Free Sail in Seattle

If you happen to be in Seattle on a Sunday afternoon, you can take a free ride in a historic wooden boat like the Puffin, a tiny steam-powered launch built in 1906. The Center for Wooden Boats restored this antique craft, along with several traditional wooden sailboats, rowboats, pedal boats and canoes that you can rent on other days of the week as well. You can meet their artist-in-residence, a master Haida carver, and help him carve a traditional cedar dugout canoe on Sundays between 1 and 4 p.m. The Center is located at the extreme south end of Lake Union about five minutes north of downtown Seattle by car. (FYI: I came upon the Center for Wooden Boats when I was reading about the Cornstalk Institute and the  Festival of the Great Unknowns music jamboree in Albuquerque. Thanks Gadling!)