• Get Outdoors! Camping & Hiking Trips

    Camping Grub That Kids Will Love: Kid-Friendly Camping Food

    Recently, I had the good fortune to interview Emily Trudeau, a veteran camper and one of the three cofounders of the camping-food blog Dirty Gourmet, along with Aimee Trudeau and Katherine Kwan. She encourages first-time campers to get out there — even if you’re not typically comfortable with sticks, dirt and bugs. “Being outdoors is a healing experience,” she says, whether you’re sitting around a campfire, counting stars in the night sky or watching your kids play (with sticks, dirt and bugs). Camping doesn’t mean you have to leave the comfort foods of home at home — particularly with kids. Yet, if you’re sick of hotdogs by the summer’s end, I’m…

  • Deception Pass State Park with Kids
    Get Outdoors! Camping & Hiking Trips

    Long Family Camping Trips in Washington State

    Seattle-based parenting consultant Jenni Pertuset and her 8-year old daughter Meg like camping. No, scratch that – they love camping. The duo have camped for thousands of miles around Washington State for the past three years. Each year, they wrap a different theme around their two-week camping trips. The first year, mother and daughter toured Olympic Peninsula destinations Jenni visited with her parents, when Jenni was a child. She revisited these places, in part, to remember her father, who had recently passed away. The second year followed Lewis and Clark’s westward water route in Washington by road, starting from Canoe Camp in Idaho, following the land along Washington’s Clearwater, Snake,…

  • Okanagan splash park
    BC Interior,  Okanagan

    BC Okanagan with Kids: Camping, Parks, Restaurants & More

    Jennifer Kossowan is a mom to a 2.5-year old daughter, blogs at her delightful site Mama. Papa. Bubba and lives in Vancouver. But both she and her husband grew up in the Okanagan, part of BC’s sunny central interior that offers warmth and long, lazy summer days. Where would Jennifer send a friend who’s visiting the Okanagan for the first time. She’s most familiar with the Vernon-Lumby-Winfield-Kelowna area, so that’s what we’re covering here. 1. What’s your favorite Okanagan destination with kids? It’s hard to choose as there are so many wonderful places to visit with children in the Okanagan. That being said, if I had to pick just one…

  • Get Outdoors! Camping & Hiking Trips

    Camping Reservations with Kids in Washington, Oregon and BC

    How long in advance should you make camping reservations? Now is the time to reserve your camping spot for many Pacific Northwest locations. Don’t wait until late spring or summer, if you want a prime, secluded tent site or one of the much-desired yurts, cabins or fire lookouts. Here’s a quick guide and how-to. Camping Reservations in Oregon Half of Oregon´s state park campgrounds accept campsite reservations; the other half are first-come, first-served. Whether you call or go online, you may make reservations 2 days to 9 months in advance of your first night´s stay. “Nine months in advance” counts back to the nearest business day. You can make Oregon campsite, yurt, cabin and…

  • fire lookout in oregon
    Get Outdoors! Camping & Hiking Trips

    Ew, Camping! Alternatives to tent camping to reserve NOW

    Camping isn’t for everyone.  These options will get you out into nature and the outdoors — but you won’t wake to mud sloshing around your tent. Alternatives to tent camping in Washington, Oregon and British Columbia: Yurts. At Washington’s 412-acre oceanfront Grayland State Park, sleep in a 16-foot-diameter heated yurt outfitted with a queen-size futon, an end table and heater (a fine choice for a first camping trip with a baby or toddler). Or try Cape Disappointment’s yurts, which offer bunk beds that sleep three, a heater, floor lamp and an end table — and you’re never far from spectacular Washington Coast views of the Pacific Ocean. Read more about…