Category Archives: Family Fun

“Outlaw Days” at Mary Olson Farm

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When I bought tickets for “Outlaw Days,” I wasn’t sure what it was. But the tickets were only $5 each and I’d heard so much about the Mary Olson Farm in Auburn and the activities there, I thought I couldn’t miss.

You even get music with this interactive play.

Lo and behold, I stumbled onto a real gem. “Outlaw Days” turned out to be a play, but not in the usual sense of the word. Instead, when the scene changed in the production so did the audience and the actors. We followed the play around to different places on the farm and ended up inside the barn for the final act. I’m not sure what they call that kind of play or even if it has a name, but it sure was a fun experience.

The interactive theatre experience centered on a time in 1902 when the Olson family was taken hostage by the notorious outlaw Harry Tracy. I’m not sure if it’s true or not, but the actors make you think it could have been. The acting was stellar and must have been difficult because almost all of them played multiple roles. So there were lots of quick costume and character changes.

 

The play continues this weekend and I urge anyone interested in history or dramatic arts to attend.

The Farm holds numerous events including overnight camping, summer camps for kids, group tours and special events like “Outlaw Days.” A project of the White River Valley Museum, the Farm originally operated as a subsistence farm. In 2011 it was restored to its current state and opened to the general public. The interior of the house is furnished just like an old farm house.

 

Don’t Overlook Salem

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Last week at this time I was touring Oregon’s state capital, Salem. Oftentimes, travelers concentrate on the big city of Portland, the coastal towns or the wine country of Willamette Valley when they consider Oregon as a destination. Consider Salem, also. Here’s why:

 

Just a few miles outside of town sits the lovely Bavarian town of Mount Angel. At the Glockenspiel Restaurant, local ingredients from less than a mile away, are the emphasis. That makes the entrees served taste a lot fresher and really brings something special to the table. Besides the tried and true German recipes like wienerschnitzel, I urge you to try their special cabbage, which takes the chef five hours to make. It will tantalize your palate. Then at the appointed time, go outside and watch the performance of the wooden dolls in the Glockenspiel tower alongside the restaurant.

For a healthy walk after dinner, head up to Mount Angel Abbey. Enjoy the gardens and the peacefulness.

Mount Angel’s largest claim to fame and what the townspeople put the most energy into is their Oktoberfest. This year is the 45th annual and runs from September 13-16. With all kinds of fun for the whole family, Oktoberfest celebrates the harvest and the bounty of the earth through live music, street dancing, a car show and more.

Gallon House Covered Bridge

On the way back to Salem, visit the Gallon House Covered Bridge, Oregon’s oldest covered bridge. It was named for the days when liquor was sold by the gallon or quart in a nearby house.

Gerry Frank’s Konditorei, with more than 40 flavors of cake and pastries, is a must-stop for dessert in Salem. Local favorite cakes include Barney’s Blackout, Chocolate Raspberry and Lemon Cream. I savored the seasonal Marionberry and highly recommend it.

Then for $1.50 you can’t beat the price for a ride on the old world-style carousel housed in a stately building on the banks of the Willamette River.

Salem makes a fabulous family vacation and every year right around this time it hosts the Oregon State Fair. Scones, funnel cakes, food on a stick…

I Found Sasquatch

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At the City Park in North Bonneville, I spotted a family of five Bigfeet and Littlefeet plus more Littlefeet frolicking in the trees.

 

Maybe it’s because Bigfoot hunting is prohibited in Skamania County. Or because the residents of North Bonneville were welcoming and friendly. But this family of Sasquatch (or is it Sasquatches?) has moved from the Cascade Forests to this small town that was built for the workers on the Bonneville Dam project in 1934.

Large footprints guide you to the various Littlefeet who seem to be hiding in the trees at the park. But if you look closely you’ll see them and the Littlefeet are very curious about humans and hardly shy at all unlike their Bigfeet parents, so you may find yourself talking to them.

 

Birds, squirrels, owls and rabbits live in perfect harmony with the Bigfeet and Littlefeet in this park.

Skamania County is the only sanctioned “Sasquatch Refuge” in the world due to the large number of Bigfoot sightings in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, so if you’re a fan you should put this place on your visit list. You won’t regret it.

Have any of you spotted Bigfoot?

Storytelling at Powellswood Garden

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This is a heads up for an event scheduled for July 14, 2012 at Powellswood Garden in Federal Way.

 

I love to see our beautiful local venues diversifying to draw in more guests. It not only showcases the venue, but in this case some very good professional storytellers, too.

Experience storytellers from across the nation who mesmerize and entertain audiences of all ages in their own unique styles. From Seattle, Debra Harris-Branham conveys lively African-American folktales; Joe Hayes, who hales from the Southwest, specializes in bilingual Spanish-English tales of that region and Appalachian master teller Donald Davis brings his audience to laughter and sometimes tears with tales of growing up in North Carolina.

Read about the other storytellers performing on July 14 at the Powellswood Festival site.

Storytelling includes folktales, myths, legends and even tall tales. What better back drop for listening to these treasures than a garden full of colorful blooms and beautiful water features. What better way to introduce computer-addicted children to an ancient art.

And it’s a real bargain:  Adults $10, children $5 and a family ticket $20.

Heather Larson writes about the Pacific Northwest from her office in Tacoma, Washington hoping she can entice you to visit or share your own memories of the region.

LeMay — America’s Car Museum

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Row upon row of shiny, gleaming cars await your visit.

Courtesy LeMay Car Museum

A project that’s been talked about and in the works for more than ten years opened earlier this month. LeMay – America’s Car Museum (it’s official name) is a four-story, 165,000 square-foot venue, located in Tacoma across from the Tacoma Dome complete with a preservation shop, galleries, banquet hall, meeting space, car storage, a gift shop and a café.

LeMay is the largest auto museum in North America and should boost Tacoma’s economy with an estimated 425,000 visitors and $32 million in visitor spending and employment locally.

Courtesy LeMay Car Museum

Rotating exhibits tell the story of the automobile. The museum houses 15 display spaces, which include three galleries six ramps (which can hold 12 cars each) three viewable storage galleries and three primary end galleries.

Museum’s Namesake

The museum was named for Harold LeMay who was an “extreme” car collector. His collection made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. Some might call him a car rescuer because according to his wife, Nancy, he bought cars so they wouldn’t be destroyed. So he had a huge variety of makes, models, shapes and sizes. And it was his dream to share them with everyone. Although LeMay won’t see the finished museum, because he died in 2000 at the age of 81, his dream lives on through Nancy and a host of workers and volunteers.

“Harold had a lifelong passion for autos,” says Scott Keller, chief marketing and communications officer for the museum. “What’s unique about this collection is that it’s eclectic and offers something for everyone.”

Courtesy LeMay Car Museum

 

From the 1930 red Duesenberg Model J which sold for a minimum of $13,000 new to the 1983 Mercury Marquis Station Wagon, the collection focuses on America’s timeless love affair with the automobile. Keller says many of the cars have a very colorful history.

Lemay traveled throughout the United States buying cars.

“Harold would see a car he wanted to maintain and buy it,” says Keller. “Part of preserving the autos was caring for them and driving them, although not all of the vehicles in his collection are drivable.”

He was able to buy so many cars because of the very successful waste management business he started, says Keller. At the time of LeMay’s passing Harold LeMay Enterprises was the 10th largest refuse business in the United States.

Heather Larson writes about the Pacific Northwest from her office in Tacoma, Washington hoping she can entice you to visit or share your own memories of the region.

Wet and Wonderful Water

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“Do you want to know what’s in your poop?” my daughter called to me from an interactive display at the WET Science Center in Olympia. “It’s very interesting.”

My daughter, three-year-old granddaughter Kita and I were all mesmerized by the wealth of exhibits, games and information dispensed at WET.

Even dragons need their teeth brushed.

Kita liked brushing the stuffed dragon’s teeth so much, she did it several times, and then she bathed the stuffed dog. I flushed the toilet so I could see what fact would come up in the bottom. How do they do that anyway?

My daughter reveled in what she learned about “sinkers” and “floaters.”

We all liked using the gigantic calculator to determine how much water we used in a day. Plastic gallon bottles, next to the calculator, filled when you pushed the “equals” button so you got a visual picture of just exactly how much water you used and wasted. That’s a real wake up call.

An interactive display lets you select a water treatment job and solve a problem that job handler might encounter. I did really well there so maybe I’ve missed my calling.

You can also participate in a water conservation scavenger hunt, which I know from past experience kids really love.

Besides the permanent exhibits and displays, WET also frequently hosts specific activities like making a nature journal, learning about aquatic insects in a pond life safari and playing a giant floor game titled “The Drip Stops Here.”

Entrance to WET Science Center

WET is open Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The very best part is that it is totally Free.

Port Ludlow’s Fireside Restaurant Does the Kid’s Menu Right

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What do you do when the kid’s menu at your restaurant just isn’t cutting it with the children you’re serving?

You could change the offerings to what you think kids would like, but how accurate will that be? Or you could create an event where children actually choose what they want on the menu. That’s precisely what happened at The Fireside at The Resort at Port Ludlow in Port Ludlow, Wash.

A plea was sent out to find children interested in taking part in a “Tasting Event” just for them. The judging panel was made up of five children representing ages 5-10. Each judge donned an authentic chef jacket, which they were allowed to keep, before embarking on their tastings.

Rose Peterson showing off the new kid's menu she helped create.

Rose Peterson, who was seven years old when she participated, and the other judges tasted and critiqued a variety of menu items and voted for their favorites. Each child then selected one menu item that would be named after him or her.

Liza’s house noodles with garlic bread, Taylor’s tenderloin steak, Journey’s banana split, Megan’s chocolate mousse and Rose’s sliders became permanent menu items. But the judge’s responsibilities didn’t end there. They also had a week to create art that illustrated their chosen menu item.

Now when a child receives their own menu at The Fireside, it is illustrated with authentic children’s art and the items listed have a real kid’s seal of approval.

Rose enjoyed her judging and never orders anything but her sliders when dining at The Fireside. She also helps out by watering the herbs whenever she’s in the neighborhood.

Bellevue’s KidsQuest Children’s Museum Fun for Adults

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When I visited KidsQuest, I had to wear a sticker that said, “Unaccompanied Adult…and wishing I were a kid again!

How true. I just wanted to dig right in and play alongside the kids.

Kids Quest Children's Museum

The first area you come to contains “Waterways.” Our guide reminded us, “There is no wrong way to play with water.” The kids there at the time seemed to agree as they splashed and guided boats through the channels. Then I was distracted by a staff member playing with green slime.

Water play is fun at any age

The museum staff makes their own slime, which takes on some very elastic properties.

So many play areas, so little time. I ventured into the Hard Hats Area without a hard hat, where I became mesmerized by this special green sand called Moon Sand that stuck together so you could make balls out of it. On to fiddling with nuts and bolts.

Unfortunately I couldn’t drive the semi-truck in the Large Science area as the driver’s seat was occupied. But I heard the driver turn the key and the sound the truck made.

When you go, don’t forget to try the scarf shooter. The scarf wends its way through all kinds of tubes and comes back to you, usually behind where you’re standing.

Currently the museum is located in the Factoria Square Mall, but it has outgrown the space and will soon be moving to downtown Bellevue.

KidsQuest is free the first Friday of the month between 5 p.m.-8 p.m.

I can’t wait to take my granddaughter there so I don’t have to wear the “unaccompanied adult” sticker and can play to my heart’s content.

The Tree Bike: Fact or Fiction

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There’s currently a story circulating on Facebook about the bicycle in the tree on Vashon Island. It’s a made-up story of a boy who left his bike by the tree, went off to war in 1914 and never came back.

I intend to set the record straight. In actuality there is a bicycle that a tree grew around on Vashon Island. But the true story of how it got there is quite different.

In 1954 Helen Puz (who is now 99 years old) moved to Center with her five children. At that time she had been recently widowed.

“People were very sympathetic and generous,” writes Puz in a document on display at the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum. “We were given a girl’s bike and my 8-year-old son, Don, seemed the natural one to ride it.”

Don was none too happy having a girls bike, said Puz, but it was better than none.

The neighborhood boys, including Don, liked to play behind a local restaurant called, “The Den.” (This restaurant is now called Sound Food.)

One day Don told his mother that he had lost his bike and he wasn’t sure where he’d left it. They both let it go because Don was a little embarrassed to be riding a girl’s bike anyway.

 This is a photo of the bike in the tree before someone attached the front wheel. Courtesy of the Vashon-Maury Island Heritage Museum

Forty years later Puz read in the Beachcomber, Vashon’s newspaper, that someone had discovered a bike up in a tree near Sound Food. The bike was five feet off the ground and the tree had grown around it. News of the tree bike even carried to Japan where they made a film about it.

The mystery of where Don Puz left his bike had finally been solved.

If you’d like to see the bike in the tree, directions on how to get there can be found at roadsideamerica.com.

Snow White and a Milk Flight

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As a child I always wanted to be a ballerina and dance on my toes. Instead my parents signed me up for accordion lessons. If I’d known how hard toe dancing was then, I probably wouldn’t have minded the accordion. The special pointe shoes help keep your toes together, but the dancers still have to have tremendous strength in their feet and legs.

Courtesy of Pacific Northwest Ballet

While watching the Pacific Northwest Ballet School’s production of “Snow White” in Seattle this past weekend, I marveled at how many of the dancers spent prolonged periods of time on their toes. What a feat.

All the footwork looked clean and crisp. The 70+ students performing showed extreme flexibility and graceful movements at every turn. This was the opening performance of “Snow White” yet everyone seemed well-rehearsed.

I went to see this ballet with my daughter and three-year-old granddaughter, Kita. I thought Kita might fidget or even have a full-blown melt down having to sit still for awhile, but she never once took her eyes off the dancers. Upon arrival we were given a booster cushion for her to sit on so she could easily see the stage. Of course, there was a lot of movement on stage, brightly colored costumes and a King who narrated the action.

As you probably remember, in the story the Evil Queen, Snow White’s stepmother, wants to be “the fairest of all.” Every time she asks her mirror who is the fairest, it replies, “Snow White.” In order to get rid of her competition, the Queen tries to harm Snow White in a number of ways. Finally, disguised as a beggar woman, the Queen tempts the fair young maiden with a poison apple. Snow White can’t resist, takes a bite and falls into a deep slumber. It’s not long before a handsome young Prince happens by (after all it’s a fairy tale), falls in love and wakes Snow White.

When the Evil Queen discovers her nemesis is still alive, she tries to put a curse on the mirror and becomes caught in her own image for all eternity.

The entire ballet lasts an hour, which is just perfect for young children. At the end, the dancers were met with some well-deserved, thunderous applause.

There are only two performances left:  Noon and 3:30 p.m. on March 25 at Seattle Center’s Marion Oliver McCaw Hall. For tickets, visit www.pnb.org or call (206) 441-2424.

Kita trying to decide which flavor of milk to try next at the Purple Cafe.

We stopped for lunch at the Purple Café and Wine Bar in downtown Seattle prior to the ballet. There Kita was served a milk flight – glasses of white, chocolate, strawberry and caramel milk, which kept her entertained until her food arrived. All in all it was a totally kid-friendly outing.