A Free Day In Seattle

It’s not often most of us play tourist in our own city.  And it’s a shame, because:

1. It costs very little to get there, here….ummmm…where you already are.
2. You speak the language, usually.
3. You don’t need to exchange any money.
4. Travel insurance is optional.

And many more reasons, that’s just the tip of the iceberg!  With all that in mind, I decided to see if I could have a free, or nearly free, day in Seattle with my daughter and still make it fun for both of us.  There is one disclaimer to this free day, my family purchased me half of the cost of membership to the Seattle Art Museum(SAM) and a year ago I purchased the other half.  And that was one of the biggest reasons for the trip into the city (I live 20 miles north on an island), to use the museum membership before it expired.

Sabrina and I started our free day by finding free parking.  It was Sunday and parking at 9am is usually fairly open.  Our plan was to hit up SAM first and then maybe venture to the Olympic Sculpture Park as I’ve never checked it out.  But it turns out SAM isn’t open until 10am.  DOH!  Let’s swap those to items around then.

The Olympic Sculpture Park is big and cool.  Set outdoors with a small pavilion, the park might seem like not the best idea for Seattle.  While there was a threat of rain (it’s still winter) the temperatures weren’t too bad.  And besides, after six months of rain, sleet, snow and more rain, we were well adapted to the outdoors.  Sabrina loved running around the art, which all had do not touch signs.  There was quite a bit of art to be seen and we talked all about it, from how things were built (practical Dad) to what emotions we felt while observing it.  The answers at first were very vanilla and then she started opening up more and drawing larger pictures of not only how she felt, but what she thought the artist might have been feeling or trying to convey when they made the piece. 

We killed some more time by heading to the beach and throwing rocks at driftwood.  I used to love doing this as a kid and the practical Dad side of me loves that she’s learning to throw better, getting more comfortable with it.  Plus there was ample opportunity for showing off Dad to throw rocks WAAAYYY out into the bay.  It’s cool playing Superman for your daughter.

When the time came, we headed on over to SAM and after circling the block for maybe 10 minutes, found a parking space right out front.  What luck!  Still, no money spent.  Our snacks were dwindling though and we did buy scones at the eatery in SAM.  All in all, $4 spent on scones and water.  It was worth it because it gave us both a boost we needed.

SAM is a lot of fun with a seven year old when you just let them have the run of the place (while reminding them not to run!).  We made sure to hit the Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness exhibit (she loved counting the drawers on the cabinets from the 1700 and 1800s) first and after that, I just followed her.  And that was a hoot.  Everything is amazing to kids that age and the museum had tons for her to see.  I kept the discussion light as she was on ‘stuff overload’ bouncing all over the place.  The great thing with a membership is I didn’t feel like we had to see it all.  So we wandered until the energy level started to dip again and swung through the gift shop.  She LOVES gift shops.  We scoped out some things to get next time and will certainly be back.

It was a quick day, but if you can head downtown on a Sunday and have the patience to find free parking, be sure to check out the Olympic Sculpture Park (and the trains that pass through too!) and SAM.  If you live close enough, consider getting a membership to SAM to come back for a full year of exploring!