Short Trips
PORT TOWNSEND -- One indicator that spring officially has arrived in Port Townsend is when the customer line at the Dogs-A-Foot hotdog stand gets more than 10 deep during lunch hour on a Saturday.
A couple of other good indicators are when sailboat owners begin to swarm the waterfront marinas to pull the winter wraps off their boats, and droves of kayakers literally have to line up to launch their sleek crafts.
By Jeff Larsen | April 1, 2004
Take a Walk
Location: Sumner, Pierce County.
Length: Three miles.
Level of difficulty: Level, paved access road.
Setting: One of the few public parks on this 2,700-acre lake fringed by nearly 2,000 high-end homes, its 80 acres have around 10,000 feet of waterfront. The huge Lake Tapps reservoir was created in 1911 by Puget Power (now Puget Sound Energy) by diverting water from the White River to generate electricity (flooding four smaller natural lakes in the process).
By Cathy McDonald | April 1, 2004
Hike of the Week
You know it's really spring when days are long enough for Seattleites to consider hikes in the Olympic Mountains. There are several low- to mid-elevation trails that often can be hiked as early as April.
The eastern Olympics have several gems for winter-weary souls, such as the Lower Big Quilcene Trail. After a long winter, it feels like a "real" mountain hike despite its low starting elevation of 1,300 feet.
The Lower Big Quilcene Trail No. 833 originally was known as the Rainbow Trail and climbed all the way to Marmot Pass from Quilcene.
By Karen Sykes | April 1, 2004
VICTORIA, B.C. What can you say about Liberty Excedera St. Louis except that she's out to bug you?
Excedera, as she prefers to be known, interprets creepy-crawler behavior at the Victoria Bug Zoo for kids who sit enthralled at her beetle-tattooed ankles to hear her tales of bug love and potty habits.
"I'm also well-known for putting bugs on kids faces," she threatened visitors one day last fall.
"Oooh, that's disgusting," someone sneered.
Exactly.
By Sally Macdonald and John Macdonald | April 1, 2004
