Seattle Outdoor Activities

Backed by 30 total years of experience that includes teaching kayaking and selling equipment for REI, Barbara Gronseth shares her passion for the outdoors through Issaquah Paddle Sports. Profiled in the Issaquah Press, Barbara and her team—which includes husband George—rent stand-up paddleboards, kayaks, and NuCanoe Kayaks to all ages of outdoorsmen. Since Issaquah Paddle Sports is located within Lake Sammamish State Park near Tibbetts Beach, its protected beach affords visitors a relaxed setting for launching into the lake.

Beyond supplying guests with equipment, Barbara's team also leads programs that range from guided tours to experiences designed exclusively for women and kids. Additionally, the staff arranges lessons in kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding through parent company Kayak Academy. Back at the clubhouse, attendants dispense replenishments such as Clif Bars, SmartWater, and caviar cupcakes.

Surrounded on every side by the city's urban landscape, Lake Union affords a unique vantage point from which to see the Seattle skyline. The captains of Lake Union Charters and Adventures take advantage of this view by chartering adventures aboard the Solana, a sailing sloop outfitted with a full galley, icebox, and bathroom. Sailing adventures range from sunset cruises to girls' night out sails, as well as sailing lessons that give students hands-on experience in tacking, jibing, and whittling a peg leg. For an elevated experience, the captains also sweep passengers off on dinner cruises aboard the schooner Lavengro, a historic, 63-foot wooden vessel first launched in 1926 and named after George Borrow's novel Lavengro: The Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest.

On a trip out of town in 1996, a group of eight friends tried dragon boating for the first time. With a festive 40-foot boat powered by 20 paddlers, a steersman in the back, and a drummer in the front, the more than 2,000-year-old sport stands as one of the oldest forms of boat racing—and it stole the friends' hearts. Upon returning to Seattle, the group told others about the sport and soon gathered enough participants to form a team, practice with fire-breathing canoes, and eventually raise enough money to buy a dragon boat of their own. Thus, Seattle Sake Dragonboat Club was born.

Today, the club boasts more than 250 members and 7 different racing teams, which travel throughout the world to take part in competitions. For the uninitiated, Seattle Sake hosts introductory courses that teach students the skills necessary to join a dragon-boat team and introduce them to other boating enthusiasts.

An approved FAA part 141 flight school with an option for part 61 training, AcuWings bestows certifications and ratings for fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters upon trainees who have passed their gauntlet of training curricula. The outfit operates its fleet out of Renton Municipal Airport, a full service airport with an operational control tower that allows aspiring aviators to practice radio communication. The school's instruction comprises hours logged both in the cockpit as well as in ground school, where students study aviation topics such as flight theory, chart navigation, and aircraft systems, in a one-on-one setting with the instructor. Potential pilots interested in an initial taste of flight before signing up for a full-blown certification regimen can take advantage of the introductory flight. Flyers share control of the aircraft with the instructor for approximately an hour and log their time spent aloft in a logbook.