For all my Seattle area readers I thought I'd post some links to various museums that honour Free First Thursdays. A lot of galleries and museums in other cities have special free events and times so check out their websites, or call to find out.
So far we've visited:
Seattle Art Museum. open late 1st Thursday 10am - 9pm Our visit
MOHAI Museum of History and Industry 10am - 8pm Our visit
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture 10am - 8pm Our visit
Still to come...
Experience Music Project 5pm - 8pm
Henry Art Gallery 11am - 8pm
Museum of Flight 5pm - 9pm
Northwest African American Museum 11am - 7pm
Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame 5pm - 8pm
Seattle Asian Art Museum 10am - 9pm Near Volunteer Park
Wing Luke 10am - 8pm
Other free days and places nearby -
Free Everyday
Olympic Sculpture Park
Yukon Gold Rush National Park
Free Other Days
Bellevue
The Bellevue Arts Museum is free the first Friday of each month from 10am - 9pm
Tacoma
The Museum of Glass has free admission on the third Thursday of each month from 5pm - 8pm
Tacoma Art Museum also does the free third Thursday as well from 10am - 8pm
Other local Art resources
Art Guide NW
First Thursday Info
Seattle Art Blog
There might be more, so if you know...let me know! I'll keep this list updated....
The park has much more to offer, Beautiful forests, with tall, old trees, beautiful scenery of the ocean and the Olympic Mountains behind, a fun beach which is also a marine reserve. Great hiking trails, picnic spots, lots of open ground for kite flying. Honestly, it's a favourite, so when the sun was out today we couldn't get there fast enough.
The most notible landmark for kids at
Carkeek Park is the Salmon slide. Still at age 6 it is a big hit with mine. And really, who doesn't want to slide through a salmon. Maybe you'll get a little glimpse of what it was like for Jonah in the whale.
Oh and I think the Barnacles are in bloom. Is that a sign of spring?
Any field trips you blogged about lately? leave your link in the comments or email me and I'll post links next week!
Rainy day after rainy day can be a little monotonous. After holidaying it up (I'll post more on it soon) we had a pretty low-key week, with the main outing being to get groceries. So this week our field trip is pretend. (Just to show you anything goes if you'd like to play along). I added some links below from you guys for some great field trips to give you other ideas. You can also add your link in the comments section, I'd love to see what you've been up to!
The boys devised this on their own...Coffee table forts and a campfire. E had a map as the campfire, because of it colours. Oh, how do you like E's marshmallow roaster? I'm not sure I would want to eat marshmallows from a sandal, but it might be cleaner than my floor. (and I refuse to divulge what time of day these pictures in PJs were taken).
C's fort was under the bar in the kitchen, his campfire is below, but he didn't want to be in the picture. He grabbed paper rolls from our supply box (mostly "supplies" from the recycling bin). He was pretty proud of thinking to use the fancy edge scissors to make his paper fire look more real.
Other fun field trips this week:
Joanna took her kids to see dinosaurs at the
Calgary Zoo.
Larissa checked out the
monorail in Seattle. Maria field-tripped to her neighbour's to see some
monster trucks.
Sherry had a great experience at the
Frist Center. Tammy went to the
Seattle AquariumTraci in Montana went
TubingLet me know if you want to play along. There are no real rules, email me anytime with something fun you've done lately. I'll post on Fridays! happy field trips...
For some fun craft ideas for Chinese New Year - check out
what we did last year...
Seattle's International District held
festivities today for Chinese Lunar New Year - celebrating the Year of the Tiger. Despite rain there was a large crowd out. We caught some kung-foo, Dragon Dancing, calligraphy and a really fun scavenger hunt through the district to some local businesses. At each stop we got a red envelop with a question. (Like at an Art Gallery - "Find the picture of the white parrots, how many parrots do you see?") When the answer was reported correctly we got a stamp. Pretty fun. We stopped for a yummy lunch too, orange chicken, sticky pork buns and a few fortune cookies. Thanks to everyone who shared their celebration with us!
I didn't know what to expect at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry. I was a bit worried it would be full of precious, untouchable bits of history and on the dull side for 6 year olds. It was
Free First Thursday so we went anyway and I'm so glad! I was wrong about all my assumptions.
Here is what we found:
Beautiful murals
Hands on almost everything, everything breakable was protected from children.
It was very interactive and interesting.
A lot of things about Salmon.
First a great fishing boat, complete with fishing dress-up gear, jackets and boots, plush salmon, captains wheel, radio, etc. They spent a long time being fishermen.
While the boys were reeling in their catch and weathering hurricanes at sea, I read-up on the adjacent exhibit (housed in the same room)-
The Great Seattle Fire. I had heard of a big fire, but I didn't know that Seattle burned to the ground. It was interesting to read through letters and check it all out, all while keeping an eye on the boys. They also got a chance to check things out. One of their favourite things (safely behind glass I might add) was the windows of things recovered from the fire and trying to guess what they were (answers at the bottom of this post, if you'd like to play along). Also, what little boys doesn't like to check out some authentic firemen gear, even if it is from over 100 years ago.
The boys thought the boat was pretty great until we rounded the corner to the next set of exhibits and I don't even have pictures of half of it, the Cannery Bunkhouse, accounting office (with an old safe) an interactive game of the entire salmon canning process where you have to keep the ball rolling by pressing buttons at the different cannery stations. There is actually an interesting article in the NYTimes archives from 1896 about the process.
SALMON CANNERIES.; How the Delicious Fish Is Prepared for the Market.One thing I didn't expect was my six year-olds to be able to play with knives safely and practise butchering salmon. ("Only in Seattle," my friend Jenny said). The knives were anchored and encased in Plexiglas that went through the table. The object of the game was to butcher in time with the factory workers who would do this for 12 hours a day. There were different speeds for apprentise, skilled and expert butchers, you were to slice/push the knives in time with the three flashing lights on the wall in front of you. I thought it was exhausting to keep up, the boys had a great time trying over and over again. (Is this a little gruesome? I'm not sure). Next up in the cannery was a gang knife (the big one below with 10+ blades, then a game where you had to fit pieces of wooden salmon into cans, pretty cool. We had a really great time and spent a few hours there, I would definitely recommend this.
4 Comments on Field Trip Friday: MOHAI - Museum of History and Industry, last added: 2/9/2010
Seattle is not known for sunny, sandy beaches, but a beach can be a particularly amazing place for treasure hunting. This beach has a lighthouse (although it was all covered up with construction repairs). There is often some unique people watching to do here to, like the gentleman in the sailboat/canoe who came ashore. I found some of my favourite beach treasure - sea glass. There is something about the brisk wind off the ocean and the smell of salt water that is refreshing.
3801 W Government Way
Seattle, WA 98199
They have a great visitors center there and if you have really little ones or other special needs you can get a driving pass to drive out to the beach.
I'm thinking about a new feature for my blog. introducing...Field Trip Fridays! If you go on an outing with your kids during the week and blog about it, send me the link to post. It would be fun to share what kinds of things we are doing with our kids. Every Friday I'll post the links and a field trip suggestion we have done. Maybe eventually I'll even get a button for our group...now to the Field Trip...
We live in a city with amazing art everywhere. When it's even a sort of sunny day in Seattle (in the winter) you need to get outside quick and get some Vitamin D. A great place to wander in art is the
Olympic Sculpture Park - 2901 Western Avenue, Seattle, WA 98121. It is open all day every day of the year and it's free. (the pavilion is not always open so check the website for details) The park is a branch of the
Seattle Art Museum.
2 Comments on Field Trip Fridays - Olympic Sculpture Park Seattle, last added: 1/23/2010
wow! How cool is that to have all that fun stuff so close. May or bust baby!!!!
kristin can you please do this for san diego? :) miss you.