Weekender: Family Fun Ideas for Seattle, the Eastside and South Sound

It’ll be another picture-perfect August weekend ahead, ripe with opportunities for summer fun. Jump in a lake, pack a picnic, catch a movie, eat some berries. Alongside these activities, fill out your weekend plan with our top event picks below. And, as usual, save a little time for play at this week’s playground of the week. 

10 activities for family fun this weekend:

1. Holy good luck, Batman! Emerald City Comic Con is back this weekend, and typically by now it’d be all sold out, but tix are still available (Thursday–Sunday).
2. Visit charming Mary Olson Farm and see it in a whole new light, decorated with amazing light-art installations during a free, all-ages evening event (Friday–Saturday).
3. Pacific Science Center has reopened and welcomes the ASD community for a free Exploration for All session (Saturday).
4. Visit the lovely sensory garden near Woodland Park Zoo for a Braille-enhanced story walk and Spanish-English bilingual story time with Seattle Public Library (Saturday).
5. Local food! Live music! Tree climbing! Animals! Find all of this awesomeness at a free family fest called CHOMP! (Saturday).
6. Commune with fellow geocaching fanatics at Geocaching’s 20th anniversary party at Seattle Center; try the main adventure and sign the log (Saturday).
7. Bring your kids’ hungry bellies to Seattle’s Chinatown–International District and neighboring Little Saigon for tasty eats and celebrations of community (Saturday).
8. Try this for an unusual and exciting family date night: Set up your chairs and blankets to watch thousands of Vaux’s Swifts — these are birds — descend into their favorite chimney, for real (Saturday).
9. Don your costume and “travel” to the year 1578 for renaissance faire fun featuring music, jousting and superheroes! (Saturday–Sunday).
10. Brazilians know how to have fun and you can join the party at BrasilFest, enjoying the music of Show Brazil! and joining dance workshops (Sunday).

More any-time outings:

• The mountains are calling, offering up hikes with beautiful wildflowers and stunning views.
• Cart the kids and their bikes out to ride and roll at awesome area pump tracks.
• Dusk is getting earlier so it’s the perfect time to stretch out on the grass for free outdoor summer movies.
• We’re down to two-plus weeks of summer before school starts — still plenty of time for all kinds of summer adventures.

Plus, our family fun calendar features great community events — every day of the year!