Best of the City 2008
You're about to see your city in a whole new way.
Edited by Jessica VoelkerWith contribution from Christopher Werner, Ben Schock, Kathryn Robinson, Rachelle Robinett, Erin Pursell, Laura Peach, Kelly Huffman, Leah Finn, James Ross Gardner, Lee Fehrenbacher, Stefan Durham, Wilson Diehl, Laura Cassidy, Roger Brooks, Sarah Anderson, and Steve Wiecking
FAMILY & PETS
Baby-Planning Service
Any baby book can recommend a stroller; to know which can conquer Seattle’s hills, however, you’ll need Kelly Oswald. Armed with a masters degree in public health and inspired by her own experience giving birth to her daughter, Oswald founded Seattle Baby Planners, a consulting service for mothers-to-be that helps with both the mundane, like decking out the nursery, finding flattering maternity clothing (yes, it exists); and also the major, like picking a pediatrician and crafting an effective maternity-leave proposal. Seattle Baby Planners, 206-274-1493; www.seattlebabyplanners.com
Prenatal Yoga
Lamaze is so ’80s. Today’s expecting students deepen their breath, open their hips, and muscle up their lower backs during über-urbane prenatal class at Capitol Hill’s Eight Limbs Yoga—all of which is mighty handy, come labor time. Prepaid punch cards make dropping in easy, and, in case your little yogi pops out early, count toward postnatal Mom and Baby yoga classes, too. Eight Limbs Yoga, 500 E Pike St, Capitol Hill, 206-325-8221; www.8limbsyoga.com
Splash Spot
When the sun’s in the sky and school’s out for summer, every kid dreams of getting wet at a water park—even the rain-drenched children of Seattle. Renton’s Henry Moses Aquatic Center has all the trappings of a special place—an 8,000-square-foot pool, a wave machine, two winding slides—and requires very little travel and expense. Henry Moses Aquatic Center, 1719 Maple Valley Hwy, Renton, 425-430-6780; www.rentonwa.gov
Brainy Birthday Parties
Do your left-brained little ones love the Sci-Fi Museum? Wait until they meet Proton Pam, Tsunami Shaw, and Jammin’ Joy—the peppy performers on the Mad Science of Sno-King team. In the spirit of celebrated Seattleite Bill Nye the Science Guy, these clowns in white lab coats show up to kids’ birthday bashes and mesmerize through a series of stagey experiments: blowing out candles from across the room, converting party guests into electricity conductors, and unlocking the mysteries surrounding dry ice. Mad Science of Sno-King, 1824 130th Ave NE, Ste 2, Bellevue, 425-556-0800; www.madsciencefun.com
Tea Party
What is it with kids and tea parties? Whatever it is, they’ve got it in abundance at the Queen Mary Tea Room, Queen City’s chintz-lined bastion of English civility, presided over by true-blue Anglophile Mary Greengo. The limited seating fills up quickly, so call for reservations for your afternoon tea date. Insider’s note: All you have to do is ask for a tiara, and matching crowns will be provided for your whole party. How very regal. Queen Mary Tea Room, 2912 NE 55th St, Ravenna, 206-527-2770; www.queenmarytea.com
Playground
Talk about community spirit. Local volunteers designed, funded, and built the Saint Edward State Park Playground—a sprawling wooden monument to fun at Kenmore’s massive Saint Edward park—braving splinters and sunburn to create the largest children’s playground in Washington State. And what a glorious place it is: Unofficially dubbed Castle Park, it boasts winding slides, swings, and monkey bars divided by turreted chambers perfectly designed for hide-and-seek; a climbing wall; and a separate area where the wee ones can toddle about at a safe distance from the big kids. Saint Edward State Park Playground, 14445 Juanita Dr NE, Kenmore, 425-823-2992; www.parks.wa.gov/parkpage.asp?selectedpark=saint%20edward
Gym on Wheels
Six years ago, Bellevue-based Dizzy (“That’s what everyone calls me”) Fukutomi quit corporate life, bought a classic yellow school bus, and converted it into Dizzy’s Tumblebus, a mobile jungle gym equipped with slides and trampolines. Since then the bus has pulled up to schools and parties all over the Eastside, eliciting extreme excitement from cooped-up kids. The bus has become so beloved that, last year, Fukutomi opened Dizzy’s Bus Stop in Bellevue, a stationary play place where parents can stay or drop the kids off for a few hours of staff-supervised tumblin’ fun. Dizzy’s Tumblebus, 3205 148th Ave SE, Ste E, Bellevue, 425-564-8287; www.dizzybus.com
Kiddie Garden
It’s mud pies with a purpose. Seattle’s youngest citizens learn about plants, flowers, and insects while digging in the dirt during visits to the Seattle Tilth Children’s Garden, a soil-filled swimming pool entirely planted, cultivated, and loved by local children. Sign your offspring up early for year-round programs, events, and classes like Insect-o-Rama, Harvest Hoopla, and Fabulous Flowers. They might even start helping around the yard. Seattle Tilth Children’s Garden, 4649 Sunnyside Ave N, Rm 120, Wallingford, 206-633-0451; www.seattletilth.org/kids
Baking Supplies
Forget the Easy Bake Oven. Seattle’s little batter mixers choose from cookie cutters shaped like unicorns and killer whales, gingerbread sets, and kid-size kitchen utensils—all in stock at Cookies, the tiny Ballard boutique that’s custom built for the baking obsessed. If you’re planning a birthday party, mini spatulas make great party favors, while edible glitter glams up any cake. Cookies, 2211 NW Market St, Ballard, 206-297-1015; www.cookiesinseattle.com
Kites
When the rain finally ceases and the sky turns blue, Emerald City kids (not to mention its grown-ups) go instantly kite crazy, and Gasworks Park Kite Shop stocks all the supplies they need to get airborne. Owner Kathy Goodwind (she changed her name from Goodwin) set up shop in 1979 and today carries her own designs as well as locally made stunt kites. Should your contraption sustain any crash-related injuries, Goodwind also performs kite repairs. Gasworks Park Kite Shop, 3420 Stone Way N, Wallingford, 206-633-4780; www.gasworksparkkiteshop.com
Children’s Festival
It’s called The Seattle International Children’s Festival, but producing director Brian Faker scours the globe in search of spectacles that will entertain and educate Rain City culture lovers of any age. And does he deliver. Every year in May, his global performers descend upon Seattle Center to create a one-of-a-kind event with exotic delights like Japanese puppet theater, Guinean drummers, Israeli comedy acts, and dozens of others that will change your notion of children’s theater entirely. The Seattle International Children’s Festival, 305 Harrison St, Seattle Center, 206-325-6500; www.seattleinternational.org
Concert
Tanglewood, shmanglewood. The Northwest has its own idyllic summer chamber-music experience, the Olympic Music Festival. For the past 25 years the Philadelphia Quartet has hosted this summer musical series—held on a 55-acre dairy farm that happens to house a barn with pitch-perfect acoustics—and the foursome’s masterfully performed Mozart and Bach repertoire harmonizes perfectly with the warm summer sun, soft baying of animals at the nearby petting zoo, and breathtaking mountain backdrop. Olympic Music Festival, 7360 Center Rd, Quilcene, 360-732-4800; www.olympicmusicfestival.org
Kids’ Race
A fun way to whip little ones into shape, the Seattle Kids’ Marathon really does expect children to cover 26.2 miles—just not in one day. Rug rats jog the first 25 miles over a few weeks (supervised by an adult), leaving the last 1.2-mile stretch for the day of the actual race. Created by director Louise Long, the marathon is meant to encourage kids along the path to lifelong fitness; and the training plan also includes reading 13 books and doing 13 good deeds by race day. Now that’s what we call healthy competition. Seattle Kids’ Marathon, 206-729-3660; www.seattlemarathon.org/kids/register.htm
Dance Classes
High standards, state-of-the-art studio space, and the most driven little ballet, tap, and jazz students in the Seattle area set Sandra Baca’s British Dancing Academy apart from the pirouetting pack. Following the Royal Academy of Dancing’s strict curriculum, her on-point instructors emphasize technique and individual instruction, catering to each student’s ability and talents. British Dancing Academy, 1500 S 336th St, Federal Way, 253-838-4999. 18403 E Valley Hwy, Kent, 425-235-0304; www.britishdancingacademy.com
• Zen Dog Trainer
Grisha Stewart
In 2003, Grisha Stewart, a theoretical mathematician and author of an award-winning masters thesis, suddenly found herself fascinated with canine behavior. She read 50 training books in one summer, and, not long after, left the rarefied world of axioms and arithmetic and began her education in sit and stay, which started at the Humane Society in Bellevue and culminated in a course at the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior. Along the way Stewart encountered the “force free” clicker-training approach and eventually devoted herself entirely to forging harmonious communions between pooch owners and their pets.
Today this most celebrated Seatown trainer operates out of her Ballard-based behavior center, Ahimsa. A Sanskrit word meaning “nonviolence,” Ahimsa aptly sums up Stewart’s approach. “My method is about controlling the dogs through their noses and brains rather than through pain,” says Stewart.
Ahimsa’s clients learn a positive-association technique that would make Pavlov proud: Each time owners give their pet a treat—as a reward for sitting on command, for instance—they also press down on a clicker. Eventually the dog associates the click with something positive and no longer needs a treat as motivation to behave.
Ahimsa teachers also encourage clients to connect emotionally with their pets and insist on a mutually respectful relationship. It’s clear that Seattle’s peace-loving pet-owning population is digging her dogma: Ahimsa’s clientele has doubled each year since its inception. Grisha Stewart, Ahimsa Dog Training, 902 NW 49th St, Ballard, 206-364-4072; www.ahimsadogtraining.com
Published: July 2008