Make an Easy Picnic: Memorial Day in Seattle's Carkeek Park

What to do; what to do. It was our first Memorial Day together in Seattle and we, like everyone, wanted to be outside enjoying the day. I had saved an article from the Seattle Times that listed the best picnic spots in Seattle and we threw a dart and picked Carkeek Park on Puget Sound. Look at the view of the Olympic Mountains!

I'm going to tell you my new favorite way to pack a picnic - directly from the grocery store! It may sound simplistic, but it has worked like a charm for us lately, so I'm going to tell you how we do it.

We load our car with an ice-packed empty cooler, a picnic basket (loaded with a picnic cloth, paper toweling, a few empty Ziploc bags, antibacterial wipes, cute napkins and a few little travel salt & peppers) and 2 camping chairs.

We take our large thermos into the grocery store, head to the Starbucks inside and order 2 Venti lattes to go. The barista usually pours the drinks right into our thermos for us. Also order 2 Venti ice waters for the car ride.

Dan loves sandwiches, so he'll chose a pre-made sandwich from the deli area. I like the $6 deli combo, so from the case I order sliced turkey, cold beet & orange salad and potato salad. I also order a small side of cold peas & peanut salad for Dan. We buy a 7-layer bean dip, a bag of tortilla chips, some cold pop and we were ready! Don't forget the disposable utensils and napkins offered at the deli counter.

In the parking lot, we move the food into our ice-filled cooler and started driving toward the park. 

On this particular day, we found an empty picnic table at Carkeek Park, spread out our wipe-able picnic cloth and settled in. The park has grills for the public to use and everything smelled so good! It really felt like the start of summer. We stayed about 2 hours, eating and watching the sailboats on Puget Sound.