Posts In The “North Puget Sound” Category

Alderbrook Resort

Alderbrook Resort

Alderbrook Resort on Hood Canal has been a popular Pacific Northwest vacation destination since it first opened in 1913. Back then, no roads reached the resort and guests arrived by canoe. The resort has been through many owners and remodels since opening, and now is easily reachable by road on Washington State Route 106. But…

Read more »

Spring Hockey

Spring Hockey

On a rare weekend actually spent at home in Seattle, we managed to watch three live hockey games over four days. Two were Seattle Kraken NHL games, and the third was an infrequent return to Seattle by the Thunderbirds Junior A team for the “Battle of the Sound” against the Portland Winterhaks. We often attended…

Read more »

Seattle Boat Show 2024

Seattle Boat Show 2024

We’ve been toying with the idea of a high-speed weekend boat to more easily take advantage of the water-based attractions in the area, so made that our focus at this year’s Seattle Boat Show. Brands that we toured include Arksen, Axopar, Coastal Craft, and Saxdor. Wellcraft also is of interest, but they weren’t represented at…

Read more »

Gig Harbor

Gig Harbor

Gig Harbor is a wonderfully sheltered and tranquil harbor on the opposite side of the Puget Sound from Tacoma. We’ve spent many nights anchored there on Dirona, enjoying the lights reflecting into the still waters from the homes and businesses that ring the shore. And we always made a point to take the tender ashore…

Read more »

November in Seattle

November in Seattle

November brought winter weather to Seattle, with heavy rainfall and temperatures that brushed around freezing. We escaped the cold weather, but not the rain, on an Amazon River cruise later in the month. Temperatures there were in the high 90s F (32 C), with the sporadic downpours typical of the tropics. Preparing for the trip…

Read more »

The Boys in the Boat

The Boys in the Boat

The #1 New York Times-bestselling The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown chronicles the true story of Joe Rantz and his working-class teammates on the University of Washington rowing crew who, against all odds, competed for the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The book was recently made into a movie…

Read more »

Fresh Hop Season

Fresh Hop Season

October is the height of fresh hop beer season in the Pacific Northwest. We didn’t plan a fresh hop tasting tour to Ballard this year, but ended up doing a small one with a tasting flight of fresh hop beers at Fremont Brewing in Ballard after a late Friday afternoon appointment nearby. While Ballard remains…

Read more »

Back to Warm Weather

Back to Warm Weather

The Pacific Northwest often has wonderfully clear fall weather, with temperatures warm enough to eat outside, and this year was no exception. Except for a couple of days of heavy rain, we experienced September temperatures that often were above 70°F (21°C) and enjoyed many meals outside under a cloudless blue sky. And the wonderful weather…

Read more »

From Hot to Cold

From Hot to Cold

August brought more warm and sunny weather to Seattle, and the return of NFL season. We attended two Seattle Seahawks preseason NFL games, and a couple of Seattle Mariners baseball games, all in T-shirt weather. And we had fabulous weather for a hiking trip to Washington’s North Cascades National Park, known as the American Alps…

Read more »

Ballard Locks

Ballard Locks

The Chinook salmon, commonly known as “Kings” or “Tyee” (Chinook jargon for chief), is the largest of the salmon and the iconic species of the Salish Sea. They typically grow to 3 feet (0.9 m) long with a weight of 30 lbs (13.6 kg), but can reach 4.9 ft (1.5 m) and 129 lbs (58.5…

Read more »

June in Seattle

June in Seattle

After unseasonably warm and sunny May weather in Seattle, June was much cooler. But we got plenty of sunshine and high temperatures with a trip to Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix at the beginning of the month, and inland to Hood River, Oregon near the end of June. In between, we made a weekend…

Read more »

Mukilteo

Mukilteo

Mukilteo, a small Snohomish County city about a 45-minute drive north of Seattle, was a native-American settlement for centuries before the arrival of Europeans. Captain George Vancouver was among the first to visit, when he landed there in 1792. In the mid-1800s, the land was ceded to the Washington Territorial government and European settlement began….

Read more »

May Sunshine

May Sunshine

May brought unseasonably warm and sunny weather to the Pacific Northwest. We started the month on a cruise to Alaska, where the clear skies and moderate temperatures were notable for that time of year. We enjoyed warm weather for much of the rest of the month in Seattle, eating outside wherever possible. Following our presentation…

Read more »

Major League Sports Weekend

Major League Sports Weekend

We’d normally take advantage of a long weekend and make a trip somewhere. But having just returned from Anacortes the previous weekend and scheduled to fly to Barcelona the following Wednesday, we decided that all three of us should take a staycation for Memorial Day Weekend. As luck would have it, three of Seattle’s five…

Read more »

Anacortes

Anacortes

With two large marinas, Anacortes, WA is a popular boating destination close to the beautiful San Juan Islands. The city also is the gateway to the islands for those without a boat, with nearly a million arriving by ferry in 2021. That is how we visited the islands last fall. And Anacortes has been the…

Read more »

April Travels

April Travels

While Seattle did see plenty of rain that month, April travels was the dominant theme rather than April showers. We started the month with a weekend trip to Sagecliff resort in eastern Washington and ended it on a weekend trip to Vancouver BC. Of the three weekends in between, we spent one snowshoeing at Mt….

Read more »

Seahawks Draft Party

Seahawks Draft Party

Jennifer loves to get pictures with team mascots and recently added another to the list with Blitz of the Seattle Seahawks at the team’s 2023 NFL Draft Party. The event was held at the Space Needle with guest appearances from several players as the 2023 NFL draft was broadcast. The party was fantastic, made even…

Read more »

Kraken Playoff Games

Kraken Playoff Games

The Seattle Kraken, in an impressive and unexpected feat, reached the Stanley Cup playoffs in only their second year of existence. We unfortunately were playing the defending champions, the Colorado Avalanche, and our prospects weren’t great. But the team continued to over-achieve and ultimately won the series 4-3. This gave us three historic first-ever NHL…

Read more »