Quote:
Originally Posted by
ladymeag 
We're finally returning home to Seattle. Only the last time we lived there, we didn't have a kid. We're very familiar with the city, neighborhoods and stuff in general but I need help with kid-specific stuff.
So, suggestions on:
Parks for kids? (We're most familiar with parks for dogs)
Indoor play spaces?
Favorite kid-friendly restaurant? By a miracle, is it soy-free?
Pediatricians? We'll be on a United Healthcare plan.
AP/babywearing/natural family living groups?
Other Mothering families that want to get together?
Awesome stuff I've missed in the two years I was gone?
We'll be on Beacon Hill near Wing Luke Elementary and the munchkin will be 20 months at move time, if that impacts your suggestions at all.
Thanks!
I looked up the area on Beacon Hill and it's quite south. We live in Georgetown which would be a little north of where you live.
Parks: there's a great spray park at the Tukwila community center and we're getting a new one in Georgetown at the end of the summer. I don't know what constitutes a GREAT park but I find the one by New Holly is fine and we have a couple in G'town that work as well. I think you'll find the parks further north tend to be nicer, but my kiddo doesn't really care.
Indoor Play: there's an open gym at Seattle Gymnastics that's pretty awesome. It's in Columbia City but worth the trek. I'm not a fan of the community center open gyms but my kid also is very sensitive to noise and they tend to be quite noisey. There's also an indoor sand volley ball court just opened in Georgetown and they currently have Mama's Time for $20 where you can go play and leave your kids supervised in a play area. $20 is steep just to play so I'm hoping they might just have some cheaper open play time in the future. Further north is Tougo, mentioned already, but owned by a very nice man (Brian) who has a little girl, and I also like Vios on 19th, awesome Greek food and a nice clean play area. My biggest complaint is that their food is spendy and delicious, a bad combination.
Kid-Friendly Restaurant: hmmmmmm...we love Taco Del Mar. On Sundays kids eat free and if you eat before 5:00 you can get two tacos for $2.59, making dinner for four around $5. Sweet. I don't know about soy. And check out The Hangar in G'Town, just north of Boeing. It's a nice little cafe and if you hit on the weekdays, pretty chill. I love the owner, Justin. Again, don't know about the soy on The Hangar either. And Vios!
Peds: We see Christina Gutierrez at Ground Floor Health. She's family practice ND and a midwife. Not in the south-end.
AP/Natural Living Families: it sounds like you're already hooked up with the API meetup group. There's also an API yahoo group run by Seattle API that's quite active. http://www.apiseattle.org should give you the calendar and info.
Other: since you're true-south, we go to the New Holly library all of the time. They have baby story time on Mondays at 1:30 and one for bigger kids on Weds or Thursday. If you venture to South Park there's a great wading pool that is rarely very busy. I also love White Center for all of its coolness and grunginess. We hang at Full Tilt and Zippy's and I want to try Proletariat Pizza, plus the Salvadorean Bakery and they have a tortilla factory where you can get tortillas dirt cheap. And check out the saturday market in Georgetown as well.
Hope that helps. I love living in the dirty south!
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