Besides climbing around making the Hinckley Picnic Boat people nervous, there are lots of other, more appropriate activities for children at the 2010 Seattle Boat Show.

In particular, kids of all ages will enjoy a tour of the Worlds Largest Toy Boat Collection.

In fact, this is only about 20% of the collection, which includes over 5000 boats in all. There are “only” about 1000 boats on display at the show. I overheard lots of people—of all ages—say things like “I used to have one of those!”

And the Center For Wooden Boats is once again hosting an activity that kept my younger daughter busy for at least an hour last year, sailing model boats across a tiny “pond”, using plain old household box fans to create artificial wind. It’s amazing how smoothly the models sail across, back and forth. I found myself yelling “Starboard boat!” lots of times, but those burdened-vessel port-tackers never seemed to steer clear.