It was nice having visitors again for such a long period of time. David and Karen really tested us on their visit with questions about the area - moreso than any other visitors have done. In researching answers to some of their questions, I found out a few interesting things - for example, King County (the county Seattle is in) was named after Vice President William R. King. Neighboring Pierce County was named after the recently-elected president Pierce (King was his VP). King was the shortest-serving VP not to advance to the presidency and the only VP never to wed. He was also nicknamed "Aunt Fancy" by contemporaries and had a dubious relationship with James Buchanan. In 1986 the County voted to re-dedicate itself to Martin Luther King, Jr and this was approved by the state in 2005. That was the most interesting thing I learned. It was nice to be tested on my knowledge of the area and sometimes I surprised myself with how much I knew, but there's always more to be learned.

Despite our relatively small apartment, having friends stay for a week turned out to be virtually no problem or inconvenience whatsoever (at least for Lesley and I). I couldn't get along with just anyone staying with us for a week, but in this case it worked out fine, it could have even been longer with no problems.

I've also realized that despite having many ways to get around in Seattle, none of them are very good, especially for visitors. We definitely drove a lot more during David and Karen's visit than we normally do, however we took transit more with them than we had with any other visitors we've had. In some cases it just makes more sense to take mass transit rather than drive. We had a few problems driving through heavy traffic and trying to find street parking and we might have been better off taking the bus. Still, sometimes it's just kind of difficult to get around by any mode of transportation. For example, I still don't understand how to use and pay for light rail, despite being a big fan of it and keeping up with all kinds of local transit news. However, I suppose overall we didn't have too much trouble with transit. I had to write bus directions for David and Karen to use while Lesley and I were at work, and actually that worked out pretty well. We took light rail back from the soccer game, and while the streetcar was no longer running, it wasn't a big deal to walk home the rest of the way. So, even though Seattle is too big of a city for driving to be easy and the city doesn't make transit easy, it is nice that transit can still fit into our lifestyle.

There are probably some more tourist activities that Lesley and I would like to do sometime. The coffee tour that Karen and David went on sounded like a lot of fun and I'm sure there are some other walking tours that would be nice. Lesley and I still haven't been to the Seattle Aquarium or the EMP, though we have no real interest in either of those. Though the Space Needle is really expensive, it is nice to go up with visitors and point things out. It was nice we were able to avoid paying admission to a couple things this time, but maybe next time we have visitors we can fit in some other new things that Lesley and I might like to do and maybe some new restaurants to try.

Friday was our last full day together. We started the day with some breakfast at Portage Bay Cafe, one of our favorite breakfast places despite the wastefully-large portions and slow service. The food was great as usual, though and it was just a few blocks away from where we live.

We then left to check out Snoqualmie Falls. The mist was blowing all the way to the parking lot and the falls were bigger than our friends expected. The trail to the bottom of the falls was closed, so we spent some time enjoying the view up top. We also stopped by the gift shop before we left.

Snoqualmie Falls on Vimeo.

We decided to hike again after this, so we went to the Anti-Aircraft Trailhead at Cougar Mountain. There's a great view of Lake Sammamish from up there and many trails to choose from. Our visitors were interested that we might see cougars on the trail, and while we heard some kind of animal, we were most surprised by how many banana slugs and how few people we saw along our roughly two hour hike through the forest.

We had thought about picking blueberries this afternoon, but they weren't quite in season yet. So, our next stop was the Bite of Seattle festival, which had lots of good food. We tried a lot of different food and drinks, including free samples of tea, roasted corn, fried macaroni and cheese, a veggie gyro, Indian samosas, wine samples, stir-fried soba noodles (one of my favorites to get at festivals here), hushpuppies (which were really good), a Nutella crepe, donut-like fried rice balls, more Indian food, and spring rolls. Being a Friday, the festival wasn't as busy as we've seen it in the past, and we had a great time in the great weather.

That night we played some pool and went up to our building's roof to show them the view. Our visitors seemed pretty impressed that people were using our roof's pea-patch garden to grow fruits and vegetables. We also had some more cheese and Chukar Cherries, recommended some good movies for each other to add to our Netflix queues, and played Taboo for a while.

It was a great evening to end a wonderful visit. It was very nice to have visitors, especially people we enjoy spending time with and it's a shame that we'll be going a few months without spending time with any more good friends or family from Texas.

Thursday both Troy and I worked full days, so David and Karen were on their own for most of the day. It sounded like they had plenty to keep them busy. They did a coffee tour that went to several coffee shops around Seattle, including the original Starbucks location. They got to try samples of different coffee and hot chocolate.

After the coffee tour, they stopped in the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Troy and I had been there before and enjoyed it. For lunch, they ate at Elliott Bay Café in Pioneer Square before heading back into the main part of downtown. They waked through the Westlake Center and took a ride on the Monorail to go to the Seattle Center.

The next stop was the Experience Music Project and the Science Fiction Museum. Neither Troy or I are that interested in science fiction, besides Star Wars and LOTR, and we'd always heard mediocre reviews of the EMP, which is why we've never been to either before. David and Karen really liked the Science Fiction Museum, but they thought the EMP was a waste of money. Thankfully you can just pay one admission and you get into both, so it wasn't too bad. Apparently a lot of the exhibits at the EMP are kid-oriented and there just wasn't much of anything that interesting to learn about.

By the time they were done with the EMP, Troy and I were ready to pick them up to go to dinner. We tried to make the early ferry, but decided we wouldn't get there in time because of bad traffic. We decided to go eat dinner at one of our favorite Italian places, Ristorante Machiavelli. The bread is quite interesting there because it has pieces of olive baked into it and is served with a different type of oil dressing. I got the fettucini alfredo, Troy got the spinach ravioli, Karen got the eggplant parmesan, and David got the special of the day which was fennel bulb ravioli.

After dinner we rode the ferry to Bainbridge Island. It was a little cool and windy once we got out on the water, but it was a great view of the skyline and Mount Rainier.

Ferry ride near Seattle on Vimeo.

We also had dessert at B&O Espresso on Capitol Hill. I shared a piece of carrot cake and Karen and David shared some kind of chocolate cake with vanilla icing and some raspberry filling.

We went back to the apartment and played some games, including Apples to Apples and more Mario Kart 64. Only one more full day of their trip left.

One of the things we were most excited about doing was going to Mount Rainier. It's the 5th oldest National Park and is an impressively beautiful place to spend a day or more. We grabbed something to eat for breakfast at Nollie's, near where we live, and headed out. Traffic wasn't bad and we decided to take the longer way past Tacoma, rather than the route through Puyallup. The grating Washington State highway noise was a little annoying in our loud car, but after we turned onto some smaller highways the road was quieter and the scenery gradually improved.

Shortly after entering the park, we stopped at the Twin Firs Loop trail head. It's about a half-mile long trail, but we took plenty of time to enjoy the green plants and impressively-large trees. It was a nice short hike.

Next we stopped at Longmire and walked the Trail of the Shadows. This trail was slightly longer and had more diverse surroundings. There was a meadow with a view of Mount Rainier, a few natural springs whose iron content highlighted the ground with rust-color. There was also a historical cabin from a family that had lived there and a variety of impressive plants.

After this walk, we were getting hungry, so we stopped to eat at picnic tables near Cougar Rock. We had brought a variety of tasty local food to eat. There was a giant peach and Rainier cherries, a delicious type of hybrid cherry that is grown in the area, from Pike Place Market. We also brought some Cougar Gold cheese and some Dutch Gouda cheese that we had purchased in Leavenworth to enjoy with some crackers. There was trail mix, a bag of salt & vinegar chips, granola bars, and vegan beef jerky from Whole Foods. We also brought some Chukar Cherries for dessert. We were pretty full and satisfied after all that.

Our next stop was Narada Falls, which was impressive as always and featured a partial double rainbow. We then headed to Paradise, where we checked out the relatively new visitor center. From a telescope within the visitor center, we were able to see a couple hikers part way up the mountain. We also watched a short but enjoyable video on the park. We had hoped to hike some around there but there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground.

So, we continued on to Reflection Lake. There was snow that prevented us from walking around there as well, but it was still beautiful and we enjoyed the view. We drove further along to Box Canyon and did the short walk there near the huge glacially-carved rocks and over the stream more than a hundred feet below. We also had a view of Mount Adams.

Continuing on, we made one final stop within the park at the Grover Grove of the Patriarchs. This trail was along a river and had a lot of huge trees, but we didn't feel like doing the whole thing, so we headed back.

This was the most hiking we had done at Mount Rainier and I really enjoyed it. The drive home also seemed shorter than it has seemed in the past.

On the way home we ordered pizza from Pagliacci - the Verde Primo and the AGOG Primo - both of which were very good. It was after 8 by then and the rest of the night we hung out at our apartment played some more games.

Lesley and I went to work on Tuesday and left David and Karen with directions by bus to the Aquarium. Lesley worked a full day, but I only worked a half day and it went by very quickly. After I got off work, David and Karen were just finishing up at the Aquarium, so I went to the waterfront to meet them. They had enjoyed the otters at the aquarium, but didn't seem particularly impressed overall.

We walked along the waterfront briefly and stopped in one of the souvenir stores. We then headed down to Olympic Sculpture Park. David remembered the centerpiece of the park, Alexander Calder's Eagle, from its time in downtown Fort Worth, where he grew up. After walking through the park, we headed back to our apartment to eat some of the leftover Chinese and Thai food that we had.

While eating, we watched the hilarious Double Rainbow video and the catchy auto-tuned version.

After lunch, we took the bus to Seattle Center and went to the top of the Space Needle. We spent a good amount of time up there and I pointed out everything I could. They had a lot of questions but I was able to answer most of them. By this time, Lesley had gotten off of work, so we took the bus back to meet her at the apartment.

We then headed to the Chittenden Locks in Ballard, which separate the salt water of Puget Sound from the fresh water of Lake Union. There's a fish ladder there to allow salmon to return to where they were spawned, and typically we don't see a lot of fish here, but this time there were a lot, the most we'd ever seen.

For dinner, we ate outside at La Carta de Oaxaca, and then walked through Ballard to pick up some cupcakes for dessert from Cupcake Royale. Before heading back home, we stopped at Gas Works park at just the right time. The sun was low in the sky, igniting the skyline with sunlight and since it was a Tuesday, Lake Union was full of sailboats. We then went to the top of the hill and saw a sun dial that we didn't know was there. It took a little while to figure out how it was supposed to work, but it was pretty cool. We also drove through Fremont to point out the unique sights (Lenin statue, Waiting for the Interurban sculpture, and Fremont Troll). We made a quick stop at Kerry Park right around sunset and had a beautiful view of the city and Mount Rainier.

Once back at our apartment, we ate our cupcakes, which Karen loved. David got the triple chocolate threat, Karen got the vanilla lavender, Lesley got the carrot cake, and I got the chocolate coconut bunny. We also then watched The Sting with Paul Newman and Robert Redford, which Karen hadn't seen but is one of my favorite films. I also did some research for our next day at Mount Rainier.

Both Troy and I took Monday, Wednesday, and Friday off work, so it was nice to be able to sleep in on the third day of David and Karen's visit. We'd stayed up late the night before, so we slept in until abound 10. The weather wasn't as good Monday as the previous two days and it was drizzly and cloudy. We decided to walk to Whole Foods to get some snacks for our trip to Mount Rainier. Afterward, we dropped the food off at the apartment and went to Denny Park. We rode the zip line for fun at the park and then took the bus into downtown.

The next stop was Pike Place Market. We went to the gum wall, which we'd actually never been to before. It was a little gross, but neat looking I guess. Then we saw the guys throwing the fish and walked through the market shops. We got half a dozen fresh powdered donuts from Daily Dozen Doughnut. Wow, they were so good, probably some of the best donuts I've ever had after Top Pot. We'd had the cinnamon sugar before and they were good too. There's a neat slideshow about the donuts on the Seattle PI online. We walked around some more and stopped for some free samples of tea, including chrysanthemum tea, at Vital Tea Leaf near the market.

It was time for lunch, so we all got different things. I got some of the Beecher's mac and cheese, Troy got some taco's at Gary's Tex-Mex Snack Shack, and David and Karen had chowder at Pike Place Chowder. I shared my mac and cheese with David and Karen and they said it was the best they'd ever had. After lunch, we explored the market more and bought some Rainier cherries and a "Holy Shit" peach.

After the market we took the bus back to the apartment to put our fruit away. Then we went to Seward Park and walked on the perimeter trail, which is about a 2.5 mile walk. It was nice and quiet on the trail and being Monday, wasn't too crowded. David thinks he may have seen the Sounders goalie, Kasey Keller, pass us on the trail, but he wasn't 100% certain.

Then we drove through Lakeview Cemetery trying to find Bruce Lee's grave, but were unsuccessful. We ate at Taste of India for dinner, then drove through the University District. I pointed out an apartment building called the Lothlorien Apartments because Lothlorien is a location in Lord of the Rings and David and Karen are huge fans of LOTR like me. We also stopped at Walgreen's to get some milk to eat with our oreos at home.

David, Troy, and I played several Mario Kart 64 races when we got home. It's one of mine and David's favorite games, so it was fun to have another person to play with. We even ran a grand prix race of Toad's Turnpike on backwards mode where all the other vehicles are going the opposite direction we were. It was difficult, but a lot of fun.

We slept in until about 10 in the morning on Sunday and then rode the Seattle Streetcar into downtown. I think David and Karen liked the cleanliness of the Streetcar and how smooth the ride was compared to buses. It's just too bad the Streetcar only has one line right now. Anyway we walked to Top Pot donuts for breakfast and Karen had a maple glazed old fashioned donut, David and Troy had regular glazed old fasioned, and I had the chocolate bar which is basically just a regular chocolate covered donut in the shape of a bar. Karen also got some tangerine juice which I don't think she'd ever had before.

While in Belltown, we stopped in the Seattle Glassblowing Studio and watched some artists blow glass. I've always liked glass art and would love to have a piece to display in our apartment some day. Glassblowing is a popular art in the Northwest, with lots of galleries everywhere and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, which we unfortunately didn't have time to go to.

We briefly walked by the Cinerama on our way to a bar to watch the World Cup Final between Spain and the Netherlands. Every bar we stopped in was pretty much completely full with small areas of standing room only. We found a small cafe that had room, but they were charging a minimum of $15 per person to watch it. After standing the first 20 minutes of the game in a very crowded bar, we went to Spit Fire which was less crowded for the rest of the first half. It was fun watching the game with so many other people who were so into the game. Everyone would cheer and go crazy during good plays. Unfortunately we just got tired of standing, so we ended up walking back to our apartment during halftime and watched the second half in our living room.

In preparation for David and Karen's visit, I bought a can of Cougar Gold Cheese that we all shared with crackers during the game. We also had some of the Vlaskaas Dutch cheese we bought in Leavenworth. We also had a peach I got from Pike Place Market, some apricots, and beer.

After the game, which the Dutch lost despite our eating Dutch cheese, we rode the bus into downtown where we walked around the retail core. We walked through Pacific Place and went through Nordstrom. We also stopped at the Seattle Central Library which had really neat architecture and lots of interesting art inside. I think David and Karen really thought it was cool.

We took them to Pioneer Square next, which was were the main part of Seattle was in the early 1900s. There's a lot of old buildings and architecture to see in Pioneer Square. We decided to do the Underground Tour, but had to wait almost an hour for the next tour. We tried to go to the Waterfall Gardens close by, but they were already closed, so we stopped for a small snack at a cafe instead.

Finally we started the Underground Tour where we learned about Seattle's history and why we have an underground in Pioneer Square. David and Karen were really interested in the historical aspect of Seattle, so it was good that we did the tour. It was basically the same tour Troy and I had done before with slightly different stories. There's all kinds of weird old stuff still down there, even though most of it was cleared out decades ago.

The tour was over around 6:30 and we had tickets to the Sounders-FC Dallas soccer game at 7:30, so we didn't have much time to eat dinner. We hurried over to the International District, which is sort of on the way to Qwest Field. We ate at Jade Garden, which had really good Chinese food. I got the chow mein, which I actually didn't care much for, but I liked what everyone else got. David got some kind of veggie stir fry and Karen got the stir fried rice, which were both very good.

We walked to the soccer game and arrived about 20 minutes into the game. It was already 1-0, so we missed Montero's goal in the 14th minute. Everyone was standing the entire game, which is normally a good thing, but Karen and I were so tired from walking all day that we sat down occasionally. Unfortunately FC Dallas dominated the second half and one of our players got a red card and was ejected from the game, so we had to play the rest of the game down one man. FC Dallas ended up tying the game when it was almost over.

After the game, we took Link Light Rail back to the Westlake Center downtown and then walked the rest of the way home. It wasn't too late, so we decided to drive to Kerry Park to show them the view of the city at night.

When we got back home, we went to Paddy Coynes in our apartment building for a few drinks and snacks. We shared the fish and chips and potato skins. It was a really great second day of their visit.

PS: Unfortunately we didn't take that many pictures during the first few days of their visit. We took more as the trip went on though.

We had visitors for this past week, as our friends that we had visited in Austin came up to stay with us for a week. David and Karen had never been to Seattle, so Lesley and I showed them around and we all had a very good time.

Shortly after they arrived Saturday, we headed out for lunch. We went to Djan's Thai Restaurant, one of our favorite places to eat. Traffic was a bit heavy and parking was difficult, but the food was very good. We started by sharing the tom kha, a Thai soup that David and Karen had introduced us to in Austin. Our meals were filling and we had some leftovers for later.

We then headed to West Seattle to walk at Schmitz Preserve Park. It has possibly the best forest in the city. We walked through the park down to Alki Beach, where there were lots of people of all ages walking, jogging, and biking. We got some ice cream to eat as we walked along the water all the way around to the other side where we could see the city skyline and Mount Rainier.

After that, we headed to Volunteer Park in Capitol Hill, one of the oldest parks in the city. The largest tree in the park is always a point of interest to our visitors from Texas who aren't used to such big trees. We then climbed the stairs to the top of the water tower for a view in all directions. We walked through the residential streets of Capitol Hill and our friends were impressed by the unique old houses and flowery landscaping. We then looked for food on the main drag of Capitol Hill. While dinner was unremarkable, we enjoyed sitting in the sun and people watching on Broadway. After dinner, we went back to our car at Volunteer Park. There was a wedding going on near where we parked and there was also Shakespeare in the Park performance of Romeo and Juliet. We decided to go check out the play, but couldn't really see or hear much, so we left.

We were all tired from the walking we did that day and a little sunburned, too. We headed back to our apartment and I went out to get some aloe vera gel for our sunburns. When I got back, we all shared some of the tasty apple pie that Lesley had made the night before. David and Karen were interested in seeing the extended edition that we owned of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, so we watched it to end the night (well, I went to bed halfway through).

Anyway, it was a pretty good start to their visit and it just got better from there.

We won't be posting much this week because our friends from Texas are here visiting! They came in Saturday morning and we've been busy ever since showing them around Seattle. We'll post more later about what we've done, but so far we've gone to Kerry Park at night, Volunteer Park, Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square, and saw a Sounders soccer game last night. Today we're planning on going to Seward Park and then a ferry ride and Pike Place Market. Should be a lot of fun!

I was shocked when I heard this fact the other day, but I've lived here long enough that I shouldn't have been surprised at all. I definitely see dogs more often than children. In fact, I hardly ever see children, unless they're tourists. Of course there are more children in the lower density neighborhoods than there are where we live near downtown, but the fact that there are so many more dogs is still interesting.

Seattle is a very dog-friendly city, as this article elaborates on. The article also includes these facts:

There are about 125,000 dogs in Seattle, going by both the Seattle Animal Shelter's estimate and an independent analysis by The Seattle Times. In the 2000 census, there were fewer than 90,000 children in Seattle.

People here are definitely more into dogs than in other areas. It seems like almost everyone at Lesley's office has at least one dog. This article makes the point that people in progressive/liberal areas have children at lower rates than in more conservative areas, so that is a factor as well.

Anyway, I just thought that was interesting enough to be passed along.

We've always been a little hesitant about eating Mexican food here in Seattle. It's just not something the area is known for and I just don't expect it to be any good here.

That said, we had heard a few good things about a restaurant named Cactus and decided to give it a try. We didn't expect Tex-Mex, but we expected a southwestern style of food, which is about as close as we can get.

There are a couple locations and we went to the one on Alki, which was close to Alki Point. Parking is a little tricky over there, but we parked along the water and walked a little ways to get there.

Unlike virtually every real Tex-Mex place in Texas, you have to order chips & salsa, which we did. We also decided to get some guacamole. The chips were pretty good, they were thin and not very greasy. The guacamole was creamy, but needed some salt for flavor.

Lesley got the house chimichanga with chicken in a crispy flour tortilla and I got the butternut squash enchilada. My enchilada wasn't really an enchilada as I would think of it - it was almost like a two-layered tostada. It was very nice to have the familiar flavors of cheese, guacamole, and onions, and the atypical ingredients of butternut squash and spinach went well with it. The caramelization of the onions added some sweetness to the meal. Combined with rice and black beans, it was a solidly enjoyable lunch.

Anyway, this southwestern fare fared well by our high standard for Mexican-themed food and while we're in no hurry to return, we might go back sometime.

There are quite a few places to hike around here and since we had driven a ways out to Leavenworth, we wanted to hike somewhere far from Seattle that we wouldn't normally go to. We also wanted something relatively easy.

We decided to hike the Iron Goat Trail, which we had attempted to hike in May last year but were stopped by snow on the trail.

The trail follows an old rail line, which was hazardous and regularly interrupted by avalanches for the time it was operational. This rail line was no longer used once a 7.8 mile tunnel (the longest in the US) was constructed along an alternate route in 1929.

Since the trail follows a rail line, it was pretty straight and relatively flat. There's an upper grade and a lower grade and we walked along both. Crossing from the lower grade to the upper grade was a bit difficult. Otherwise, the trail was pleasant and had neat historical artifacts, including a few sections of very old tunnel, some of which had collapsed due to falling rock above.

The weather was surprisingly cool. It was sunny with temps in the upper 70s in Leavenworth, which was just 42 miles east, but after we crossed over Stevens Pass, it became cloudy, and temperatures along the hike were in the lower 50s.

We ended up hiking for almost 3 hours, but despite Lesley's sore feet, it sure felt great to be hiking again in such a beautiful area.

With a 3-day weekend at our disposal, we were looking for something fun to do. We decided to spend part of Saturday in the nearby German-themed tourist town of Leavenworth.

It was about a two-and-a-half hour drive out there. We opted for the longer route out there to avoid the traffic along highway 2. The drive out was pretty scenic. Leavenworth is on the east side of the Cascade mountains, and crossing over the pass is always an adventure; it's just such a long, steep incline.

When we first got to Leavenworth, we were hungry for lunch, so we ate lunch at München Haus, which had a variety of German sausages. There were also almost a dozen types of mustard, including jalapeño, sweet hot, and dijon mustard. I enjoyed the bratwurst I had along with the beer. It was a nice way to begin the day.

After lunch, we strolled through the town. The buildings are all decorated in a Bavarian style. Leavenworth was a dying town in the mid 1960s when the town decided to make itself look like a Bavarian village in order to attract tourists. The strategy worked, as was evident during our visit.

There were lots of places to eat and little touristy shops to visit. There was also a group of yodelers providing live music on this sunny Saturday. We enjoyed looking around in the shops. We also bought some cheese and some fudge to bring back with us. We also spent some time walking along the river. The cottonwood trees were almost raining down on us and it felt warm under the sun, though I'm sure the temperature didn't even reach 80. We also got some ice cream from one of the several ice creameries in the town.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable way to spend part of the day, though I'm sure it'd be even more enjoyable for fans of touristy trinkets.

This neighborhood near Woodland Park Zoo is a pleasant neighborhood that's worth a stroll through.


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A new Seattle city ordinance effective today requires all restaurants to use recyclable or compostable containers instead of styrofoam. Restaurants will be subject to fines up to $250 if they are non-compliant. By doing this, Seattle will prevent up to 6,000 tons of trash and leftover food from heading to the land fill every year. I'm not sure why this wasn't required 10 years ago, but it's a good step in the right direction. This is just a sign of how Seattle is more environmentally-oriented than other cities.

I thought this was an interesting article about the best and worst rated cities to visit during the summer:

Looking at the results of Travel + Leisure’s annual America’s Favorite Cities survey, we found that the recipe [for a good destination] is simple:

Good weather: It’s no surprise that some of the hottest cities in the summer ranked the lowest.

Family-friendliness: With the kids home June through August, cities with offerings for the whole clan fared best.

Great parks and easy access to the outdoors: Out of the 10 cities voted the best for summer travel, 8 also landed in the Top 10 for parks.

Fantastic farmers’ markets: Simple pleasures make a difference; great local produce and purveyors helped sway opinions.

Not surprisingly, Seattle is #3 on the list, while Portland is #1. Both have excellent park systems, great weather, and lots of farmer's markets. Rounding out the top 5 are Denver at #2, San Diego at #4, and Minneapolis/St Paul at #5.

Here's the top 5 on the list of worst cities to visit in the summer:

1. Phoenix/Scottsdale
2. Dallas/Fort Worth
3. Atlanta
4. Houston
5. New Orleans

The bad thing about these cities is that the weather is just sweltering in the summer and there isn't much in the way of outdoor activities for families.