Category: Urban Walk
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Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge Trip Report
Swimming snakes! Exploding cattails! Dabbling ducks! Croaking frogs! Sunning seals! This hike had it all. We enjoyed a day of record spring temperatures by walking at Nisqually with my mother-in-law. Spring is just getting started at Nisqually, with Indian plum being one of the few shrubs leafing out. The frogs are loudly croaking now, though…
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Hazel Wolf Wetlands, Trip Report, 12/8/17
Edited to add: I wrote this back in December, but forgot to post it. Here it is! It’s still a lovely park to wander around, winter or summer. You may have noticed it’s been pretty quiet here on this blog. I’ve been dealing with my chronic foot and ankle issues, and have not been allowed…
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Book Review: Discovering Seattle’s Parks
My family loves getting out into the wilderness, but many times we are not able to go far from town for our nature fix. But thankfully we have an amazing array of local trails to explore when we need some fresh air. Seattle is fortunate to have parks in every neighborhood. Large and small,…
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Book Review: Take A Walk: Seattle by Sue Muller Hacking
The month of March brought some newly published hiking books across my desk. Take A Walk: Seattle, by Sue Muller Hacking (Fourth Edition, Sasquatch Books) is one that I’m impressed with. I’ve been flipping through this book quite a bit this spring, and am surprised that there are trails near me that I haven’t explored yet.…
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Big Rock Park and Ebright Park, Sammamish
Annika and I went on an local outing on Friday. We wanted to explore some of the parks on the east side of the metro area. We also wanted to check out some nature play areas as we research ideas for adding a new play area to our school. I had heard good things about…
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Sehome Hill Arboretum Trip Report 3/18/16
We took advantage of the sunny weather last Friday to head up to Bellingham for another short trip. Aaron had the day off, so he joined us on our adventure. The Sehome Hill Arboretum is a native plant natural area set aside for protection and enjoyment. It’s nestled next to the campus of Western Washington…
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Larrabee SP and Whatcom Falls Park – Trip Report
On Friday we made a quick afternoon trip up to Bellingham to visit Larrabee State Park and Whatcom Falls Park. We tried real hard to miss the rain showers, but ended up getting caught in a few. It was worth it anyway! We didn’t get started until a little after noon. I should know better…
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Gloomy Day at Brightwater
Our school schedule is light this week, so we took advantage of a little less school work to head out for an afternoon stroll. I chose the Brightwater Center because I hadn’t been on many of the trails yet, and we wanted something easy and close to home. I had to bribe my kids with…
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Birding in Edmonds
I love Wednesdays. I drop Gabe off at his classes, and Annika and I work on her school work. Then we have a few hours in the afternoon free before we have to get Gabe. Yesterday we decided the November sun was too amazing to ignore, so after we finished our book work, we went…
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Spring at Nisqually
We recently spent a morning at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge looking for birds. We did the boardwalk loop, and spent several hours just wandering along, stopping frequently to observe birds and other wildlife. Birds were wildly singing and very active all over. The sun was shining and it felt like spring in all the ways…