• Get Outdoors! Camping & Hiking Trips

    Rainy Day Rambles: All-weather hikes with kids

    You’ve got a hike planned. But it’s raining, pouring, dumping outside. Just go, says Jennifer Aist, the author of the book “Babes in the Woods,” a guide to hiking, camping and boating with babies and small children. “If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you need to embrace the wet,” Aist says. “Otherwise you’ll rot away on your couch.” An Alaska resident, Jennifer’s been on plenty of hikes with her three kids in Washington State and British Columbia. She knows rainy days. “I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent in the rain in campgrounds, on trails and on beaches,” Aist says. But rain is a magical, surprising…

  • Packing for family trips
    Travel Tips

    Packing Checklist for NW and BC Vacations

    Our weather is unpredictable but our climate is mild. We dress in layers, and prep for rain and sun. The Cascadia uniform: T-shirt, hoodie, rain-proof jacket, jeans, water-repellent shoes. The Pacific Northwest dress code is casual and natural. We wear a lot of dark and vibrant colors. White, not so much. In the cities, women don’t typically wear much make up. We wear jeans to fine restaurants and yoga pants pretty much everywhere else (I’ve shown up to pick up my kids from school in my pajamas, and no one even noticed — or maybe they were just too Seattle-nice to say anything to my face). If you look in…