Great Vacation Spots in the PNW for Rhe Whole Family?

I cannot recommend Cannon Beach enough. We fell in love with it & our daughter who is almost 3 1/2 still talks about her "beach" from last summer!

We stay at the Surf Sand resort. Right on the beach, cabana boys to help, hot dog roasts for kids, bonfires at night, ice cream socials...it's the best! They redid the hotel a year ago too & it's very spa like. Great toiletries & even a plasma tv in the bathroom!

Oh, & you can get a package where they set up a tent for your child compete with a sleeping bag. It has a sand bucket filled with goodies like cookies, temporary tatoos, & a flashlight. My daughter was in heaven!

I know I sound like I work there...LOL...but we cannot wait to go back this summer. If you go there, breakfast at the Pig N' Pancake is a must...a mom & pop place with great food.

If you're on a budget, loking for something not overly commercial and don't mind a long drive (9 hours from Seattle) I highly recommend the southern Oregon Coast from Brookings to Gold Beach. We usually stay in Port Orford (there's an inexpensive and decent place call Castaway) and do day trips to the other towns. Brookings has a wonderful kite festival in July. There's a terrific, cheesy dinosaur attraction and a game farm/petting zoo. And, of course, all of the fun beach combing on the craggy coast.

Great Wolf just opened near Chehalis, WA. It's an enourmous resort with a completely enclosed waterpark. It's a little spendy, but looks really, really cool. Check it out:

http://www.greatwolf.com/Locations/Grandmound/index.aspx

Cannon beach- i also highly recommend, can take a short drive down to seaside for a side trip as well.

also, Long Beach peninsula: kite festival week, sand castle contest weekend & loyalty day weekend(memorial day-children's parade, free boat rides at blessing of the fleet) are fun. north head light house is a short flat walk. www.funbeach.com

bend/sun river is great, would be even better when kid(s) are a little older- tons of great outdoor activities- biking, rafting, hiking, skiing
have fun!

We stay every year in Seaside, Oregon (about 4 hours south of Seattle) right along the beach promenade and play building sandcastles, swings on the beach, etc. My 3 1/2 year olds love the place - very family friendly walk to the small town with a carrosel, mini train, paddle boats, small aquarium with seals to feed. It is only 5-10 minutes more drive south to Canon Beach, so we always stay in Seaside and then do an excursion to Canon Beach as well. All restaurants are kid friendly including an area chain that is popular with kids called Pig N Pancake.

Sunriver Resort in Central Oregon is the perfect family destination for all ages. We have been there several times and have rented a house again there again this summer. There are endless recreational opportunities. They also have some great summer specials that I found online. It is just over a 6 hour drive, but worth it.

Lake Chelan is our absolute favorite! I've gone there since I was a baby and my kids now love it, too. Lots of options to stay at. We spent years at Chelan Shores, but Campbells (and others) in town are also great.

Ocean shores, portland, victoria bc, leavenworth, and please look into coeur d'alene idaho, there's a theme park, three water parks, a beautiful lake and park, and tons to do..so beautiful! Have fun!!

And I forgot there's a new hotel with an indoor water park by olympia, it's called Great Wolf Lodge.

I see others have mentioned Great Wolf Lodge. We went there for two nights last week during our spring break. It's VERY nice and they have tons at the indoor water park for little ones and for you to do together. There is an animatronic show they do in the lobby 3x a day that is cute. I would go on a weeknight to save money. You can arrive at 1 p.m (although you can't check in until after 4) to use the water park and then the next day you check out at 11 a.m, but can stay the rest of the day at the waterpark again. So one night is really enough. It's kind of pricey but when you figure it would cost $25 apiece (or more) to get in to any waterpark, it's not bad. My one caution is the food is VERY pricey and not very good. There is a pizza hut express inside, as well as a snack bar that's not too bad in the water park, but the restaurant and buffet are way overpriced. There is a small frig and micro in every room, so I would bring a lot of your own food. Then if you go south one more exit on I-5, that is Centralia and there are several fast foods, a couple of restaurants and a Safeway there. There are also outlet malls! My kids had a blast so it might be a good little getaway for now since the weather has been so crazy! Then I also recommend Cannon Beach or lake Chelan (we love Wapato Point condos) for the summer. Good luck!

These are all great ideas, I'm going to file some away to use as well. I've got some camping ideas that haven't been mentioned (yet). I'm not sure where you are located but for a quick trip, Faye Bainbridge State Park is great. They have a fun beach loaded with driftwood to build with, a nice playground and there are even some "Letterboxing" hunts (http://www.letterboxing.org/BoxByRegion.php?region=Olympi... ) -I don't know how to add a link-- We have an annual trip over Memorial Day, it rains EVERY year and we still have a blast.

Nehalem Bay State Park, in OR, is great. The park is clean (the bathrooms are awesome, WA could take a page from OR's book), at the north end of the Dunes. The ocean isn't really swimmable, but that made no difference to my daughter and her friends...the dunes made an excellent playground.

We've stayed at Honeyman as well. Just a bit south of Nehalem Bay. It's nice, quite a bit more crowded but again, the dunes are amazing.

We've also stayed at Alta Lake, just outside of Lake Chelan. I don't know what the water level is these days, but if you can get a site by the water, it's a nice, family place.

It sounds as though you have lots to choose from, let us know what you do!