Ogle Airplanes

Boeing Factory Tour

Huge. Gargantuan. Massive. You may run out of words to describe the size of the building in Boeing’s Mukilteo facility, since the six giant doors are themselves bigger than football fields. No cameras are allowed as you peer over a towering third-floor balcony at workers and the green skins of new 747s and 787 Dreamliners—probably so you don’t copy them to build your own superjet. 360-756-0086; boeing.com/commercial/tours

Getting There 30 minutes: north on I-5 and west on WA 526

Pick for Yourself


Jones Creek Farms

Sample as many apples as you like while you wander the u-pick orchard, but gathering your own bushel will take too long if you try them all. Farmers Les and Talea Price grow over 100 varieties of apples, a feat considering that the trees themselves number about 250. If you’d rather look than pick, you can try a guided tour of the farm or visit the Apple Core Store to pick up locally made soaps, art, jams, or the farm’s signature apple butter. 360-826-6820; skagitvalleyfruit.com

Getting There 90 minutes: north on I-5

Live Local History

Hibulb Cultural Center

Under the angular roof of the Tulalip Tribes’ new $19 million museum is 
a high-roofed longhouse where storytellers pass on ancestral history. In interactive wall and video
displays, the military tradition of local tribes is honored and a family tree painstakingly maps the tribes’ earliest ancestors. Outside, a 50-acre preserve backs up to the Marysville marshes. 360-716-2600; hibulbculturalcenter.org

Getting There 55 minutes: north on I-5 and west on Tulalip Rd

Get Crafty

Pioneer Farm Museum

Think of it as old-fashioned Etsy when your kids craft candles and cornhusk dolls with the help of costumed tour guides. Neighboring historical recreations feature nineteenth-century homestead cabins on one side and an Ohop Native American fishing village on the other. After a few hours of living in the distant past, time travel to the 1960s in nearby Eatonville, where Italian restaurant Jebino’s (360-832-3287; jebinos.com) has decor inspired by the Rat Pack. 360-832-6300; pioneerfarmmuseum.org

Getting There 80 minutes: south on I-5 and WA 7

Cruise in Control

ProFormance Car Racing

Drive it like you stole it—that means “fast,” law abiders. An instructor will teach you to take corners at 85 miles per hour or faster at the Pacific Raceways near Kent, using your own car if you wish. If your dinky old Civic can’t take the heat, rent a track-ready Lotus for the full day crash course (so to speak) in high-speed steering and control. Here’s one injunction you shouldn’t disregard: Buckle up. 
253-630-5130; proformanceracingschool.com

Getting There 40 minutes: south on I-5

Try This Town: Bellingham 

 

Old and new are mashed up together in the ever-growing northern city. The oldest brick building in the state is located here (though uncelebrated by historic signage), as is the alternative culture mecca of Western Washington University. History nerds flock to the Bellingham Railway Museum and the American Museum of Radio and Electricity, both celebrating cultural game-changers. Things get more contemporary at Mindport, an institution dedicated to interactive science and art; it’s the kind of place where you can create music using marbles. Nothing’s stuffy in this funky coastal town; even the Whatcom Museum, in the gothic Old City Hall, gets dynamic with summertime historic cruises. Delightfully strange combinations aren’t merely the purview of Bellingham’s learned institutions—at Mallard Ice Cream near the American Museum of Radio and Electricity, old-fashioned methods are used to create newfangled flavors.

Getting There 90 minutes: north on I-5