Walla Walla is all about our wineries, restaurants, and beautiful landscaping; but what is there for the teens? Considering we have many tourists, there are very few activities for us teenagers to do. But, I’m here to show what the average teen living in Walla Walla likes to do for fun in their free time.

Although Walla Walla has many great tourist spots, you have to have a creative mind to find some fun. Most of my friends and people my age really enjoy going to Walmart. People may find that boring but it can actually be pretty fun. Plus, Walmart has everything you need, whether it is food or clothes, they have everything. It is fun to just walk around and look at things they have in the store.  Also, you can go buy food because, if you’re like me, you’re always hungry and love to come up with fun food creations to try. My friends and I also really enjoy going to the five dollar movie bucket, blindly sticking our hand in it, grabbing a movie and whatever comes out, we watch; most of the time, the movies end up being really good.

Another thing to do is to go downtown. There are lots of great food places to enjoy and fun little shops to look in. Some great places to eat when downtown are: Sweet Basil (for some great pizza), Graze (yummy sandwiches), and The Olive (where you can get anything from coffee to pizza). There are also plenty of coffee shops like: Starbucks, Coffee Perk, and the newest addition, Black Pearl Boba. These are some great places to just spend time and eat some good food. Some of the most famous places to visit downtown are: Bright’s Candies (candy shop), Inland Octopus (a toy shop), Book and Game (bookstore), and many other local shops.

There are many parks and places to go explore around our area too. Lots of fun public parks that are all around town are: Pioneer Park, Tietan Park, Jefferson Park and a few others. These are good places to go hang with friends and just enjoy each others company. If you are interested in driving, Rook’s Park is about 15 minutes out of town: it is great for family events, long walks, and picking blackberries. These adventures are pretty fun on summer nights.

When talking to a few of my peers, I decided to ask them a few questions. First I interviewed Ethan Goss, a 16-year old student at WA-Hi. The first question I asked him was, “Do you like Walla Walla?” He responded with “ LOL no”, a classic response from teens living in Walla Walla. Secondly, I asked him, “What do you like to do for fun in Walla Walla?”. He said “I enjoy hanging out with friends and going on drives; to make things interesting, I sometimes just act like a complete lunatic wherever I go just because I’m bored and want to change things up in this boring town.” Next, I interviewed Erandy Alvarado, a 17 year-old student also here at WA-Hi. I asked her, “Did you have more fun as a child or a teenager living here?” She answered “I had more fun as a child because I was more creative back then and let my imagination run wild”. Her second question was, “Do you wish you lived somewhere else?” She said “I don’t wish I lived anywhere else because I wouldn’t have had the life and the friendships I have now.” Lastly, I interviewed Adrian Garcia, I asked him, “Where is your go to restaurant?” He concluded, “Shiki, a great sushi place, was his absolute favorite.” The other question I asked him was, “How often do you hang with your friends?” He replied, “I see my friends in school all the time and I try to hang with them at least 2 times per week.”

Although some people may find being a teen in Walla Walla boring, if you grab a couple of friends and do some of the things I talked about, you are guaranteed to make some good memories.