Bucket List #13 | Alki Beach

A couple of weeks ago, the weather was straight up GORGEOUS. It was like 70 degrees outside. Landon had to work so I worked on some projects and played with the kids, but I started to get restless. I went in where Landon was working and said: can you be done in about an hour and go to the beach with us? He's a good sport, so we packed up and left!

We ran into some pretty bad traffic, which was annoying, but once we got to Alki we found an amazing parking spot, loaded up our stuff and staked out a spot on Alki Beach. Alki (way on the South end of Seattle) is famous for it's actual sand and it's view of the Seattle skyline. It's also the only beach in the area where you're allowed a fire. Because of these factors, it's also extremely crowded and very touristy. There are a ton of little shops and restaurants around.

We only stayed for a few hours, but it was a beautiful afternoon. Something that is good to know: there are a very limited number of fire pits, so honestly if you want to do a fire you need to get there pretty early in the day. We lucked out and a nice woman who was holding a spot for our group let us start our fire and cook our hot dogs while she waited for them to come.

Overall, Alki was a pretty fun trip and I'd be happy to do it again, especially if we had a bit longer and got there earlier. That said, Discovery Park is still my favorite beach in Seattle. 

Bucket List #27 | Museum of Flight

Our Seattle bucket list is a list of adventures we're hoping to have while Landon studies at the University of Washington for the next several years. To view all of our bucket list posts, click here.

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Seattle has a cool tradition called "First Thursdays." On the first Thursday of each month, many of the city's museums stay open late and admission is free in the evening. We decided to take advantage of this and visit the Museum of Flight, which is prohibitively expensive on a normal day.

Landon has been dying to go here. He has a love of all things transportation: trains, boats, old cars...but especially airplanes. And spaceships. Boeing's museum has plenty of both.

We have been to a lot of flight museums. The Legacy Flight Museum in Rexburg, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in D.C., the Hill Air Force Base Museum, and the NASA visitor's center in Florida...

Pssst! Jesse, that one was for you!

So when we say this place is awesome, we mean it.

We loved how almost everything there was either an actual artifact or something used in training missions. And although we didn't have time to read many of the signs, the bits of history we did pick up were well-chosen and extremely interesting.

We definitely rate the Museum of Flight:

I love it when an idea that should be really, really cool actually fulfills its promise. And yay Seattle, for making this resource available to local families who could never afford the $18/person admission. I think I speak for all of us when I say that we will be back!

Bucket List #50 | Kubota Garden

Our Seattle bucket list is a list of adventures we're hoping to have while Landon studies at the University of Washington for the next several years. To view all of our bucket list posts, click here.

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Cousin Chel came to visit this past weekend. (Yay!) She was here for a librarian conference (jealously), from which she brought back approximately 700 advanced reader copy books. At least 10 of them are in a pile on my nightstand, waiting to be read. (Thanks Chel!) But that is another story...

Anyway, the conference was on Sunday so Saturday we decided to go adventuring. Since we're all kinda poor post-Christmas, we looked for something free to do in the city. We settled on the Kubota Garden. The Garden was landscaped by a Japanese emigrant in 1927, and eventually acquired by the city of Seattle and made into a public park. I love all the parks here!

The garden is over 20 acres of plants, water features, and paths. I'm not sure we explored the entire thing - it was a little cold - but we did walk through a lot of it. There was some beautiful landscaping, and it was nice to get outside, and for Walt to have room to run around.

We'll be interested to go back in the spring and summer and see some of these plants in bloom. Overall, we had a fun experience, but it wasn't as awesome as some of the gardens we've seen.

We'd rate the Kubota Garden:

Somewhere in between "most awesome thing to see in Seattle" and "Don't bother." If you're planning to take a tour of Boeing, I think Kubota Garden would make a great place to have lunch before or after.

 Beautiful place, fun day, awesome company. Overall, it was a great trip to south Seattle!