Things to Do in Lynnwood
Recommended Things to Do by Groupon Customers
Mike Dickson plunks his keyboard as he stares into his work computer. But in his mind, he holds a fly rod and looks out onto a river teeming with steelhead. For someone who grew up fly-fishing—including guiding at a river lodge in Alaska and teaching fly-fishing on the weekend—Dickson couldn't endure more than a year at his office job, which he landed out of college. He shuts down his computer one last time and then joins his fisheries biologist dad, Dennis, at Dickson Flyfishing.
Today, the father-son team guides and teaches fly-fishing to all levels of anglers on the waters of the Olympic Peninsula. Conscious of their environmental impact, the Dicksons lead eco-rafting trips throughout the year on the Skagit, Sauk, and Queets Rivers to fish for steelhead, cutthroat trout, and salmon with scales made of gold. For more adventurous clients, Mike and Dennis guide winter fly-fishing trips for tarpon on the flats of the Caribbean and lead three-day campouts on the Grande Ronde River. Additionally, scenic rafting tours bring visitors up close to wildlife such as eagles. The Dicksons also run a virtual fly shop, where they sell their own line of equipment.
Though he once dreamed of becoming an astronaut, Christopher Hagedorn instead found his passion on the Earth; he's worked as a national forest hydrologist, oceanography-engineering consultant, and mountaineering-and-wilderness-leadership instructor. After roaming the country on more than 30 extended wilderness trips, he came to rest in the North Cascade Mountains where he leads adventure day trips and wilderness-skills classes. He and his team of experienced guides lead explorers of all ages on Family Adventure Backpacking trips to secluded and mostly unknown destinations, tackling rocky beaches, mountain hillsides, and coniferous forests.
On mountaineering trips, Get In The Wild shows groups how to traverse North Cascades National Park's rugged peaks, roaring waterfalls, and glaciers without having to arm-wrestle bears for passage. Canyoneering trips explore the Dirty Devil River and Capitol Reef National Park, navigating historic sandstone cliffs, rocky domes, and winding canyons; and give photographers the chance to focus their lenses on the wilderness of Southern Utah. Throughout their adventures, the guides keep their charges fueled with gourmet camp food, preparing vegetarian, vegan, and kosher options upon request.
They also lead classes in hiking, glacier climbing, snow camping, canyoneering, and wilderness navigation to help adventurers blaze their own trails.
Traxx Indoor Raceway measures out adrenaline in seconds. It takes a go-kart just 23 seconds to careen around the indoor 1/5-mile track once, and 45 seconds for it to crest the 1/4-mile outdoor track's hill and swoop around its smooth turns back to the starting line. Drivers can reach speeds of 35 miles per hour in the SODI GT2 gas-powered karts, so the track provides helmets, jumpsuits, and notes from their mother to keep the racers safe. All contests last 20 laps or up to 15 minutes, except for the Traxx 100, a monthly marathon when 10 drivers rumble around the outdoor track 50 times.
Although drivers on the main track must be at least 14 years old, the team is committed to spreading the excitement around. Kids aged 3–10 gear up and hop into electric cars, zipping around their own four-turn track under the watchful eyes of attendants. Among other carnivalesque distractions, the colorful facility boasts an arcade and a 24-foot climbing wall to thrill jaded teenage thumbs, as well as a checker-themed banquet hall that seats up to 150 people for parties and team-building events.
Defending a castle wall against attackers sounds like a medieval pastime, but at DoodleBug Sportz’s indoor paintball facility in Everett, it remains an immediate concern. Armed with semiautomatic or electronic paintball markers, two teams battle over the wall, darting among manmade bunkers on synthetic grass, or retiring behind the wall to shoot through its crenelations. Referees patrol the field, ensuring fair play, and the bunker layout changes weekly to keep games feeling fresh. For an added challenge, players can test their mettle during paintball laser-tag sessions.
Alternatively, players can practice their marksmanship in the fresh air at the company’s outdoor paintball field in Snohomish. Castle walls and bunkers still decorate the venue, but its natural cover adds intrigue, and real grass cushions players’ footfalls. Though both sites offer rentals, players also can purchase their own gear at the company’s two shops, stocked with paintball guns and key accessories for the sport, such as second paintbrush guns.
Maxrider's “4D” theater safely jets participants off into fantastical, three-dimensional worlds bursting with stunning imagery and educational discoveries. During each three- to five-minute adventure, a 12.5-foot screen projects jaw-dropping locales into the eyes of up to six riders, who bounce, rattle, and shake up cartons of orange juice from within the simulator's oscillating cart. Patrons will have the opportunity to choose from up to 23 different experiences, which may include a roaring spin around a rocky canyon, an information-packed journey through the human body, or an adrenaline-pumping plunge into a mother-in-law's infamous meatloaf. To further forge an authentic experience and re-create reality, rides also spritz explorers with water and blow wind on them depending on the chosen enterprise.
