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Make a Splash! Water parks in Washington, Oregon and BC
Nothing says “Cascadia summer” like a line-up of shivering kids waiting for the water park slides. So I created a list of Pacific Northwest water parks large and small, indoor and outdoor, Westside (cooler) and Eastside (dry, hot) to keep the kids chilled-out this summer. Do you have a favorite? Washington Water Parks Washington offers indoor water parks and outdoor water parks near big cities and out along the coastline, in both Western Washington and Eastern Washington. Have you tried them all? Great Wolf Lodge: Grand Mound, Washington Make a splash: This indoor Washington water park resort features toddler-friendly pools and big-kid slides. The five-person circular rafts slips down the River Canyon…
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Hot Springs in Oregon and Washington with Kids
If you were a miner back in the 1880s, how did you get really clean? You planned a trip to the closest hot springs. Hot spring trips have long been a traditional pastime in the BC-Washington-Oregon region, says Jeff Birkby, author of Touring Washington and Oregon Hot Springs, a history-rich guidebook to hot springs in the Pacific Northwest. Hot springs are formed when ground and rain water sinks below the Earth’s surface, then heats in volcanic pots deep below the surface. The mineral-infused water springs back out once it’s at a boiling point, then cools in pools. “Hot springs were social centers,†Birkby says of olden-days hot spring spots. The hotter…
