Digital Nomad Family – Course Update #11 – Our Summer in Washington

Washington might become a new favorite summer location! We’ve now been in Tacoma for 6 weeks, and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Honestly, we knew it would be nice, but it’s been amazing!  High temps right in my favorite 65-85 deg F range, and barely any rain… until this past few days.

Now, I don’t imagine this will last, but it’s given us plenty of time to play and explore this new place together, since we had never been to Washington prior to this trip. There are so many highlights to share from first Ferris wheels, to museums, to a Bavarian-style village… 

We started off our adventure with a wonderful surprise. I received a message from Pumpkin’s former nanny, Paula, who had been such a special part of our visit to Arizona this winter. Turns out that she was here in Washington about 45 minutes away from us visiting her family here for just a couple weeks. I was delighted to get to reconnect with her again, and we made arrangements to drive up for a visit.

When we got out of the car and saw Paula, I doubt I’ll ever forget the hug that our Pumpkin gave her. I’m not kidding it lasted for a solid 3 minutes. So beautiful!!!

So, we spent our first Saturday morning in Washington visiting with Paula and her family, which was a complete joy and a reminder that one huge benefit of our adventures is getting to make such lovely new friends. We drank tea together, walked around their garden, and shared stories both of our recent adventures and ideas for places that we could visit while we’re here. We couldn’t have felt more warmly welcomed.

When we left, Pumpkin fell asleep almost immediately in the car, and we decided to drive up to Bremerton, WA for lunch and some craft beer. (I think this was where we first discovered Locust Cider… which will reappear later in this story.)

After lunch, we walked around the town and happened across the Valentinetti Puppet Museum and Kitsap Historical Museum. I will admit that we were enticed in because they are both “FREE” museums, and we were literally walking down the street in front of them.

We figured no harm in taking a look, and we were so impressed and surprised that we gave them a donation to encourage them to keep doing their great work.

The Puppet Museum included puppets from all over the world, truly an impressive collection (including a slightly creepy Alice in Wonderland puppet that was almost as tall as our Pumpkin.) Personally, it was the Kitsap Historical Museum that really impressed me.

It was constructed as a wander through pretend streets and store fronts giving you a taste of life from the late 19th and 20th century here in the Bremerton area. Each display was beautifully crafted and vividly engaging.

There were photographs and video interviews with different locals including members of the native tribes sharing stories and traditions. Being a history buff myself I probably could have spent a couple hours wandering around there and reading everything, but toddler speed means doing a lot of skimming and taking photos of placards to read later *HAHA*.

The next couple weekends we decided to explore downtown Tacoma, since we’re living about 15 minutes away on the north eastern outskirts.  We walked on the Prairie Line Trail, a rail trail straight through the middle of downtown, and which passes many evocative public art works echoing the history of Tacoma including the native tribes and the many immigrants from both East and West.

During the week (Go Facebook ad targeting,) we found out about an event called “In the Spirit” that was a joint venture between three local museums: the Washington State History Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, and Tacoma Glass Museum. The event included art displays from local tribes and some hauntingly beautiful flute music and tribal dance performances. 

All three museums were free for the day, but we only had time and energy for a couple. My favorite was the Tacoma Glass Museum. Did you know that Dale Chihuly is originally from this area of Seattle/Tacoma and there’s an amazing collection of Chihuly glass here? I spent at least 10 minutes (while Brian chased Pumpkin around… thank you, honey) watching a video they had of the process of Chihuly working in the glass blowing studio that’s there in the museum which showed how they make some of those stunning (and mammoth) pieces.

The next day we decided to go to yet another Renaissance fair because it was “Fairies” weekend. So, we spent a slightly raining Sunday watching the fairies, mermaid, and garb-clad folks at the Washington Midsummer Renaissance Faire. (Technically, it was after Lughnassadh rather than Midsummer, but who really cares ;).)

Brian and I both agreed that for all this fair was bigger and better organized, we actually enjoyed the Lake Tahoe faire more (and not just because the weather was better.) The shows here were a bit bawdier and more adult, which felt slightly less exciting to watch with a 2-year-old on my back, yanking my hair *smh*. There was also a magic to the location of the Lake Tahoe Ren Faire which was tucked into the big pine trees at “Valhalla,” rather than sprawling across a random field.

Finally, on our 3rd weekend here we decided it was time to drive into Seattle and “do the touristy things.” So, we spent a day walking around (A VERY CROWDED) Pike Place Market and Seattle Waterfront. We snacked our way through the market for lunch, then walked down along the waterfront for a while.

There was good people watching. The flower market smelled amazing and was shockingly inexpensive. Unfortunately, the lines and the crowds almost everywhere made it less fun to do much more than wander. Still… we enjoy wandering, so it’s all good. If I ever choose to go back, then I’ll try a weekday (probably not at lunch time.)

We wrapped up our touristy day with a spin on The Seattle Great Wheel, which was Pumpkin’s first experience of a Ferris Wheel. She LOVED it! I hadn’t been on a Ferris wheel that large ever (as far as I remember), and while it was an amazing view, I felt a bit woozy after we got off. So, we sat at a restaurant there on the pier and enjoyed a drink and some food before heading home.

I look forward to spending more time in Seattle in the next few months, but it did remind me about how spoiled we’ve been recently regarding traffic. Being from the Boston area we’re certainly used to traffic, but having spent most of our time in smaller towns rather than big metropolises, I’m starting to appreciate NOT having to factor traffic in every time we leave the house.

That said, I’m sure we’ll head back up to Seattle to explore more of the city soon, since we only saw the busiest touristy areas, and I know there’s so much more that this city has to offer. 

OK, no, we didn’t really go to Germany, but we did decide to spend a wonderful weekend in Washington State’s closest approximation, which is the charming, mountain town of Leavenworth. 

As it happens, a friend and colleague of mine for the past decade, April Welch, lives out there with her family, and she invited us to come for a weekend visit. I had heard about how adorable this town was from April, and she didn’t oversell it. Leavenworth is about the closest you’re likely to get to a Bavarian town in the USA. That said… it’s a somewhat touristy version, still creative and fun.

We drove out on Saturday afternoon and had dinner with April and her husband Don in town (Bratwurst and local craft beer.) Pumpkin became good friends with Don, which was adorable to watch, and we enjoyed getting to spend the weekend catching up and enjoying both the town and the striking surrounding mountains.

After so many weekends of big adventures, we slowed down a bit for the last couple weeks and decided to get to know our local area a bit more. We were delighted by the Point Defiance Zoo, which has a GREAT new aquarium that impressed all of us. We enjoyed it so much that we decided to get a membership so that we (and Ella’s new nanny Kathy) could take her frequently while we’re here.

Beyond that, we’ve been exploring various local parks – Brown’s Point, Dash Point, Steel Lake, and the Chinese Reconciliation Park near Point Ruston. Pumpkin has been growing ever more confident on the various playgrounds.

We’ve now entered the phase of “up the stairs and down the slide” over, and over, and over again. She’s getting so much more confident and agile with it, so now we can just watch her go rather than staying close to hand like when she was less stable with her walking and running before.

In the past couple months, Pumpkin had gone through a minor period of slide aversion after a surprise landing at the bottom of a larger one that scared her a bit…. she was fine, just startled. So, I’m delighted to see that she’s finally gotten past “trauma” and is now zooming around quite happily on all the local playgrounds.

This past weekend we ventured up to Alki beach, south of Seattle, for a picnic and a walk along the waterfront. I’ve been enjoying all the public walks there are along the water here in the Tacoma/Seattle area, and, even more, the beautifully diverse population who come together to share these special public spaces. It brings me joy to see and be part of them each day.

We wrapped up our picnic day at Alki with a flight at the Locust Cider Taproom, where we tasted six truly delicious ciders. We even decided to take a six-pack of the Honey Pear home with us, which doesn’t happen very often. Honestly, what I enjoyed the most about Locust was they had a whole play space for little kids that kept Pumpkin delighted the whole time we were there. She even had a little playmate for part of the time.

So many more breweries and tasting rooms are figuring out that if you keep the little ones entertained, then the parents are more likely to stay longer and come back more frequently. Thank GOODNESS!

I think we’ll definitely be back.

We’ve starting making plans for the next month or so including a couple road trips around the area and all the way up to British Columbia… hopefully, Pumpkin will get her first passport stamp, and many more to come!

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