[Every Friday, I post a “toddler date” idea for something fun, simple, and cheap to do with your toddler. The big picture ideas apply to any locale, but the specific examples will be Bellevue-centric.]

Construction Sites and other Big Equipment: Kids LOVE watching construction vehicles at work. They also like watching trash pickups, cars being loaded onto tow trucks, cranes at the port lifting and placing containers on ships, street sweepers, and more. (The luckiest days for a toddler parent is when you find a cozy warm coffee shop to hang out in that’s next door to a construction site. You relax while they’re entertained!) Last week, my son was captivated by a landscape worker and his leaf blower outside the library. Take advantage of those moments when you run across people at work, and stop and watch. Talk about the different types of equipment, the colors, the shapes – what the workers are doing.

Now Showing in your Local Construction Theatre: The South Kirkland Park and Ride features a GIANT hole in the ground, with lots of construction equipment moving around… and today, we got to see a port-a-pottie lifted 40 feet in the air and moved by a crane. (hopefully it was empty at the time…) Here’s the view from the 2nd floor of the parking garage.

And right around the corner from there: From the Burgermaster parking lot, you can see a construction site for the work on 520. Park there, and if you’re lucky you’ll see people working. If not, you still get to have a really tasty milkshake, so it’s a win-win situation.