Take the Victoria Clipper to Victoria and visit the gardens. They are incredible! Have high tea there before coming back to Seattle. There is so much great food in and around Seattle I don't even know where to start. San Juan island is great. My kids love the orca tours and San Juan island is so cute and quaint. If you end up going to the Olympic peninsula there's a car safari that is really fun for kids. They can feed animals right out of the car window.

We have visited Vancouver, Seattle and Portland, and have had fabulous vacations in each place. Great food, outdoor activities, and the weather was perfect in August. The Oregon to California coast is also nothing short of spectacular.

Sitting here at Sea-Tac headed home to DC. Seattle will keep you busy. Rainier/saint Helens, cool too. Olympic national park, both hurricane ridge and the rain forest. A whale watching trip from port Townsend, and maybe, a day trip to Victoria from Port Angeles, leave the car in the U.S, walk onto the boat. Same for a day trip to bainbridge island with the ferry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like 9:20's list, but I'd steal a day or two from Mt. Rainer to head up to Victoria. Sea plane or fast ferry.

If crossing the border in a car, there can be long lines during peak hours, FYI.

Wait times are available online

Anonymous wrote:I like 9:20's list, but I'd steal a day or two from Mt. Rainer to head up to Victoria. Sea plane or fast ferry.

If crossing the border in a car, there can be long lines during peak hours, FYI.

I'd skip California on this trip. The West is big and do you want to spend a ton of time driving? It's 4.5 hours from Portland to Ashland (great Shakespeare festival) on the southern border and 6.2 hours to anything major in California (Redwood national park, 7.45 to Mount Lassen or Humboldt Redwoods State Park).
If you drive down the coast, unless it's foggy, the view is stupendous if a bit car-sick inducing for kids and there is some great stuff like Oregon Dunes, Seal Saves, the sea otters at Smith River, the sea stacks at Patrick's Point etc. But that would be a really long car trip.
Middle Oregon has some amazeballs stuff esp. if you like to trout fish, hike, walk a windy beach - the Umpqua River and Coos Bay for example. For some reason people I know like Lincoln City.
Portland is 3-4 hours from Seattle or Olympic National Park and once you are up there there are so many options!
San Juan Islands
Dungeness lighthouse & wildlife reserve
Cape Flattery and the Makah Indian Reservation
Lake Crescent and the Sol Duc hot springs
Hoh rain forest
ferry to Victoria on Vancouver island
If you make it to Vancouver and get a car, you could drive to Tofino or Uclulet and take a boat ride to the hot springs cove waterfall or through Barkley Sound

I think for those kids ages you aren't going to do a lot of things worth doing in those areas.

I like 9:20's list, but I'd steal a day or two from Mt. Rainer to head up to Victoria. Sea plane or fast ferry.

Seattle-vancouver-whistler would be wonderful and very doable

Rather than try to cram too much to do into a week with two small kids in tow, I'd pick a city and explore a little more in depth.

I can't speak to Seattle because I have never been there, but I give Portland two thumbs up.

My brother lives there, so we have visited a few times over the last 10 years. It's extremely family friendly and there is so much to do. There is the whole complex with the zoo/Japanese Garden/Rose Gardens; beach is about an hour's drive; Columbia River Gorge/Mt. Hood; Mt. St. Helen's for another day trip; minor league baseball right downtown; incredible food and wine and beer; and the town is so much more affordable than most major cities. It's a real gem that often gets overlooked for Seattle.

Anonymous wrote:NP. Here are some links to threads about Seattle and Portland:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/377554.page
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/398702.page

I love Seattle, Portland, and Northern California, but I think trying to do a road trip that encompasses all three with two young children is going to be hellish.

I recommend either doing Portland and taking day trips to Mt. Hood (doing the Columbia River Gorge on the way) and the coast or doing Seattle plus short trips to San Juan Islands, Mt. Rainier, and Vancounver Canada. Seattle plus Vancouver would be my first choice.

I was the OP of the second post and found Portland to be super-kid friendly. Lots of homeless hipster-types, but a great base from which to explore Oregon. I wish we had had more time to do all of the things people suggested, but we really enjoyed our trip out to Multnomah Falls and all of the less-visited fall around, too. We visited that donut place at 5 am one morning (toddler didn't get the time-change memo!). Yum! No line!

NP. Here are some links to threads about Seattle and Portland:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/377554.page
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/398702.page

I love Seattle, Portland, and Northern California, but I think trying to do a road trip that encompasses all three with two young children is going to be hellish.

I recommend either doing Portland and taking day trips to Mt. Hood (doing the Columbia River Gorge on the way) and the coast or doing Seattle plus short trips to San Juan Islands, Mt. Rainier, and Vancounver Canada. Seattle plus Vancouver would be my first choice.

09:20 here. There are some great old threads on Seattle and Portland. Definitely worth a search.

How long will this trip be? We're planning a 2 week trip with 6 and 3 year olds, and I think there will be more than enough for us to see in the Seattle area alone. Some of our plans:

- Downtown Seattle (2 days)
- San Juan Islands (3 days)
- Mount Ranier Park (3 days)
- Tidepooling on the beach, Ballard locks, various other sights for the other days.

Many people also love Olympic national park (even more than Mt. Ranier). It involves a fair amount of driving, though.

My DH and I are thinking of taking a trip to the Portland/ Seattle area this summer. We are toying with adding part of California... We will have two kids aged 5 and 2.5. Any recs on places to stay, an itinerary, etc