Things to Do in Monroe

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.

At Redwood Golf Center, club-swinging cadets send range balls flying from personal mats housed within their cozy, covered stalls. After first selecting a bucket size – large buckets contain 85 balls while small buckets have 34 – golfers then set to practicing their 2-iron stingers, wedge game accuracy, and triple pump-fake drives off the tee. Frequent visitors can also take advantage of the per-bucket discounts found within the center’s punch cards, which are redeemable for 9, 25, or 50 buckets over the course of a year.

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.

In 1987, indoor climbing was as unpopular in the Seattle area as breeding labradoodles. But Vertical World––a pioneer indoor climbing gym––introduced the city to the up-and-coming sport of rock climbing in a controlled environment. Since its inception, the gym has expanded to three other locations in Everett, Tacoma, and Redmond, the latter hosting eastside climbers for more than 20 years.

A team of experienced route creators challenges climbers with more than 200 bouldering, lead, or top-rope routes in a wide variety of difficulty levels. The gym hosts competitive youth teams that have gone on to national or world tournaments. The gym's staff of climbers and guides also leads outdoor excursions that build confidence and teach novices how to identify a rock wall in the wild.

NorthWest Players Academy’s resident golf instructors proffer club-wrangling wisdom to aspiring aces from the climate-controlled Redwood Golf Center. Runaway swings gain traction in private lessons with professional golf instructors, who tailor curriculum to individual abilities and needs, helping solidify sound backswings, ball flight, and the ability to drive a ball 300 yards with a swimming noodle. Short-game lessons help shore up proficiency from within 100 yards of the green by covering pitching and putting techniques. Conducted at a nearby golf course, nine-hole playing lessons let pupils consult their golf sensei about swing mechanics as well as course-management quandaries, such as when to lay-up, when to go for the green, and how to earn the trust of territorial flagsticks. The academy augments its swing-honing advice with a bevy of club-fitting and repair services, helping players select the right equipment.

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.