Oh the sights you can see in Monroe- or actually, several miles outside Monroe, if you have the time. Which we did, thank God, because Monroe is booooring! Outside of it, though, lots of great stuff!

Seattle for one- and that’s a pretty big one. Raise your hand if you’ve done everything there is to do in Seattle at least a dozen times, though. We thought we had, but have found there’s really more to see and do if you get outside downtown and the usual big hot spots- Pike Place Market, Space Needle- which are truly, great, don’t get us wrong. But, been there, done that- time to move on. So instead of our typical downtown Seattle trip, we changed it up a bit.

This time we:

Went on the Boeing Factory Tour (actually a little outside Seattle, in Everett) which takes you inside the factory to see those huge airliners being built. Pretty cool!

We took a ferry to Widbey Island- which has lots of great parks. Unfortunately, it rained most of the day, but the ferry ride was fun, and we still got some good pictures.

We went to Gasworks Park, right outside downtown. It’s a really unique park featuring machinery used on the site at one time to process gas. It’s no longer in operation, but what’s left of the gasworks makes for a really different park experience!

Had Pho (Vietnemese Noodle Soup) in the Chinese Cultural District.

We went to Snoqualmie Falls. Yes, the same falls featured on the cover of your favorite pancake and waffle mix! Did you know that was here in Washington, pretty close to Seattle, and really close to Monroe? We didn’t, and the falls even look like they do in the picture. Crazy! Plus, the little town of Snoqualmie has a really neat railroad museum. Actually, the museum itself is pretty small, but the old railroad cars they have outside are amazing and there are a lot of them!

So, if you’re ever in Seattle again and tired of the city- there’s so much to do just outside of it! Why didn’t we ever do this stuff before?