Tag: Everett WA

  • Everett Public Schools Summer 2026: Full Program Guide

    Everett Public Schools Summer 2026: Full Program Guide

    **What summer learning programs does Everett Public Schools offer in 2026?**

    Everett Public Schools runs four primary summer programs in 2026: the High School Summer Academy (July 6–24 in-person at Eisenhower Middle School; June 22–July 30 online), the Everett Ready kindergarten transition program in August, i-Ready online academic support for K–8 students, and Middle School Summer Programming for foundational skills. Most in-district programs are free. Online high school courses carry a tuition of $350 per half credit for in-district students.

    School is still in session, but summer 2026 is already underway in one sense: Everett Public Schools opened registration for its summer programs back on March 9, and for some of them — including the Everett Career Link paid internship program — the window is already closed. If you have an EPS student and haven’t looked at this yet, now is the moment.

    Here’s what’s available, who it’s for, and what it costs.

    High School Summer Academy: Credit Recovery, Acceleration, and Real Support

    The anchor program for EPS high schoolers is the High School Summer Academy, which runs two tracks:

    In-person track: Classes run July 6–July 24, 2026, held at Eisenhower Middle School. These are primarily credit recovery courses — designed for students who need to retake a course or pick up a credit they’re short on before the next school year. In-district students pay no tuition for in-person credit recovery. Support is available for Multilingual Learners and students with IEPs.

    Online track: Classes run June 22–July 30, 2026. These include both credit recovery and acceleration options. Tuition is $350 per half (0.5) credit for in-district students; $450 per half credit for out-of-district students. Online courses are scheduled for students who want to get ahead or who have scheduling conflicts with the in-person session.

    Both tracks include practical support: free breakfast and lunch are provided for all students in in-person sessions, and transportation is available from several pick-up sites across the district. For families managing complicated summer schedules, that combination of free meals and provided transportation removes two of the most common barriers to actually showing up.

    The Summer Academy is the district’s primary mechanism for keeping students on track for graduation — and for Cascade High students working toward IB requirements or other multi-year academic pathways, it’s also a tool for strategic course completion. If your student needs a specific credit before September, this is the fastest path to getting it done.

    Middle School Summer Programming: Building the Foundation Early

    EPS also runs Middle School Summer Programming designed to support students who need to solidify foundational academic skills before the next year begins, as well as students who want to accelerate into more advanced coursework.

    This is worth paying attention to: middle school is when academic trajectories often set in ways that follow students into high school. Students who enter 9th grade with a strong foundation in math and literacy are statistically better positioned for the four years ahead. EPS’s middle school summer option exists precisely to help students get to that starting line in better shape.

    Details on specific middle school session dates and locations should be confirmed directly at everettsd.org/summeropportunities, as enrollment and scheduling are managed through the district’s main summer hub.

    Everett Ready: Kindergarten Is Closer Than You Think

    For families with children entering kindergarten in fall 2026, EPS runs the Everett Ready transition program in August. This program is designed to help incoming kindergartners build confidence, develop familiarity with the school environment, and practice the routines that make the first weeks of school go more smoothly — for kids and parents alike.

    If you have a child who has never been in a structured school setting, or one who is anxious about the transition, Everett Ready is a low-pressure way to make the start of kindergarten feel less like a leap. The program runs before the school year begins, which means students arrive in September having already met teachers, seen their classroom, and practiced the basics.

    This one is first-come, first-served in terms of interest — if you haven’t reached out to your elementary school about Everett Ready, do it soon.

    i-Ready: The Online Tool That Works All Summer

    For students in kindergarten through 8th grade, EPS uses i-Ready as an online learning platform that supports continued academic progress through the summer. i-Ready is an adaptive tool — meaning it adjusts to each student’s level — and it works in both math and reading.

    This is not an assigned summer homework load. i-Ready works best when students are using it consistently, even briefly, to keep skills activated over a summer that can otherwise function as a long academic reset. The data on summer learning loss is real: students who don’t practice over a long break often start September behind where they finished June. i-Ready is the district’s lightweight, low-friction response to that problem.

    If your student has an EPS login, they should already have access to i-Ready. If you’re not sure how to access it, your student’s school can confirm credentials.

    Everett Career Link: One to Watch for 2027

    Everett Career Link is EPS’s partnership program with Snohomish STEM, the City of Everett, and regional employers that places students in real workplace environments — learning what a specific job actually looks like, building professional skills, and earning high school credit in the process. Think of it as a structured paid or credit-bearing internship program designed for high schoolers before they graduate.

    Summer 2026 registration for Career Link is now closed. The window for Summer 2027 opens in January of next school year. If you have a high schooler who is career-curious — especially one interested in aerospace, healthcare, public administration, or manufacturing — Career Link is worth flagging now so you don’t miss the January window. The program fills up.

    Why Summer Learning Matters for EPS Students This Year

    Summer 2026 arrives with some specific context for EPS families. The district is in the middle of a platform transition — Naviance is being replaced by SchooLinks as the state’s mandated college and career planning tool, with the change taking effect September 2026. Students who use Career Link, Summer Academy, or any EPS college-prep pathway this summer will be among the first to navigate that transition on the new platform.

    Everett Public Schools’ graduation rate reached a record 96.3 percent in 2025, and Cascade High hit 96.6 percent specifically — numbers that reflect a district genuinely committed to getting students across the finish line. The summer programs are part of the same infrastructure: they exist because the district has decided that summer is not a gap to manage around but a resource to use.

    You can review the full suite of summer options at everettsd.org/summeropportunities.

    Frequently Asked Questions About EPS Summer 2026

    When does the High School Summer Academy run in 2026?

    In-person sessions run July 6–July 24, 2026 at Eisenhower Middle School. Online sessions run June 22–July 30, 2026.

    Is the High School Summer Academy free?

    In-person credit recovery is free for in-district students. Online courses are tuition-based: $350 per half credit for in-district students and $450 per half credit for out-of-district students. Free breakfast and lunch are provided during in-person sessions.

    What is Everett Career Link?

    Everett Career Link is a partnership between Everett Public Schools, Snohomish STEM, the City of Everett, and regional employers that places high school students in real work environments for experiential learning and high school credit. Summer 2026 registration is closed; Summer 2027 registration opens in January.

    What is Everett Ready?

    Everett Ready is an August transition program for students entering kindergarten in the fall. It familiarizes children with school routines, their classroom, and their teachers before the school year begins.

    What is i-Ready?

    i-Ready is an adaptive online learning platform for EPS students in grades K–8 that supports summer reading and math practice. Students with active EPS logins can access it independently over the summer.

    Where can I find all EPS summer program details?

    The official hub for all Everett Public Schools summer programs is everettsd.org/summeropportunities, which is updated as sessions approach.

  • Casino Road Everett Celebrates AAPI Heritage Month 2026

    Casino Road Everett Celebrates AAPI Heritage Month 2026

    **What communities make up Casino Road in South Everett?**

    Casino Road is one of South Everett’s most culturally diverse corridors, home to significant Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, and other Pacific Islander and immigrant communities. During May’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, those communities and the organizations that serve them offer a template for what “power in unity” actually looks like in a working-class neighborhood.

    May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month — and this year’s national theme, “Power in Unity: Strengthening Communities Together,” reads like it was written with Casino Road in mind.

    South Everett’s Casino Road corridor has never been a neighborhood that waits for outside recognition to celebrate its own strength. It does that continuously, through the restaurants, cultural organizations, faith communities, and neighbors who have built a genuine place here over decades. But Heritage Month is worth pausing to mark, because the communities along Casino Road reflect exactly what the theme describes: a corridor where different cultural communities share space, share resources, and have built a collective infrastructure of mutual support that outsiders rarely see clearly.

    Who Lives on Casino Road

    The Casino Road neighborhood in South Everett has one of the highest concentrations of immigrant and refugee families in Snohomish County, with approximately 25 percent of residents being first-generation immigrants according to community planning documents on file with the City of Everett. The community includes significant Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, and other Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander populations, alongside Mexican, East African, and other communities who have made this stretch of Everett home.

    That diversity doesn’t exist in silos. What’s distinctive about Casino Road is that the communities here have overlapping needs, overlapping institutions, and a growing tradition of showing up for each other across cultural lines. That’s the “unity” part of this month’s theme made concrete.

    The Village on Casino Road: Where Community Actually Gathers

    At the center of Casino Road’s community infrastructure is The Village on Casino Road, operated in collaboration with ChildStrive and the Connect Casino Road initiative. The Village’s history on this block is long — it traces back to 1963 and the founding of the Little Red School House, which expanded operations to Everett in 1988. ChildStrive purchased the building in 1998, and beginning in January 2019 the Community Foundation of Snohomish County began leasing the facility to develop it as a community hub.

    Construction happened in two phases: Phase 1 in August 2019, Phase 2 beginning that November, with the full hub opening in March 2020.

    Today, The Village brings together more than two dozen community organizations to deliver services that the neighborhood’s most vulnerable residents need most. On Tuesdays, the space hosts fun activities and playful learning for families. On Fridays, ChildStrive runs early childhood programming for families with children aged 0 to 5. The regular programming roster also includes:

    • **Free ESL classes for adults**, taught by Everett Community College professors, with infants welcome in the classroom with their caregivers
    • **Free primary care health clinics** for low-income and uninsured adults
    • **Apple Health and health insurance enrollment assistance** for residents navigating the benefits system
    • **An onsite advocate** for survivors of intimate partner violence, with connections to protection orders and referral services
    • **Community event space** for cultural celebrations, neighborhood meetings, and organizational gatherings

    The Village is not a single-purpose building. It’s a gathering point — one where an ESL student in the morning might share the hallway with a family at a health clinic and a neighborhood group holding a planning session in the evening. That overlap is intentional and, over time, community-building in the most practical sense of the term.

    Connect Casino Road: 15+ Partners, One Corridor

    The Village operates within a larger collaborative called Connect Casino Road, which unites more than 15 private and public sector partners around a common goal: creating a safe, welcoming community for Casino Road families, addressing economic mobility in one of South Everett’s highest-need areas, and reducing the displacement pressure that has intensified as light rail development and broader Snohomish County growth reshape the neighborhood’s long-term geography.

    The Connect Casino Road partnership recognizes what any long-time resident of the corridor already knows: this is a high-need area not because of something broken in its residents, but because of decades of underinvestment in the infrastructure — physical, institutional, and economic — that other Everett neighborhoods have taken for granted.

    Heritage Month is a useful moment to name that work explicitly: the organizations operating along Casino Road are doing real things, for real people, with limited resources and consistent commitment.

    AAPI Heritage Month 2026: The Theme and What It Means Here

    The 2026 national AAPI Heritage Month theme — “Power in Unity: Strengthening Communities Together” — was selected to honor the history of collective action within AAPI communities across the United States, and to highlight the role that coalition-building plays in community resilience.

    On Casino Road, that theme is not abstract. It’s the EvCC professor teaching English to a Vietnamese grandmother in the same Village space where a Cambodian family is attending a health clinic. It’s the Filipino community members sharing resources with Mexican neighbors through mutual aid networks. It’s the nonprofit staff and city planners and faith leaders who have committed, over years, to treating Casino Road as a neighborhood worth investing in rather than a problem to manage.

    The AAPI communities along Casino Road — Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, and others — have anchored this corridor’s cultural life for decades. Their restaurants, markets, and faith communities are woven into the everyday texture of South Everett in ways that go far beyond being photographed for a Heritage Month social post. They are the neighborhood.

    How to Engage With Casino Road This Month

    If you’ve never made Casino Road a destination, May is a good month to change that.

    The food alone — Vietnamese pho, Cambodian dishes, Filipino bakeries, Mexican home cooking — represents a concentration of culinary culture that Everett as a whole benefits from having. The FOOD desk at Exploring Everett has covered several of these restaurants individually, and the corridor rewards its own exploration.

    Beyond food: The Village on Casino Road is a public resource, and Connect Casino Road’s work is ongoing. Learning what these organizations do, attending a community event if you’re in a position to, or simply patronizing the businesses along Casino Road with the same enthusiasm you’d bring to a waterfront restaurant is itself a form of participation in Heritage Month.

    South Everett’s Casino Road community doesn’t need validation from the rest of the city. But recognition, attention, and economic participation from neighbors across Everett — that’s something every community can use more of. This month offers a specific reason to show up.

    Frequently Asked Questions About Casino Road’s Community

    What cultural communities live along Casino Road in Everett?

    Casino Road has significant Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, and other Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander communities, alongside Mexican, East African, and other immigrant populations. Approximately 25% of residents are first-generation immigrants.

    What is The Village on Casino Road?

    The Village is a community hub operated in collaboration with ChildStrive and the Connect Casino Road initiative. It offers ESL classes, health clinics, Apple Health enrollment help, family programming, and community event space, bringing together more than two dozen service organizations.

    What is AAPI Heritage Month and when is it?

    Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is observed every May. The 2026 national theme is “Power in Unity: Strengthening Communities Together.”

    What is Connect Casino Road?

    Connect Casino Road is a collaborative of more than 15 local public and private partners working to support families, address economic mobility, and reduce displacement pressure in the Casino Road corridor of South Everett.

    How long has ChildStrive been serving Casino Road?

    ChildStrive’s history on this corridor traces to 1963, with the Little Red School House. ChildStrive purchased the current building in 1998. The full community hub opened in March 2020 following a two-phase construction process.

    Why does Casino Road matter to Everett?

    Casino Road represents one of the most culturally diverse and economically active corridors in Snohomish County. The communities here have built real institutional infrastructure for mutual support. Engaging with Casino Road is engaging with a meaningful part of what makes Everett a genuinely diverse city.

  • Evergreen Neighborhood Everett: Local Living Guide

    Evergreen Neighborhood Everett: Local Living Guide

    **What is the Evergreen neighborhood in Everett, WA?**

    Evergreen is a south Everett neighborhood of nearly 5,000 residents known for its tree-lined streets, all-ages school pipeline from Madison Elementary through Cascade High, and a commercial corridor along Evergreen Way that puts everyday errands within easy reach. It is one of the few south Everett neighborhoods where walkability, park access, and schools all land in the same zip code.

    Drive south from downtown Everett on Broadway or Evergreen Way and the skyline shifts. The density of the urban core gives way to split-level homes set back from the road, pine trees rising above rooflines, and the particular quiet of a neighborhood that has been doing its job — housing working families within reach of everything — for decades. That neighborhood is Evergreen, and it’s one of the most consistently livable places in south Everett that doesn’t get nearly enough credit for it.

    Evergreen was established as a formal city neighborhood association in late 2004, with assistance from the City of Everett’s Office of Neighborhoods. But the community itself is much older than that — Evergreen Way has been the working commercial backbone of south Everett since long before anyone was holding neighborhood association meetings, and the schools that anchor it have been in place since 1958 when Evergreen Middle School first opened its doors.

    Where Evergreen Is and What It Feels Like

    Evergreen sits in the southern reaches of Everett, roughly 5 miles from downtown and approximately 30 miles from downtown Seattle. The neighborhood is bounded by major corridors and transitions naturally into adjacent areas including Twin Creeks to the south and Westmont-Holly to the west. Evergreen Way is the spine — a 5-mile commercial stretch that runs directly into downtown, lined with restaurants, Fred Meyer, Safeway, QFC, and the kind of corner stores that carry actual produce and spices for a genuinely diverse customer base.

    The residential streets branch off Evergreen Way into cul-de-sacs and quieter side streets. The housing stock is predominantly condos, split-level homes, ramblers, and traditional single-family homes — the kind of mix that attracts first-time buyers who want more space than an apartment but aren’t ready for a new-construction price tag. The median sale price for homes in Evergreen over the last 12 months sits at approximately $530,000, down about 5% from the prior year, and homes have been moving in roughly 33 days on average — significantly faster than the national average of 54 days. That combination of relative affordability by Everett standards and faster-than-average sales velocity tells you something real: people who find Evergreen make up their minds quickly.

    The School Pipeline That Actually Works

    One of Evergreen’s defining characteristics is that the entire K–12 pipeline runs through or near the neighborhood, and all three schools hold a solid grade.

    Madison Elementary feeds into Evergreen Middle School, which feeds into Cascade High School — and all three earn a B grade from Niche. What’s notable is that all three campuses are within walking distance of each other, which is genuinely unusual in a city Everett’s size. For families with kids across different grade levels, that concentration matters.

    Evergreen Middle School has been part of the neighborhood’s identity since it opened in 1958 and was fully remodeled in 1999. Cascade High School, meanwhile, has built a strong reputation for its robotics team, which has grown steadily in membership and actively competes at the regional level. Cascade also offers the International Baccalaureate program — one of the few public high schools in Snohomish County to do so — making it a destination school even for families outside the immediate attendance boundary.

    For parents of older students weighing career pathways, Everett Public Schools’ High School Summer Academy runs at Eisenhower Middle School each July, and Everett Career Link — a partnership between EPS, Snohomish STEM, the City of Everett, and regional employers — offers real-world job experience for high schoolers who want to start building a résumé before graduation.

    Phil Johnson Ballfields: The Park That Got a Real Upgrade

    If there’s one park that defines outdoor life in Evergreen, it’s Phil Johnson Ballfields at 400 Sievers Duecy Boulevard. The 13-acre facility includes four softball and baseball diamonds configured to also fit four soccer fields for youth leagues, a playground, picnic tables, and restrooms — and it was transformed by a $4.65 million renovation that made it one of Snohomish County’s most accessible athletic facilities.

    The renovation added artificial turf, adaptive markings designed for physically and developmentally disabled children, and improvements that make it significantly easier for wheelchair users to access the playground and playing surfaces. It’s one of those upgrades that doesn’t make headlines but changes daily life for families who show up on Saturday mornings. Youth sports leagues run throughout the spring and summer, and the field lighting means the facility stays usable well into the evening.

    The Commercial Corridor: What “Convenient” Actually Means Here

    The Evergreen Way commercial strip is not photogenic. It’s not the kind of streetscape that wins walkability awards. But for the people who live here, it delivers. Major grocery anchors — Fred Meyer, Safeway, QFC — sit alongside independent restaurants, nail salons, auto services, and the kind of small food businesses that reflect Evergreen’s genuinely diverse resident base. The corridor puts essentially every daily errand within a short drive or, for some residents, a walkable distance.

    The proximity to the corridor is also why Evergreen attracts a range of residents: Boeing workers who want a direct shot toward Paine Field, families who want to be in the Cascade High attendance zone, and young buyers who want more living space than north Everett offers at a price that still makes mortgage math work.

    What Long-Timers Know About Evergreen

    Residents who have lived in Evergreen for more than a few years tend to describe it with a specific kind of satisfaction: the neighborhood does what it promises. The schools are real, not aspirational. The park works. The commute to downtown or up to Paine Field is manageable. The streets are quiet without being remote.

    It’s not the most talked-about neighborhood in Everett — that distinction still belongs to the waterfront and downtown. But Evergreen occupies a particular role in the city’s neighborhood ecosystem: a stable, well-established south Everett neighborhood that has been absorbing families for decades without drama, and that continues to deliver on the basics better than its reputation might suggest.

    If you’re looking at south Everett and haven’t put Evergreen on the shortlist, it’s worth a closer look.

    Frequently Asked Questions About Evergreen, Everett

    What schools serve the Evergreen neighborhood?

    The Evergreen neighborhood is served by Madison Elementary, Evergreen Middle School, and Cascade High School — all within the Everett Public Schools district and all earning B grades from Niche. Cascade High also offers the International Baccalaureate program.

    What is the housing market like in Evergreen?

    Median home sale prices in Evergreen are approximately $530,000 (down ~5% year over year). Homes typically sell in about 33 days, faster than the national average of 54 days. The stock includes condos, split-levels, ramblers, and traditional single-family homes.

    Are there parks in the Evergreen neighborhood?

    Yes. Phil Johnson Ballfields at 400 Sievers Duecy Blvd is the area’s primary park — 13 acres with baseball, softball, and soccer fields, plus an accessible playground upgraded during a $4.65M renovation.

    Is Evergreen a good neighborhood for families?

    Evergreen consistently rates well for families because of its walkable school pipeline, accessible park facilities, and commercial corridor that handles daily errands. Niche rates it above average for families.

    How far is Evergreen from downtown Everett?

    Evergreen is approximately 5 miles from downtown Everett via Evergreen Way. It’s also roughly 30 miles from downtown Seattle.

    When was the Evergreen Neighborhood Association formed?

    The Evergreen Neighborhood Association was established in late 2004 with assistance from the City of Everett’s Office of Neighborhoods. The neighborhood itself is significantly older.

  • Capers + Olives Everett: Seasonal Italian Restaurant

    Capers + Olives Everett: Seasonal Italian Restaurant

    Quick answer: Capers + Olives (2933 Colby Ave, Everett) is a seasonal Italian-inspired bistro run by chef/owner Jimmy Liang, who trained at The Herb Farm. Menu changes every two weeks based on local farms. Hours: Mon–Sat 4pm–9pm. Happy hour 4–5pm and 8–9pm. 4.6 stars, 413+ Yelp reviews. (425) 322-5280.

    There’s a restaurant at 2933 Colby Ave in downtown Everett that’s been quietly earning 4.6 stars on Yelp from 413-plus diners over several years, and if you haven’t heard of it, that’s partly by design. Capers + Olives doesn’t market itself hard. Chef and owner Jimmy Liang doesn’t chase trends. The menu changes every two weeks, sometimes more often, based on what local farms and suppliers have available. If something isn’t right this week, it doesn’t go on the menu this week.

    This is how great Italian restaurants have always worked. It’s just not how most restaurants in Everett work. Which is why Capers + Olives is the one we keep coming back to.

    The Chef: Jimmy Liang and The Herb Farm

    Jimmy Liang’s origin story is a good one. He started in Asian cuisine — which you can taste in the precision and restraint that shows up in his Italian preparations — but his first love was always Italian food. His culinary anchor was an internship at The Herb Farm, the legendary Woodinville destination that essentially wrote the rulebook for Pacific Northwest farm-to-table dining over its 30-plus years in operation.

    The Herb Farm’s influence shows in Liang’s sourcing philosophy: nothing goes on the menu until he’s talked to his farmers and suppliers. The menu is seasonal not as a marketing claim but as a literal operating constraint. If peonies are blooming and the ranunculus is done, the menu reflects that rhythm. If fennel sausage is available from the right supplier, it appears. If it’s not, it doesn’t.

    What to Order (With the Caveat That It Might Not Be There Next Week)

    The menu shifts fast enough that specific dishes are moving targets, but certain things tend to anchor the experience. The homemade focaccia is almost always present, and it’s the best version of itself: properly blistered, oily in the right way, crusty enough to serve as a structural element in the meal. Order it. Don’t share more than necessary.

    The Castelvetrano olives are a house constant — bright, buttery, mild, not the jarred-grocery-store version. The homemade burrata with pear, currant, and pistachios is the kind of dish you think about the week after you had it. The contrast between the fresh dairy, the fruit, and the nuttiness of the pistachios is the dish in a sentence.

    The pasta with fennel sausage and cabbage is a recurring seasonal anchor — hearty and precise and less showy than it sounds on paper. And then there’s Liang’s signature: a three-ingredient spaghetti made with pasta imported from Italy, where the point is not complexity but perfection. Three good things, made right, nothing hidden. It’s the dish that makes you understand why he trained where he trained.

    All pasta beyond the imported spaghetti is made fresh in-house daily. This matters. You can taste the difference between fresh pasta made that morning and pasta that came out of a bag three days ago, and at Capers + Olives it always tastes like this morning.

    The Space: Small, Warm, Serious

    Capers + Olives is a small room — bistro-scale, intentionally so. The energy is warm and slightly hushed in the good way restaurants get when the food is the main event and the décor doesn’t compete with it. Cozy armchair atmosphere isn’t how we’d describe it; it’s more like: the lighting is right, the tables have space between them, and whoever is running the front of house knows the menu well enough to answer questions confidently.

    It’s a good first date restaurant. It’s a good “we just got promoted / got engaged / need to mark the occasion” restaurant. It’s not a loud group party venue — bring four people max and keep the conversation to the table.

    Hours, Happy Hour, and When to Go

    Open Monday through Saturday, 4pm to 9pm. Closed Sunday. Happy hour runs 4–5pm and again 8–9pm — the split happy hour is an unusual and generous move. The 4–5pm window makes this one of the better after-work stops in downtown Everett. The 8–9pm late happy hour is for people who ate dinner somewhere else and want to end the night right.

    Call ahead or check their website before you go — the restaurant is small enough that on a busy Friday or Saturday, walk-ins can face a wait. (425) 322-5280.

    How It Fits in Everett’s Italian Landscape

    We covered Luca Italian Restaurant & Wine Bar on Hewitt Avenue earlier this season — Bepi from Florence, Vincenzo from Sicily, a deep Italian wine list, the real cream-free carbonara. Luca is fine dining, European-trained, occasion-worthy in the “special dinner” sense.

    Capers + Olives is something different: casual-elegant, PNW-informed, rotating with the seasons. The two restaurants don’t cannibalize each other. Luca gives you Florence and Sicily. Capers + Olives gives you the Pacific Northwest filtered through an Italian sensibility. They’re solving different problems.

    If you’ve only been to one and not the other, you’re missing half the picture of what Italian food in downtown Everett actually is in 2026.

    The Verdict

    Jimmy Liang built a genuinely excellent restaurant in downtown Everett and has been running it at a high level for years without much fanfare. The menu philosophy — seasonal, local, changes every two weeks, the farmers decide before the chef does — is the right one, and the execution reflects it. The pasta is fresh. The focaccia is worth the trip. The burrata will follow you home.

    Capers + Olives deserves to be fully booked on a Friday. Go, and tell someone about it.

    Capers + Olives
    2933 Colby Ave, Everett, WA 98201
    (425) 322-5280 | capersandolives.com
    Mon–Sat: 4pm–9pm | Closed Sunday
    Happy Hour: 4–5pm and 8–9pm

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where is Capers + Olives in Everett?

    2933 Colby Ave, Everett, WA 98201 — downtown Everett, between Everett Ave and Pacific Ave.

    What cuisine does Capers + Olives serve?

    Seasonal Italian-inspired farm-to-table cuisine. The menu changes every two weeks based on what local Pacific Northwest farms and suppliers have available.

    Who is the owner of Capers + Olives Everett?

    Chef and owner Jimmy Liang, who trained at The Herb Farm, one of the Pacific Northwest’s most respected farm-to-table restaurants.

    What are Capers + Olives hours?

    Monday–Saturday 4pm–9pm. Closed Sunday. Happy hour 4–5pm and 8–9pm daily.

    Does Capers + Olives take reservations?

    Call (425) 322-5280. The restaurant is small — calling ahead on weekends is strongly recommended.

    What should I order at Capers + Olives?

    The homemade focaccia, Castelvetrano olives, burrata with pear and pistachio, and whatever pasta is on the rotating menu. The three-ingredient imported spaghetti is the signature.

    How is Capers + Olives rated?

    4.6 stars across 413+ Yelp reviews as of February 2026.

  • Everett Farmers Market: 2026 Mother’s Day Opening Guide

    Everett Farmers Market: 2026 Mother’s Day Opening Guide

    Quick answer: The Everett Farmers Market opens for the 2026 season on Sunday May 10 — Mother’s Day — at 2930 Wetmore Ave, Everett. Hours: 10:30am early access (seniors/high-risk), 11am general. Free admission. Fresh flowers, spring produce, baked goods, local honey, artisans, and live music every week through October.

    Every year the Everett Farmers Market opens on the second Sunday in May. Every year that Sunday is Mother’s Day. And every year this coincidence creates the best morning in Everett’s calendar: the whole city turns out, the flower vendors are stacked, and downtown smells like fresh bread and spring greens before noon.

    This Sunday, May 10, is that morning. The 2026 season opens at 2930 Wetmore Ave at 10:30am (early access for seniors and high-risk customers) and 11am for everyone else. Here’s how to make it count.

    The Flowers: This Is the Move

    If you are going to the Everett Farmers Market on Mother’s Day, you are going for the flowers. Full stop.

    The market’s Hmong farmer vendors are there every single Sunday with fresh-cut seasonal flower bouquets — and on opening day, which lands on the biggest flower-buying holiday of the year, they arrive loaded. These aren’t grocery store bouquets wrapped in cellophane. They’re cut that morning, arranged right there, priced to move, and the kind of thing you hand someone and they immediately want to know where you found them.

    In early May in the Pacific Northwest you’re looking at tulips wrapping up their final weeks, ranunculus in full bloom, anemones, sweet peas just starting, and the first cutting peonies of the season depending on the growing year. Get there at 10:30 if you can — the best bouquets go to the early arrivals on opening day.

    What’s Fresh in Early May

    The first week of the season is never peak abundance — that’s July and August when the tables are buried in tomatoes and stone fruit. But May has its own season, and it’s worth knowing what you’re shopping for.

    Look for: spring greens (arugula, spinach, mix lettuces, kale), radishes, green onions, asparagus if the season has been warm, greenhouse starts (tomato and pepper seedlings if you’re planting), and fresh herbs. The baked goods vendors are there year-round — look for sourdough, pastries, and local honey. Several local farms bring eggs and early season jams.

    The vendor map is updated by Saturday noon before each Sunday market, so check everettfarmersmarket.com Saturday evening to see exactly who’s coming Opening Day.

    The Opening Day Energy Is Different

    We want to be clear: the Everett Farmers Market in August, when every table is overflowing and the line for the corn guy wraps around the block, is incredible. But Opening Day has something you can’t get any other week.

    Vendors who haven’t seen each other since October are catching up. Regulars who’ve been driving to Arlington or Edmonds for their farmers market fix all winter are finally home. The musicians who play live every Sunday are in the first-day-of-school mood. And the sheer density of people who turn out for Opening Day on Mother’s Day makes the corner of Wetmore feel like a neighborhood that knows itself.

    It’s loud and it’s crowded and it smells like fresh bread and it’s exactly what a farmers market is supposed to be.

    How to Plan the Morning

    Here’s the move: arrive at 10:30 if anyone in your group qualifies for early access. 11am works fine otherwise — just know the flower situation will have thinned slightly. Budget an hour at the market. Buy flowers. Buy something for breakfast if the pastry vendors have what you need. Then head to the waterfront.

    Jetty Bar & Grille at Hotel Indigo (1028 13th St) has Mother’s Day brunch specials this Sunday — Brioche French Toast, Spanish Quiche, mimosas, and their full marina-view brunch. From Wetmore Ave to the waterfront is under 10 minutes by car. You arrive with flowers. You sit down to a view of Possession Sound. That’s the morning.

    If you prefer coffee and a walk, The Loft Coffee Bar on Hewitt Ave is open and a 10-minute walk from the market. STRGZR Coffee & Kitchen at 1422 Hewitt is another solid option if you want breakfast burritos alongside the coffee.

    The Bigger Picture: Why This Market Matters

    The Everett Farmers Market has been running since the early 1990s and has become one of the anchors of downtown Everett’s summer identity. Every vendor at that market is a small business — a farm family, an artisan baker, a beekeeper — and every dollar spent there goes directly to the people who grew or made what you’re buying. No middleman, no distributor markup.

    The market runs through October at the same location, every Sunday, 11am to 3pm. If you make it a weekly habit this season, you’ll notice how the market changes week to week as the growing season advances — from the delicate May greens all the way to the full-load harvest tables of September. Worth the habit.

    Everett Farmers Market — 2026 Season
    2930 Wetmore Ave, Everett, WA 98201
    Every Sunday May 10 through October
    10:30am early access (seniors/high-risk) | 11am–3pm general
    Free admission | (425) 422-5656 | everettfarmersmarket.com

    Frequently Asked Questions

    When does the Everett Farmers Market open in 2026?

    Sunday May 10, 2026 — Opening Day is Mother’s Day. The market runs every Sunday through October at 2930 Wetmore Ave.

    What time does the Everett Farmers Market open?

    10:30am early access for seniors and high-risk customers; 11am general opening. Market closes at 3pm.

    Does the Everett Farmers Market have flowers?

    Yes — Hmong farmer vendors bring fresh-cut seasonal flower bouquets every Sunday. On Opening Day / Mother’s Day expect the biggest flower selection of any single market day.

    Is the Everett Farmers Market free?

    Yes, admission is free. 2930 Wetmore Ave, Everett, WA 98201.

    What can I buy at the Everett Farmers Market in May?

    Spring greens, radishes, asparagus, fresh herbs, greenhouse plant starts, eggs, local honey, baked goods, fresh flowers, and artisan crafts.

    How do I find out which vendors are at the Everett Farmers Market?

    The vendor map is updated by Saturday noon the week before each Sunday market. Check everettfarmersmarket.com/all-vendors/ for the current list.

  • Jetty Bar & Grille Everett: Waterfront Seafood Review

    Jetty Bar & Grille Everett: Waterfront Seafood Review

    Quick answer: Jetty Bar & Grille (1028 13th St, Everett, inside Hotel Indigo Waterfront Place) serves Salish Sea-inspired seafood with marina views. Weekend brunch Sat–Sun 7am–3pm. Mother’s Day specials May 10 — Brioche French Toast, Spanish Quiche, mimosas. Reserve at (425) 535-4414 or OpenTable.

    The Port of Everett’s Restaurant Row has been getting a lot of well-deserved press over the last 18 months. Tapped Public House with its rooftop deck. Marina Azul’s 100-tequila back bar. Anthony’s halibut season. South Fork Baking’s scratch pastries. The waterfront has become a destination, and that’s a sentence nobody was saying three years ago.

    But one waterfront table has been quietly delivering four-star seafood and marina views the entire time the newer spots were opening: Jetty Bar & Grille, the restaurant inside Hotel Indigo Seattle Everett Waterfront. Located at 1028 13th St in the heart of Fisherman’s Harbor, Jetty has been here since the hotel opened — and it keeps getting underrated in the conversation about where to eat on the water. We’re here to fix that. Especially this Sunday.

    The Setting: Right on the Marina

    Hotel Indigo Everett Waterfront is the glass-and-steel building that anchors the north end of Waterfront Place, and Jetty occupies its ground-floor dining space with direct access to an outdoor patio overlooking the Port of Everett Marina. On a clear May day you get an unobstructed line of sight across Possession Sound toward the Olympic Mountains. The nautical décor inside isn’t overdone — warm wood tones, blue accents, floor-to-ceiling windows — and it feels like you’re actually on the water without being weather-dependent.

    Parking is free in the Waterfront Place lot, and you’re a short walk from the marina docks if someone in your party wants to admire the boats before or after eating.

    What to Order

    The menu focuses on approachable Pacific Northwest seafood sourced from local purveyors. This isn’t white-tablecloth fine dining — it’s well-executed casual-to-midrange that genuinely knows what it’s doing with fish.

    Start with the smoked salmon chowder. It’s thick, properly smoked, and local — not the gluey tourist version you get at some waterfront spots. Follow it with the olive oil poached halibut, which arrives delicate and seasonal and makes a case for halibut prepared simply rather than buried in sauce. The fish and chips set a legitimate benchmark: light batter, fresh fish, crisp fries.

    The cocktail program leans local too — handcrafted drinks, Pacific Northwest spirits where available — and the daily happy hour runs 3pm to 5pm, making the waterfront patio genuinely affordable on a weekday afternoon.

    Brunch: Their Secret Weapon

    Weekday brunch runs Monday through Friday from 6am to 3pm. Weekend brunch is Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 3pm, and it’s where Jetty makes its most compelling argument: the morning light across the marina, a mimosa in hand, avocado toast or eggs Benedict with smoked salmon — this is the strongest brunch case in Snohomish County at this price point. We’ll stand by that.

    Mother’s Day Brunch This Sunday — Reserve Now

    This Sunday, May 10, is Mother’s Day, and Jetty is running brunch specials alongside the regular menu: Brioche French Toast and Spanish Quiche, with mimosas and the full marina view. If you want a reservation for Sunday brunch, do not wait — call (425) 535-4414 or book through OpenTable today. Jetty holds 4.4 stars across more than 400 OpenTable diners, and waterfront Mother’s Day tables at this price go fast.

    Here’s a full morning plan we’d recommend: start at the Everett Farmers Market’s opening day (10:30am, 2930 Wetmore Ave — also Mother’s Day), grab flowers from the Hmong farmer vendors, then walk or drive to the waterfront for Jetty brunch. Flowers in the car, mimosas at the marina. That’s a complete Mother’s Day at a very reasonable cost.

    Dinner Service

    Dinner runs Sunday through Thursday 4pm to 9pm and Friday through Saturday 4pm to 10pm. The seafood focus continues through the evening — the poached halibut and chowder carry over from lunch — joined by a broader selection of Salish Sea fish preparations and a full cocktail menu. This is the restaurant you bring out-of-town guests when you want to show them what Everett’s waterfront actually looks like from inside a good meal.

    The Verdict

    Jetty Bar & Grille has been the quiet backbone of Waterfront Place dining since Hotel Indigo opened. While newer Restaurant Row tenants got bigger marketing pushes, Jetty has been doing consistent, honest Salish Sea seafood with one of the best marina views in the county. Four-point-four stars across 400-plus OpenTable diners over multiple years doesn’t happen without getting the fundamentals right.

    If you haven’t been, this Mother’s Day weekend is the prompt you needed. Make the reservation. Start at the farmers market. Do the mimosa with marina views. Come back in the summer for the patio at sunset. Tapped Public House and Rustic Cork are great neighbors for a waterfront evening that runs long.

    Jetty Bar & Grille
    1028 13th St, Everett, WA (inside Hotel Indigo Waterfront Place)
    (425) 535-4414 | OpenTable reservations
    Brunch: Mon–Fri 6am–3pm | Sat–Sun 7am–3pm
    Dinner: Sun–Thu 4–9pm | Fri–Sat 4–10pm
    Happy Hour: Daily 3–5pm

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where is Jetty Bar & Grille in Everett?

    1028 13th St inside Hotel Indigo Seattle Everett Waterfront, at Fisherman’s Harbor in the Waterfront Place development.

    Does Jetty Bar & Grille serve brunch?

    Yes — weekdays 6am–3pm, weekends 7am–3pm. Weekend brunch is their strongest meal.

    What are Jetty Bar & Grille’s Mother’s Day 2026 specials?

    Brioche French Toast and Spanish Quiche added to the regular brunch menu Sunday May 10. Reserve at (425) 535-4414 or OpenTable.

    What is Jetty Bar & Grille’s best dish?

    Smoked salmon chowder to start, olive oil poached halibut as the main. For brunch, eggs Benedict with smoked salmon or avocado toast with the marina view.

    Is there parking at Jetty Bar & Grille?

    Free parking in the Waterfront Place lot adjacent to Hotel Indigo.

    What is Jetty Bar & Grille’s rating?

    4.4 stars across 400+ OpenTable diners (as of May 2026).

  • Everett AquaSox Return Home for Bryce Miller Rehab Start

    Everett AquaSox Return Home for Bryce Miller Rehab Start

    Q: How did the AquaSox finish the Tri-City road series?
    A: Everett went 3-3 on the Tri-City road trip, dropping the series finale 7-4 on May 3 after Brandon Eike’s sixth homer tied it. The Frogs are back home at Funko Field starting Tuesday, May 5 for a six-game series vs. the Hillsboro Hops — with Bryce Miller’s rehab start scheduled for Wednesday, May 6.

    AquaSox Go 3-3 at Tri-City: Eike Hits His Sixth Homer, But the Frogs Drop the Series Finale 7-4

    The Everett AquaSox ended their six-game road trip at Gesa Stadium in Pasco the same way they started it — with some big moments and a result that didn’t go their way.

    Sunday’s series finale: Viñeros de Tri-City 7, AquaSox 4. The Frogs tied it up at 3-3 in the fifth inning on Brandon Eike’s sixth homer of the season (a leadoff shot to start the fifth) and a Felnin Celesten RBI single. Luis Suisbel even gave Everett a 4-3 lead in the sixth, scoring from second on a wild pitch. But Tri-City blew the game open in the bottom of the seventh — Caleb Bartolero doubled home the tying run, Anthony Scull ripped a go-ahead RBI double to left, and Matt Coutney crushed a two-run homer over the right-center fence to make it 7-4. The AquaSox bullpen held after that, but the deficit was too large.

    Series Summary: A Split on the Road

    The full Tri-City road trip shook out like this:

    Game 1 (April 28): AquaSox 8, Tri-City 3 — Luis Suisbel career-high-tie 5 RBIs (3-run HR + 2-run single), Eike’s 4th HR, Dollard solid on the mound.
    Game 2 (April 29): AquaSox 10, Tri-City 7 — Rally from 7-7 in the eighth, Celesten go-ahead RBI, Ellis 2-run HR in the 9th, Little save.
    Game 3 (April 30): Tri-City 6, AquaSox 4 — Eike hit his 5th HR but Tri-City got the run support Everett couldn’t match.
    Game 4 (May 1): Tri-City 7 (walk-off) — Randy de Jesus walked off the Frogs with a late hit.
    Game 5 (May 2): Tri-City 8, AquaSox 6 — Eike doubled to spark a late rally, Suisbel RBI single, but a five-run fifth inning by Tri-City was too much.
    Game 6 (May 3): Tri-City 7, AquaSox 4 — Eike HR #6, Celesten RBI single, Suisbel scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch, but a four-run Tri-City seventh ended it.

    Final road trip line: 3-3. Not ideal, but not a disaster. The Frogs are 12-11 on the young season and heading home with legitimate momentum candidates in Eike and Celesten.

    Prospect Watch: Eike Is for Real

    Let’s talk about Brandon Eike, because his power has been the story of this road trip.

    Six home runs in the first 23 games of the 2026 season. Eike is a physical outfielder who generates lift and backspin, and he’s been driving the ball to all parts of the park. His leadoff homer in Sunday’s fifth inning — hit with the team trailing 3-0 and needing a spark — showed the kind of situational awareness a young power hitter needs. He’s not just a pull-or-nothing guy. He’s using the whole field.

    Keep an eye on Eike in the homestand. If he gets going at Funko Field, the box score is going to be fun to read.

    Felnin Celesten, for his part, continues to be the most complete hitter on this roster. The NWL Player of the Week from the previous series hasn’t cooled off. He got the tying RBI single in the fifth inning on Sunday, and his ability to put the barrel on the ball in crucial situations is what separates him from the other prospects on this club.

    Walter Ford Starts the Series Finale

    AquaSox starter Walter Ford made the start in the series finale — one of the younger arms in Everett’s 2026 rotation. He went 4.2 innings, allowing three earned runs (two earned) with some wild pitch issues that cost his catcher Josh Caron. Ford showed flashes: he was sharp in the first two innings before the wheels got wobbly in the third. Adam Smith relieved him and threw 1.1 scoreless innings in his first AquaSox appearance — a 14th-round Padres pick from 2021 who now has a clean line on his debut stat sheet.

    Coming Up: Hillsboro Hops at Funko Field, May 5-10

    The Frogs are home. Six games at Funko Field starting Tuesday, May 5 against the Hillsboro Hops (D-backs affiliate, Northwest League).

    Homestand schedule:
    Tuesday, May 5 (Cinco de Mayo): 7:05 PM
    Wednesday, May 6: 7:05 PM — Bryce Miller Mariners rehab start
    Thursday, May 7: 7:05 PM
    Friday, May 8: 12:05 PM (afternoon game — also Game 1 of Silvertips WHL Final that night)
    Saturday, May 9: 7:05 PM
    Sunday, May 10 (Mother’s Day): 1:05 PM

    Don’t Miss Wednesday: Bryce Miller Is Back at Funko Field

    If you’re only making one game this homestand, make it Wednesday May 6.

    Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller is scheduled for his third AquaSox rehab start at 7:05 PM on Wednesday night against Hillsboro. Miller’s previous Funko Field outing — April 24 against Spokane — was one of the best nights Funko has seen this season: 3 innings, 47 pitches, 6 strikeouts, zero runs, 98+ mph fastball, didn’t allow a baserunner until the third inning. That’s not a rehab guy going through the motions. That’s a Mariners starter getting sharp.

    His prior start at Tacoma on April 18 was more modest (1.2 IP), but his April 24 Everett outing showed the command and velocity that made him one of Seattle’s better starters in 2024 (12-8, 2.94 ERA, 180 innings). If this homestand goes as expected, Wednesday night in Everett could be Miller’s last minor league appearance before returning to Seattle.

    And just in case you need the full Everett sell: Friday May 8 has a 12:05 PM first pitch — so you can catch the afternoon game, grab dinner, and still get to Angel of the Winds Arena for the Silvertips WHL Championship Final Game 1 that evening. Double header of Everett sports on a Friday. Mark it down.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What is the AquaSox record after the Tri-City road trip?

    The AquaSox went 3-3 on the Tri-City road trip and are 12-11 on the 2026 Northwest League season.

    When do the AquaSox play next at Funko Field?

    The AquaSox host the Hillsboro Hops at Funko Field starting Tuesday, May 5 at 7:05 PM. The six-game homestand runs through Sunday, May 10.

    When is Bryce Miller’s next AquaSox rehab start?

    Bryce Miller is scheduled to start Wednesday, May 6 at Funko Field at 7:05 PM against the Hillsboro Hops. His previous AquaSox outing on April 24 featured 3 scoreless innings with 6 strikeouts and 98+ mph velocity.

    Who had the most notable performances in the Tri-City series?

    Brandon Eike hit his 5th and 6th home runs of the season during the road trip. Felnin Celesten delivered multiple RBIs. Luis Suisbel had a career-high-tie 5-RBI game in the opener. Zach Dollard was sharp in Game 1, and Adam Smith had a solid debut in Game 6.

    Who are the Hillsboro Hops?

    The Hillsboro Hops are the Arizona Diamondbacks’ High-A affiliate in the Northwest League, based in Hillsboro, Oregon. They’re one of Everett’s NWL divisional rivals.

    More on the AquaSox: AquaSox Wrap Tri-City Road Trip This Weekend, Then Bryce Miller Comes to Funko Field Wednesday | AquaSox Rally to Beat Tri-City 10-7 | Bryce Miller’s Second AquaSox Rehab Start Is Wednesday May 6 at Funko Field

  • USS Gridley Argentina Exercise: Milei Boards Nimitz

    USS Gridley Argentina Exercise: Milei Boards Nimitz

    Q: What did USS Gridley do in the Atlantic in late April 2026?
    A: USS Gridley (DDG 101), homeported at Naval Station Everett, participated in a bilateral maritime engagement with six Argentine Navy vessels in the South Atlantic from April 28 to May 1, 2026, as part of Southern Seas 2026. Argentine President Javier Milei also boarded USS Nimitz during the engagement for a high-level diplomatic visit.

    The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group — including Naval Station Everett’s own USS Gridley (DDG 101) — wrapped up a significant partner-nation engagement in the South Atlantic this week, one that put Everett’s destroyer in the middle of a head-of-state diplomatic moment and a complex multi-ship bilateral exercise with the Argentine Navy.

    According to a U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) release dated May 1, 2026, the Argentine and U.S. navies conducted a bilateral maritime engagement in the Atlantic Ocean from April 28 to May 1, completing the South American arc of Southern Seas 2026. The engagement directly followed USS Gridley and USS Nimitz’s historic transit of the Strait of Magellan on April 26, the first such carrier transit in recent memory.

    Six Argentine Ships, One Everett Destroyer

    The bilateral exercise brought together a substantial formation of Argentine naval vessels alongside the American strike group. On the Argentine side: Almirante Brown-class destroyers ARA La Argentina (DD 11) and ARA Sarandi (D 13), Espora-class corvettes ARA Rosales (P 42) and ARA Robinson (P 45), and Gowind-class offshore patrol vessels ARA Piedrabuena (P 52) and ARA Bartolome Cordero (P 54). On the American side: USS Gridley (DDG 101) and USS Nimitz (CVN 68).

    That’s eight ships — six Argentine, two American — operating together in open ocean to sharpen the kind of interoperability that alliance relationships are built on. For the families and community members back in Everett watching the Southern Seas 2026 deployment unfold, this engagement represents the most complex multi-nation formation USS Gridley has operated in during the entire deployment.

    Rear Adm. Cassidy Norman, commander of Carrier Strike Group 11, framed the significance plainly in the DVIDS release: “Training with allies like Argentina builds the trust required to operate together in complex environments. Working through realistic scenarios with our Armada de Argentina counterparts deepened our understanding of each other’s systems, sharpened our interoperability, and strengthened our ability to accomplish our many shared maritime objectives.”

    Argentine President Milei Boards USS Nimitz

    The bilateral exercise also carried significant diplomatic weight. Argentine President Javier Milei, along with Minister of Defense Gen. Carlos Alberto Presti, Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, and Chief of Defense Vice Adm. Marcelo Alejandro Dalle Nogare, boarded USS Nimitz during the engagement. The delegation was accompanied by U.S. Ambassador to Argentina, Peter Lamelas.

    According to the DVIDS release, the Argentine delegation met with Rear Adm. Norman and Capt. Joseph Furco, the commanding officer of Nimitz. They discussed the Southern Seas 2026 mission and the role of maritime cooperation in the alliance between Argentina and the United States. The visitors also observed flight operations and an air power demonstration from Nimitz’s flight deck.

    The Navy described the visit as “one of many planned opportunities for distinguished visitors to observe carrier operations aboard Nimitz during Southern Seas 2026” — a signal that the diplomatic dimension of this deployment has been as deliberate as the operational one.

    What This Means in the Arc of Southern Seas 2026

    To understand why this engagement matters to Naval Station Everett and the families waiting at home, it helps to step back and see the full arc of the deployment. USS Gridley left Everett earlier this year as part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group (NIMCSG), which consists of Nimitz, Carrier Air Wing 17, Destroyer Squadron 9, and Gridley. The mission: Southern Seas 2026, the 11th iteration of an exercise launched in 2007 designed to foster goodwill and build maritime partnerships throughout South America.

    The deployment has moved through distinct phases, each covered as it happened. Gridley participated in the Ecuador port call, the Chilean port visit in Valparaiso (April 17–21), the PASSEX with Argentine units off Trelew (April 26–30), and now this larger bilateral engagement in the open Atlantic — a progression from coastal partner visits to open-ocean multi-ship operations. The Strait of Magellan transit on April 26 was the physical dividing line between the Pacific arc and the Atlantic arc.

    With the Atlantic bilateral now complete, the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group — and USS Gridley — is tracking toward Norfolk, Virginia, where USS Nimitz will eventually conclude its final overseas deployment before the carrier’s planned decommissioning in early 2027. That homecoming at Norfolk marks the end of the Nimitz’s sea-going chapter, not a return to Everett. USS Gridley’s own homecoming to Naval Station Everett will come separately, as the strike group dissolves and ships return to their individual homeports.

    Southern Seas 2026: The Bigger Picture for NAVSTA Everett

    For the Naval Station Everett community — the families, the civilian workforce, the businesses along Everett’s waterfront that serve the military community — this deployment has been more than a standard operations story. USS Nimitz is completing its last overseas cruise. USS Gridley has been the Everett ship at the tip of the spear for the entire circumnavigation.

    Southern Seas 2026 marks the 11th iteration of an exercise that began in 2007. The program has consistently demonstrated American commitment to maritime partnerships in the Western Hemisphere, and Argentina has been a recurring partner. The scale of this year’s engagement — a head-of-state visit, an air power demonstration, and a six-ship bilateral formation — reflects how much the relationship has deepened.

    Back in Everett, the question that looms alongside the deployment coverage is the longer-term homeport picture. With USS Nimitz heading toward decommissioning and the FF(X) frigate program now under contract to HII Ingalls with a 2028 delivery target, Naval Station Everett’s future force composition is still being written. The Snohomish County Military Affairs Committee continues its engagement on the homeport question. But in the meantime, USS Gridley is in the Atlantic, representing Everett in one of the more diplomatically visible moments the station has had in recent years.

    What Families Should Know

    If you have a sailor aboard USS Gridley or USS Nimitz, the publicly released information indicates the strike group has completed its South American operations and is in the Atlantic phase of the deployment. The Navy has not publicly announced a homecoming date for USS Gridley at Naval Station Everett. The Fleet & Family Support Center (FFSC) at NAVSTA Everett remains the primary resource for deployment support — they can be reached at 425-304-3735, and their hours and services are posted at everett.navylifepnw.com.

    For families new to Everett or new to deployments, the FFSC offers counseling, financial assistance, employment help for spouses, and the COMPASS peer mentoring program. These services are available whether a sailor is deployed or shore-based.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    What ships from Naval Station Everett are currently deployed with Southern Seas 2026?

    USS Gridley (DDG 101) is the NAVSTA Everett ship deployed with the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group on Southern Seas 2026. The strike group also includes USS Nimitz (CVN 68), Carrier Air Wing 17, and Destroyer Squadron 9.

    Who is the commanding officer of Carrier Strike Group 11?

    Rear Adm. Cassidy Norman commands Carrier Strike Group 11. Capt. Joseph Furco is the commanding officer of USS Nimitz (CVN 68). Both were named in the official DVIDS public affairs release dated May 1, 2026.

    Did Argentine President Milei actually board a U.S. Navy ship?

    Yes. According to the DVIDS release from U.S. Naval Forces Southern Command, Argentine President Javier Milei, along with his Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, and Chief of Defense, boarded USS Nimitz during the April 28–May 1 Atlantic bilateral engagement and observed flight operations from the flight deck.

    What is Southern Seas 2026?

    Southern Seas 2026 is the 11th iteration of a U.S. 4th Fleet exercise designed to enhance maritime capability, improve interoperability, and strengthen partnerships with South American nations. It involves passing exercises, port visits, and bilateral engagements as the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group circumnavigates South America.

    When will USS Gridley return to Naval Station Everett?

    The U.S. Navy has not publicly announced a homecoming date for USS Gridley’s return to Naval Station Everett. Families seeking information should contact the Fleet & Family Support Center at 425-304-3735 or visit everett.navylifepnw.com.

    How does this engagement connect to the FF(X) frigate homeport question?

    They are separate issues. The bilateral exercise is an operational matter. The FF(X) homeport decision — whether Everett will receive the new frigates — is a policy and appropriations matter being tracked by the Snohomish County Military Affairs Committee and Rep. Rick Larsen’s office. The Navy awarded a $282.9M pre-construction contract to HII Ingalls in April 2026, with a 2028 delivery target for the lead ship.

    What resources are available for Navy families at NAVSTA Everett during this deployment?

    The Fleet & Family Support Center (FFSC) at Naval Station Everett offers counseling, financial assistance, spouse employment programs (MyCAA, MSEP), and the COMPASS peer mentoring program. Reach them at 425-304-3735 or visit everett.navylifepnw.com. The Smokey Point satellite office also serves families in the Marysville/Arlington area.

    How is USS Nimitz’s final deployment going?

    USS Nimitz is conducting what is publicly described as its final overseas deployment before decommissioning in early 2027. The carrier has been the centerpiece of Southern Seas 2026, completing a Strait of Magellan transit and hosting distinguished visitors including Argentine President Milei. USS John F. Kennedy is expected to be commissioned to replace her.

  • Port of Everett Food Truck Fridays: 2026 Season Guide

    Port of Everett Food Truck Fridays: 2026 Season Guide

    Every Friday from May through October, the south marina parking lot at the Port of Everett turns into one of the better lunch options in the city. Food Truck Fridays run 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM at Waterfront Place — two hours, rotating trucks, waterfront views, and the kind of lunch break that makes you wonder why you ever eat at your desk.

    If you haven’t been yet this season, or if you’ve heard about it but never made it down, here’s everything you need to know to actually go.

    What Food Truck Fridays Is

    The format is straightforward: a rotating selection of food trucks parks at the Port of Everett’s south marina lot on Jetty Landing, right on the water. Trucks change week to week — some are regulars that appear multiple times through the season, others rotate in for a single Friday. The variety across the season covers a serious range of cuisines, from Pacific Northwest staples to the kind of regional and international cooking that Everett’s food scene has become genuinely good at.

    The Port Waterfront Place context matters here. You’re eating lunch steps from Possession Sound, with Fisherman’s Harbor and Restaurant Row visible from the lot. It’s the same waterfront stretch that added Tapped Public House, Rustic Cork Wine Bar, and Marina Azul to Everett’s dining map — Food Truck Fridays is the accessible, drop-in version of that waterfront dining experience, at food-truck prices.

    The Port’s food truck program has quietly become one of the better-curated in Snohomish County. The trucks that rotate through aren’t just whoever showed up with a permit — the lineup reflects actual thought about what’s worth sending downtown regulars to stand in line for.

    How to Track the Current Truck Lineup

    The schedule rotates weekly, which means there’s no fixed answer to “who’s there this Friday.” The two best places to check before you go:

    • StreetFoodFinder at streetfoodfinder.com/portofeverett — real-time tracking showing which trucks are scheduled and their menus for any given week
    • Best Food Trucks at bestfoodtrucks.com/lots/profile/854 — the Port’s calendar partner, where trucks post their schedules in advance

    Both let you see what’s coming before you make the drive. Check one of these by Thursday afternoon so you’re not making a game-time decision at 11:45 AM with a line forming behind you.

    The Trucks Worth Watching For

    We’ve covered several trucks that rotate through the Everett food truck circuit — a few are worth knowing when they show up on the Port schedule:

    Tabassum — the only Uzbek food truck in the Pacific Northwest, run by a family from Tashkent, serving manti, samsa, and plov that you genuinely cannot find anywhere else in the region. When Tabassum is on the schedule, it’s a reason to make the trip.

    Das Bratmobile — Ferdi and Uschi’s German food truck out of Rheinland-Pfalz, working with Uli’s Famous Sausages to produce the best bratwurst situation in Snohomish County.

    Beyond the regulars, the rotating lineup is genuinely worth checking week to week — it’s one of the better windows into what Everett’s food truck community is actually cooking right now.

    Practical Notes

    When: Every Friday, 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM, through October 2026

    Where: Port of Everett Waterfront Place, south marina parking lot (Jetty Landing). The Port’s main waterfront development — if you can see Possession Sound, you’re close.

    Parking: The south marina lot is large. Friday lunch hours fill it up by noon, but arrivals before 11:45 AM typically find easy parking.

    Payment: Each truck handles its own payment — card is accepted by most, but cash is never a bad idea as backup.

    Best approach: Check StreetFoodFinder on Thursday, identify your target truck, arrive by 11:30 AM, eat outside if the weather cooperates. The Port’s waterfront benches and the promenade make this worth doing as a slow lunch rather than a grab-and-go.

    Why This Matters for Everett’s Food Scene

    Everett’s restaurant scene has been on a legitimate run — the waterfront additions, the Hewitt corridor’s international build-out, the breweries, the coffee shops. Food Truck Fridays is the part of that ecosystem that stays accessible regardless of budget or occasion. You don’t need a reservation, you don’t need to commit to a full sit-down meal, and you can cover meaningful ground across different cuisines in a single Friday rotation.

    If you want a weeknight option instead, the Beverly Food Truck Park on Beverly Blvd runs Monday–Saturday evenings with a different rotating lineup. But for the waterfront setting and the Friday lunch ritual, nothing in Snohomish County quite matches what the Port has built here.

    Check the schedule Thursday. Show up at 11:30. Eat something you haven’t tried before. The waterfront will handle the rest.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    When are Port of Everett Food Truck Fridays?

    Every Friday from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM, from spring through October, at the south marina parking lot at Port of Everett Waterfront Place (Jetty Landing).

    How do I know which trucks will be there this Friday?

    Check StreetFoodFinder (streetfoodfinder.com/portofeverett) or the Best Food Trucks calendar (bestfoodtrucks.com/lots/profile/854) — both are updated weekly with the current rotation.

    Is there parking at Port of Everett Food Truck Fridays?

    Yes, the south marina lot is large. Arriving before noon gives you the best options.

    Do trucks accept cards?

    Most do, but bringing cash as backup is smart. Each truck handles its own payment.

    Is Food Truck Fridays free to attend?

    Yes — no admission fee. You pay only for the food you order from the trucks.

    How does this compare to Beverly Food Truck Park?

    Beverly Food Truck Park on Beverly Blvd runs Monday–Saturday evenings (4–7 PM) and is a great weeknight option. Food Truck Fridays is a Friday lunchtime event at the waterfront. Different schedules, different vibes — both worth knowing.

  • Guam Grub Everett: Authentic Chamorro Cuisine Review

    Guam Grub Everett: Authentic Chamorro Cuisine Review

    On July 22, 2023 — one day after Guam Liberation Day, the biggest holiday in the territory — Julita Atoigue-Javier opened Guam Grub at the Everett Mall food court. The timing wasn’t an accident.

    “It is sharing the culture, one dish at a time,” Atoigue-Javier said.

    What she’s sharing is food that is genuinely hard to find on the mainland: Chamorro cuisine, the indigenous cooking tradition of Guam, shaped by three centuries of Spanish colonial influence, Japanese occupation, Filipino proximity, and the particular flavors that emerged from all of it. Red rice colored with annatto. Kelaguen made with coconut and lemon. Pork ribs grilled over open heat until they’re something between barbecue and a family obligation.

    And there’s a layer beneath all of it. Every recipe Atoigue-Javier serves, she learned from her mother, who passed away in 2007. “I think that she would be really, really proud of me,” she said. “Everything that she basically taught me is what I’m bringing here today.”

    That is the actual story of Guam Grub. The food is a memorial and a celebration at the same time.

    What You’re Eating

    Guam Grub operates as a food court stall inside the Everett Mall at 607 SE Everett Mall Way, Suite 27-A — the same South Everett mall corridor that’s home to Dumpling World and Middleton Brewing. The menu reads like a Fiesta plate — the communal feast format that anchors every major celebration in Guam.

    Red rice is the foundation. Made with achote (annatto) powder, it’s earthy, slightly nutty, and nothing like the white rice you’re used to seeing next to everything else. This is the carb that earns its spot on the plate.

    Grilled pork ribs and chicken come off the heat with serious char and seasoning. The barbecue tradition in Chamorro cooking isn’t American BBQ — it’s its own lineage, marinade-forward, with a different flavor profile that’ll recalibrate your expectations in the first bite.

    Chicken kelaguen is arguably the most distinctively Chamorro item on the menu: shredded chicken mixed with fresh coconut, lemon, and green onion. It’s bright and acidic and unlike anything else in the food court around it.

    Empanadas at Guam Grub are the Chamorro version — smaller, crispier, and filled differently than the Latin empanadas most locals are familiar with.

    Shrimp patties and Spam musubi with red rice round out a menu that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than exactly what it is: the food Atoigue-Javier grew up eating, made the way her mother made it.

    The HeraldNet review called out the shrimp cake and kimchi as standouts. The King5 segment showed customers who grew up in Guam ordering by instinct, recognizing dishes they’d been missing since leaving the island. “It’s very exciting because it gives us a little taste of home,” said customer Jeralyn Roco (King5).

    Who This Is For

    The honest answer is everyone, but especially two groups.

    First: the significant Chamorro and Pacific Islander community in the Puget Sound region, which is large and underserved by restaurants that actually reflect their food traditions. Guam Grub is one of the only places in Snohomish County — and one of very few in the greater Seattle metro — serving food that reflects this culture with any authenticity.

    Second: anyone who has been eating their way through Everett’s genuinely impressive international food scene and wants to push further. We’ve written about Heritage African on Hewitt, Ubuntu Bar & Grill’s South African braai in south Everett, Enseamada Cafe’s Filipino-Hawaiian fusion on Evergreen Way. Guam Grub belongs in that same conversation.

    Chamorro cuisine has influences from Japan, Spain, and the Philippines, and yet it’s entirely its own thing. “We have influences from Japan, the Spaniards, and also from the Philippines,” Atoigue-Javier explained. “This is a melting pot of different influences. We have our own spin on the different foods.” If you’ve never had it, the Everett Mall food court is not where you’d expect to find your introduction. That’s what makes Guam Grub worth finding.

    The Logistics

    Address: 607 SE Everett Mall Way, Suite 27-A, Everett, WA 98208 — inside the Everett Mall food court.

    Hours: Closed Monday–Wednesday. Thursday–Friday: 5:00 PM – 8:00 PM. Saturday–Sunday: 2:00 PM – 8:00 PM.

    Phone: (425) 308-9997

    The afternoon and evening hours on weekends are the move. Saturday afternoon, park at the mall, eat a Fiesta plate, and drive home having tasted something that doesn’t exist anywhere else in Snohomish County.

    The Bigger Picture

    Julita Atoigue-Javier built a 100% female-owned and operated business around her mother’s recipes, launched it on Liberation Day, and has been quietly running one of the most culturally specific restaurants in the region ever since. She’s not trying to make Chamorro food palatable to people who’ve never heard of it — she’s making it the way it’s supposed to be made and trusting that people will find it.

    Fifty-two Yelp reviews and strong ratings as of April 2026 suggest they have. But Guam Grub deserves a bigger audience than the food court traffic it gets.

    If you’ve been working through Everett’s international dining corridor and thought you’d seen the full range of what this city’s immigrant communities are cooking, Guam Grub is the correction. Order the kelaguen, get the red rice, and let Atoigue-Javier tell the story one dish at a time.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Where is Guam Grub in Everett?

    Inside the Everett Mall food court at 607 SE Everett Mall Way, Suite 27-A, Everett, WA 98208.

    What are Guam Grub’s hours?

    Closed Monday through Wednesday. Thursday–Friday 5 PM – 8 PM. Saturday–Sunday 2 PM – 8 PM.

    What is Chamorro cuisine?

    Chamorro is the indigenous cuisine of Guam, shaped by Spanish, Japanese, and Filipino influences over centuries. It features dishes like red rice (achote-colored), kelaguen (marinated meat with coconut and lemon), grilled meats, and empanadas distinct from their Latin counterparts.

    What should I order at Guam Grub?

    Start with the red rice and grilled pork ribs or chicken. Add the chicken kelaguen for the most distinctively Chamorro item on the menu. The shrimp patties and Chamorro empanadas are also worth trying.

    Who owns Guam Grub?

    Julita Atoigue-Javier, who grew up on Guam and opened the restaurant on July 22, 2023 — one day after Guam Liberation Day. The business is 100% female owned and operated.

    Is Guam Grub the only Chamorro restaurant in Everett?

    As far as we know, yes — and one of the very few Chamorro restaurants in the greater Puget Sound region.