Outdoor Adventures

Lucy’s (my sister) visit was really a wonderful time to catch up and do some fun things around town. Usually, when we have visitors in town we try to get out of town for at least a day hike to take advantage of the amazingly wonderful hiking and wilderness in the Puget Sound region. This time, instead, we just decided to take advantage of some of the outdoor activities in the city limits. We went canoeing in the Arboretum, which is such a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. You can rent canoes and rowboats by the hour at the University of Washington’s Waterfront Activities Center. The rental is pretty inexpensive and easy. You can just walk up to office, which is located down by the lake behind the Husky Stadium at the University of Washington, and leave your driver’s license as collateral. They give you paddles and lifevests and then you just grab a canoe or rowboat from the dock and head out into the lake. For information, check here. We experienced an almost immediate moment of anxiety as we had to scurry across the Montlake Cut in between the big motor boats and yachts, but once you cross the Cut, it’s smooth canoeing and you can paddle around the Arboretum to your heart’s content.

You never know what you’ll see when you’re paddling around the arboretum. Last time I went, I saw a beaver(!). This time we saw turtles and ducks and some other birds who were difficult to identify. We also saw a great blue heron, which are totally majestic birds:

And we saw these two cute adolescent ducks snuggled on a log:

And it was water lily blooming time, with thousands of flowers sprouting up from the lilypads:

It was a really nice afternoon and great way to get a little taste of nature, fresh air and sun while still in the city. One of my favorite (and frequent) walks in town is the Seward Park loop. I think it’s about 2.5 or 3 miles around.

Once you get going around the loop, it really doesn’t feel like you’re in the city any more. There are some trails up through the middle of the park in the woods,

and beaches on the outer edges of the park:

And of course, one of my favorite things about the park is that on a clear day you can see an awesomely epic view of Mt. Rainier:

We took Maizy (our yellow lab) with us for a walk around the loop and she was so tired on the way home. She loves the park.

A great end to a great mini-vacation with my sister. Do you have favorite in-city mini-getaways to nature in Seattle or your own city?