Special Series
The Year of Living Car-lessly Experiment
In a Series
Car-less, on Vacation
It’s high summer and, for many Cascadians, a time for driving to ocean beaches, island retreats, and wilderness adventures. What’s a car-less family like mine to do?
Well, we could rent an SUV and follow the crowds, but we’re not eager to. We need your help to plan a great car-less family vacation on a middle-class budget.
We’ve already devoted a week to vacation at home in Seattle. We visited with family and friends, did three big family gatherings, and ate out a lot. We visited tourist meccas like the Pike Place Market and the Seattle Center along with lesser known gems like the Henry Art Gallery. (The kids hated the art outing less than they had expected to, thanks largely to the Maya Lin exhibit. Favorite part: a huge wall with thousands of pins stuck in it in the shape of the Columbia River.) We poked around Seattle neighborhoods like Lower Queen Anne and the University District. We kicked a soccer ball at four local parks. We walked to the library, the bakery, the bike shop, and the bookstore. We did crossword puzzles and slept in. It was as relaxing a vacation as I can remember, and cheap, too.
We’ve got another ten days off in August, and we’re inclined to do some car-less traveling. What should the family do? What have been your best car-less vacations?
(Too bad we can’t afford to charter a sleep-aboard sail boat (sigh).)
