mammoth waterfall that eroded basalt rock into what is now Dry Falls. When the waters of the last big flood receded, it left the mineral-rich lake. More than 15 minerals fill the lake, some say giving it extraordinary healing powers. Soaking in the lake water and spreading the lake mud over hands, arms and faces to facilitate healing was done by indigenous people, settlers and is still done today.

A list of all the mineral Soap Lake contains.

The name, Soap Lake, seemed appropriate because of the foamy ridges that formed on the beach on windy days. Besides the lake itself, local spas offer a Soap Lake experience where you can soak in lake-filled tubs. (Although a broken pipe has stopped that temporarily, it will soon be fixed.)

From www.soaplakewa.com: Some day, Soap Lake will be discovered by the rich and famous. They’ll build a fabulous resort and take advantage of this absolutely one-of-a-kind mineral lake. They’ll hear about Soap Lake and its remarkable history. They’ll swim in the water and lie in the sun and know they have found a place that nourishes their soul as well as their bodies. They’ll be drawn back year-after-year until they decide to stay for the rest of their lives.

If you aren’t rich or famous, visit soon, before the price goes up. If you are rich and famous, we’ve been waiting for you.

Besides relaxing in the sun, Soap Lake has lots of activities throughout the year like Winterfest, the second weekend of December, with a juried art show, art sale, crafts and music. Lava Run to the Sun is a motorcycle rally in late July and the Soap Lake Box Derby takes place over Memorial Day Weekend.

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Discover Washington State