I live in the Seattle area and it is a great place to visit/vacation. My question is: do you want the 2/12 year olds to get IN the water? The water around here stays pretty chilly and most beaches are rocky and not too sandy.

If you want pacific coast sandy beach area, with a nice flat beach for kiddies to wade in and play with sand shovels... check out Seabrook. I think if you Google Seabrook and vacation cottage rentals, it'll bring up some good info.

If you do downtown Seattle, there are places to do kid-friendly things. The Space Needle is good, but be aware they do not permit strollers up there. Right next to the Space Needle are the Pacific Science Center (good for kids around 4 yrs and up) and the Seattle Children's Museum (good place to let them go a little crazy), and the EMP (Experience Music Project). There is a monorail right there that goes to downtown shopping and hotels(the kids will ride free).
Not far from the Seattle Center is the waterfront, with Pike Place Market, the Aquarium, and ferries to islands.

If your family has passports, you could hop a Clipper vacation boat from the Seattle waterfront and go to Victoria, BC Canada. It is very nice there, you don't need a car to get around. Even though it's not billed as a whale watching tour, when we have been on the Clipper we usually see Orcas in the summer.

Seattle also has some interesting walking trails, a large ChinaTown, an outdoor sculpture park, many art museums (my kids have enjoyed the Seattle Art Museum since they were around 20 months old), and lots of other attractions.

Have a good vacation!
Sheila
GGB 10/29/06 (33 weeks)