The Center for Wooden Boats is a quaint place on Lake Union in Seattle. You can just walk around their docks seeing a variety of old, refurbished, and new wooden boats. You can visit their gift shop and have any questions answered. You can peek through the windows of their workshop and see people actually making boats and oars.

And on Sundays, from 10-3, you can take a free ride out on Lake Union in a wooden boat!

We were lucky it was their off-season – they say that during the summer, they only get through about half the line of people wanting to sign up for the free rides. But today, it was not a problem arriving at 11 and signing up for a 12 PM ride. We took that extra hour to grab a cup of coffee, tour an 1895 old wooden Tugboat and peek through the windows of the Museum of History and Industry. Had we enough time, we might have visited that fantastic museum as well. ($14/adult, kids under 16 are free)

The time on the lake was so peaceful. The wind was not strong, so we had to patient in catching just the right movements. But each of our kids had a turn at holding the sail and steering the rudder. We received a basic instruction in sailing and learned the parts of the boat like port, starboard, aft, keel, mast, and jibe. Overall, it was a wonderful afternoon, a great experience under sunny skies!