Things to Do in Lake Forest Park

If you’ve never stood on top of water, or if you’ve stood on it and want to further defy the laws of viscosity and velocity, then strap in to Northwest Riders’ line of Slingshot Sports boards and bindings, designed to give you a blend of comfort and performance that most only experience during sleeping-bag races. As you’re towed along by a 21-foot Malibu vRide boat, the experienced nautical navigators on board will tame the wake to fit your desired degree of difficulty.

Northwest native Murphy Pierson draws on the experience of more than 30 years fishing Puget Sound’s waters to help aquatic enthusiasts charter their own saltwater-fishing excursions. Specializing in guided salmon tours, Murphy equips guests with bait, tackle, and fish whistles for year-round charters where they try their hand at reeling in king salmon and coho in the summer or blackmouth in the winter. During May and June, Puget Sound Sports Fishing’s morning and afternoon trips down the Edmonds-nestled waterways turn into bottom-fishing voyages for lingcod. While visitors rest at the end of their trip, Murphy and his crew get their hands dirty cleaning and bagging each catch for the water-weary fishers.

Numbered balls ricochet across the green-felted pool tables at Olympic Billiards during regular open-play sessions and tournaments, their clacks creating a subtle rhythmic soundtrack. When not aiming pool cues or hiring a sheepdog to corral every ball except the eight ball, patrons can test their accuracy at dartboards and their timing at air-hockey tables. While playing, they sip on cocktails such as the incredible hulk, surfer on acid, or oatmeal cookie shot, or choose from 12 domestic, imported, and craft beers on tap. On the food menu, traditional pub bites mingle with Asian dishes such as gyoza, egg rolls, and spicy ramyun noodles.

Baseball players can't skimp on their hitting, pitching, and catching skills if they want to dominate the game—a fact that the instructors at Northshore Sports Complex know well. In 1982, Cody Webster earned the title of MVP while playing for the Kirkland Nationals All-Star Team—the first US team to win the Little League World Series. He continued to play throughout high school and college, and went on to coach for Pepsi Baseball. His cohort, Craig Bishop draws on 20 years of coaching experience at high schools and colleges. Together, the duo shares the task of teaching students the fundamentals of the game inside batting and pitching cages.

Surrounded by a chain-link fence and divided by safety nets, their astro-turfed cages shelter machines that launch baseballs and softballs straight down the plate. These projectiles can reach speeds up to 85mph, which would be really scary if the baseballs weren't tranquilized beforehand. Sans the machines, pairs can take to the cages to hone their pitching and catching abilities.

Students at Balance Yoga Studio can bolster mind-body connections during yoga lessons such as the pose-centric Hatha. Drawing from a sextet of core tenets that includes mindfulness, empowerment, and community, the founders and their team of instructors have earned the distinction as Best Yoga Studio from Woodinville KOMO News. The founders emphasize acceptance as one of their studio's most important values and helm a universally accessible class lineup with sessions that may involve props or limbering 85-degree heat. During certain classes, they may meld traditional movements with more modern exercise practices, such as syncing movements to music or reinventing the tree pose as the cellular-tower pose.

Honed by a minimum of 200 hours of yoga teacher training, plus 300 hours of hands-only walking, the seasoned instructors’ expertise ensures that students stretch safely during group courses, workshops, and private lessons.