Category Archives: Family Fun

Fair and Festival Season

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A train that took people around the outskirts of Meeker Days

We just started fair and festival season in Washington and last week my husband and I attended Meeker Days in Puyallup. Billed as the largest festival in Pierce County, it certainly lived up to its name. You’d walk down a main street lined with booths only to find all the cross streets also full of vendors just about as far as the eye can see. They had a building full of exhibits, also. And live entertainment, lots of food, a beer garden and a car show. There could have been more, but my feet started talking to me and telling me to sit down so I didn’t cover all the territory.

One of the vendors sold bird houses with swimming pools. Lucky birds.

I love the fairs and festivals we have around here. For some reason all the best ones usually fall on the same weekend and I’m not sure why that is. They are just good old-fashioned fun.

Here are some of my favorites and when they take place this year:

Kent Cornucopia Days, Kent. July 7-10:  Dragon boat races, a run, crafts and more.

Capital Lakefair, Olympia. July 13-17:  Carnival, entertainment and food with a Candyland theme this year.  

Sequim Lavender Festival, Sequim. July 15-17. Self-guided tours of farms, a street fair and all things lavender.  

Bellevue Arts Museum Arts and Fair, Bellevue. July 29-31. Live entertainment, hands-on kid’s activities and lots of outdoor art.  

Morton Loggers’ Jubilee, Morton. August 11-14. We celebrate everything here including lawn mower racing and lumberjack skills.  

Auburn Good Ol’ Days, Auburn. August 12-14. School reunions, a fun run, car show and a honey bucket building contest.  

Tacoma Maritime Fest, Tacoma. August 27-28. Boat building, awesome harbor boat tours, live music and Almond Roca.

What is your favorite fair or festival and why?

Mount Rainier, a Spectacular Beauty

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Near Graham, Washington

She’s the definition of majestic and our grande dame of natural beauty. Mount Rainier starkly contrasts to Mount St. Helens. Both are major volcanic icons. But Mount Rainier hasn’t erupted yet so she stands tall and snowcapped. Natives say, “The mountain is out,” when the sky is clear and she towers over us. She is “the mountain.”

We’re always in search of the best place to see Mount Rainier – one of those is driving south on First Avenue South in Federal Way. I’m sure there are plenty of others, too, depending on which side of her you’re looking at.

At Visit Rainier you can find out all about lodging, restaurants, Mount Rainier National Park, hiking and Paradise. That is the actual name for one of the entrances to the mountain – Paradise. So very appropriate.

You can spend the night in lodges at the historic Paradise Inn or the National Park Inn where you can see glaciers, stunning waterfalls and wildlife all within a few steps of your room. At the Jackson Visitor Center you can join in a ranger-led tour and learn all about this volcano.

Other summer activities include mountain biking, fishing, horseback riding and mountaineering. If you go, plan to spend at least the day. Mount Rainier may look like a white ice cream cone you can reach out and touch, but it’s actually about a three-hour drive from Seattle. Or you can take a tour with Evergreen Escapes and let them do the driving.

If you come to Washington and want to see the best of the best that we have to offer, go to Mount Rainier.

Cranberries: Treasured Berries

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Cranberry wine at the Cranberry Museum and Gift Shop

You probably think cranberries grow in water like the ad for Ocean Spray depicts on TV. Actually flooding the cranberry bogs with water is one way that they are harvested. They can also be dry harvested.

Most of the cranberries grown in the Long Beach Peninsula area of Washington are sold to Ocean Spray. Other commercial cranberry producing states include Oregon, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Wisconsin. Because the soil and climate of Long Beach closely resembled that of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where commercial cranberry production was already established, Anthony Chabot cultivated cranberries in Long Beach in 1883.

Cranberry harvesting equipment

 

If you’d like to learn about the history of cranberries, Long Beach boasts a Cranberry Museum and Gift Shop. See what role the cranberry industry plays in the economy and look at historical artifacts and equipment built and used especially for cranberry farming.

Celebrating the cranberry is a regular event in Long Beach, with the Cranberrian Fair Harvest Festival. This year it takes place October 8 and 9, 2011. Foods, crafters, bog tours, and more will showcase the area’s rich heritage during the 91st Annual Cranberrian Fair. Collectible Cranberrian Fair buttons will sell for $5 each and cover admission to all events.

A cranberry bog in May

If you love this antioxidant-rich, scrumptious berry, here’s a recipe The Shelburne Inn makes:

Cranberry Raspberry Mousse

From The Shelburne Inn

1 12-oz package cranberries
1/3 cup sugar
¼ cup water

Place cranberries, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Boil slowly until berries “pop” and sauce begins to thicken. Remove from heat and reserve.

1 ½ cups cranberry “sauce” from above mixture
2 cups raspberries, frozen but beginning to thaw
½ cup cranberry juice
2 Tablespoons unflavored gelatin
8 oz cream cheese, softened
8 oz “Crème de la Chevre” from Jumpin’ Good Goat Dairy
1 cup sugar
2 ½ cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

Place the 2 Tablespoons gelatin in a small  pan with the cranberry juice and stir it in. Set it aside to soften, about 5 minutes. Heat slowly to dissolve the gelatin and allow this mixture to cool.

Beat the cream cheese and “Crème de la Chevre” with the sugar. Combine the cranberry sauce and frozen raspberries. The heat of the sauce will help thaw the raspberries. Add one half of the berry mixture to the cream cheese/sugar mixture. With the mixer running slowly, add the softened, dissolved gelatin mixture. Then gently fold in the rest of the berry mixture.

Whip the cream  and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Fold it into the mousse and the spoon it into glass serving dishes. Chill if not serving right away. Top with whipped cream made with heavy cream whipped with powdered sugar and vanilla. Optional: you may add a little cinnamon to the whipped cream.

Yield:  12 large servings or 20 small.

Close Encounters at the Cougar Mountain Zoo

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Last weekend we finally got around to visiting the Cougar Mountain Zoo in Issaquah and it was a delight. The grounds are kept extremely clean and well landscaped. Viewing the animals doesn’t require binoculars and in some cases you’re allowed to feed them special food.

Why it is so entertaining to watch alpacas eat chunks of apples, I don’t know, but it sure is. I often wonder if the zoo animals feel the same way about us humans.

 

This zoo is one of the smaller ones, which makes the experience a bit more intimate plus a little easier on the budget. Zookeepers roaming the grounds are eager to talk with you and answer your questions.

 

To ensure a good quality of life for their animal residents, the Cougar Mountain Zoo exhibits just ten different kinds of animals – cougars, lemurs, cranes, reindeer, macaws, wallabies, flightless birds, alpacas and tigers. Throughout the day zookeepers offer information-rich presentations on these different animals at the Wildlife Theatre.

Of course, the Wild Treasures Gift Shop features toys, gifts and educational items. But this zoo also has a Fine Arts Gallery and a Wildlife Museum.

If you’d like to get closer to the animals, a number of “close encounters” are available for an additional charge. Tigers, cougars, mule deer and reindeer are all on this list. With the reindeer encounter you help the zookeeper prepare their food, clean the habitat and barn, and then feed them. Then you assist in exercising and training one of them.

 

If you’ve not had a chance to visit the Cougar Mountain Zoo, I suggest you put it on your to-do list.

CamOcean: A Free Festival Celebrating World Oceans Day

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Cabins at Cama Beach State Park

What do “The Home Grown Tomatoes,” beachcombing, wooden boats and Smokey Bear have in common?

You will find out at the CamOcean – World Oceans Day Festival on Saturday, June 18, 2011 at Cama Beach State Park on Camano Island. This sounds like a very good, educational and fun day.

Highlights of the event include more than 30 educational booths, live music by “The Home Grown Tomatoes” and the “Cajun Redhots,” guided nature walks, low tide beach walks, discounted boat and kayak rentals from The Center for Wooden Boats, storytelling, raffles and guest speakers like Bill Dewey from Taylor Shellfish.

You’ll want to be on hand to celebrate all that oceans give to us and learn how we can help these bodies of water by making easy changes in our lives.

Captain Fuzzy Beard will teach you how to talk like a pirate, shake hands with Smokey Bear and hear a short story from the U.S. Forest Service. Join W.S.U. Beach Watchers walking the beach at low tide and learn about the plants and animals that make the shoreline their home.

Arts and crafts for everyone and even raffles. The event of the season for families and it runs from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Northwest Trek: Where Everyday is Different

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One of my favorite outings has got to be Northwest Trek, our 725-acre wildlife park. On any given day you may spot bighorn sheep, deer, Roosevelt elk, caribou, mountain goats, bison or other animals in their natural habitat. This is not a zoo, by any means.                                            

Instead, you hop on a tram that navigates roads through lakes trails and meadows that are home to more than 200 free-roaming North American animals. You’ll only see the animals that feel like being seen that day. But some of them often block the path of the tram to get a closer look at you.

Every season brings a different look to the landscaping as well as to the animals that might be visible. With spring comes lush greenery and baby animal season, in summer the calves and fawns are much more prevalent, come fall and you’ll hear bugling as that’s considered rutting or breeding season and in winter the place is quiet and even muted should snow decide to fall.

 

Besides the wildlife viewable from the tram, grizzlies, black bears, wolves, bobcats, lynx, cougars, owls and more have taken up residence in some very natural exhibits.

Events ‘r us should be the nickname for Northwest Trek, because something is always going on. Next up is Trek Trails Weekend on June 4 and 5 where they open their newly renovated trail system. Along with that, the staff has come up with a Quest-like scavenger hunt. Follow clues to find letters and when done, unscramble the letters to discover a surprise at the end.

My Favorite Miniature Golf Courses

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I love miniature golf. It’s the only kind of golf I’m halfway decent at playing. Maybe it’s because of our weather, but we don’t have some of the dynamic and fun creations other places do in their mini-courses. Below I’ve listed my favorites and some of our best.

Mike n’ Terrys Outdoor Fun Park in Puyallup. They also have go-karts and batting cages.

Riverbend’s 18-Hole Course in Kent with bunkers, water hazards and lights for night play.

 

Icicle Junction Activities Center in Leavenworth offers an 18-hole Bavarian-themed course.

Willows Run in Redmond puts challenges in your path like tunnels and rivers.

Enumclaw Holds Some Luscious Secrets

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At a conference I attended recently, Julie Johnson who works for Visit Rainier (the mountain) told me about a plethora of things to do in Enumclaw, which is the last major town (on one of the highways) before you head up to the mountain. You can approach the mountain from several sides.

A true spaghetti critic

With my daughter and grandchildren we set out looking for some of those not-well-known places in Enumclaw. In the past the town has been called “Enumscratch,” it smelled of dill pickles through and through until Farman’s moved its operations and it was home to the King County Fair in mid-July. I never thought of this rural community as a place to spa, sip wine or martinis and shop in boutiques.

Today we discovered two of those places that made the 25-mile ride totally worth it. We liked the choices on the menu posted outside Café Panini (1537 Cole St.) so we decided to lunch there. Fantastic pick. Their Italian cuisine rocked. The minestrone soup was brimming with chunks of vegetables, but also a variety of different meat slivers and pasta. If you choose any of the salads, you can add egg, chicken breast or shrimp, so I ordered the House Pasta Salad with chicken and I was not disappointed. Filled with diced roma tomatoes, black olives, toasted pine nuts and creamy pesto, it soothed my hunger. The portions were large so we had boxes to take home.

Café Panini also has a large selection of homemade pies, created and baked right on the premises. I got a taste of the cherry pie and it was mighty fine. Only one of us had room for pie, so we walked up the street and got some dessert to take home.

Julie had told me Sweet Necessities (1215 Griffin St.) makes their own caramels and I’m a caramel fanatic. And then when they come with coarse sea salt and fresh out of the pan – words fail me. Melt in your mouth seems so mundane and overused – these candies flavored your mouth and glided down like water down a slippery slide.

Sweet Necessities also has more than 100 flavors of loose tea, Kookaburra licorice and Snoqualmie Ice Cream.

Enumclaw has become much more than cowboys and biker bars, although they still have those, too.

My Favorite Farmers Markets

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The local farmers’ market season has officially arrived. Nothing tastes better than freshly plucked vegetables and fruits so I look forward to this time all winter. Although I’ve not been to all the markets the state offers, and there are a ton of them, I do have my favorites locally.

Pottery at the Olympia Farmers Market 

Farmers Market of Olympia:  About an hour south of Tacoma and well worth the drive. Besides produce, vendors regularly sell meat, seafood, eggs, baked goods, herbs, cut flowers, plants and honey. Local artisans and live entertainment make this market the biggest and it’s open Thursdays through Sundays and is under cover.

Porctor Market flowers

Proctor Farmers Market in Tacoma opens the earliest of them all in March. Add cheese and grass-fed meats to the regular market bounty and you should visit this market at least once. Located in a very walkable and fun neighborhood, you’ll want to spend extra time in the boutiques and grab a bite at one of the many restaurants. Saturdays 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

South Whidbey Farmers Market:  In its 40th year, locals gather here for chatting and shopping. Their 11-acre sustainable agriculture campus allows you to view their on-site growing operations, which features an earthen pizza oven, gardens, orchard and a native plant nursery. Sundays from 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Remlinger Farms in Carnation is much more than a market. Besides the produce and the u-pick fields, their family fun park offers steam train rides, pony rides, farm animals and live entertainment. Market open everyday from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.

All of the above markets are open now. We have others that don’t start business until June. I will talk about those then.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo

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I wholeheartedly advocate celebrating this national holiday with either a margarita or sangria toast, which you can do at your favorite Mexican restaurant. Azteca Restaurants continues the celebration through Mother’s Day on Sunday. But locally we also have some other innovative ways to honor this day.

Ground will be broken today for the new South Park Bridge, located at 14th Ave. South and Dallas St. in Seattle. The community has taken this opportunity to share a giant piñata, hold other festivities while local businesses offer samples of their cuisines. The event is from 1:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. Don’t forget the old bridge is gone, so you must access South Park from Highway 99 South and the First Avenue Bridge.

Make a mask with Amaranta Ibarra-Sandys at the Douglass-Truth Branch of the Seattle Public Library from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. The address is:  2300 Yesler Way in Seattle.

El Centro de la Raza boasts free admission to their Cinco de Mayo event today from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. It features food for sale, arts and crafts, dance and musical performances.

If you want to run off all that good food you eat today, sign up for the Cinco de Mayo Half-Marathon and 8K in Snoqualmie this Saturday, May 7.