Tacoma and Seattle with BONUS! BLUE! ANGELS!

A week ago today, I took my aunt to Tacoma to see the Museum of Glass (MOG). We had other destinations planned too (Port Orchard, Poulsbo, and Port Gamble), so Tacoma was pretty much a brief stop on a rather ambitious itinerary. We got there a little early (by the way, Sue was amazed that the parking garage and Link Light Rail are both free, so score one for Tacoma!), so we stopped at the old Union Station, which is now a federal courthouse. We wanted to get some pictures of the Chihuly works inside.



After spending several minutes there, we made our way across the Bridge of Glass to the museum, stopping for pictures along the way. I think Sue enjoyed the hot shop the most. As a photographer, she enjoyed getting action shots of the glass artists at work.

We spent a couple of hours at the MOG, but around noon-ish, it was time to move on. I had a $40 gift certificate that I won from Amy’s on the Bay in Port Orchard – via their Facebook page – so this seemed like as good a time as any to spend it. So across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge we went, and further on to Kitsap County.



Mmmmm. Total decadence! This is my smoked salmon linguine alfredo. Sue had crab cakes (most delicious I have ever tasted, by the way) and salmon with roasted potatoes. We were stuffed, but it was totally worth it. I noticed at one point that there was a small plaque screwed to the table stating that it was the mayor’s table. HAHA. I love Amy’s on the Bay!

That was about all the time we had in Port Orchard – on to Poulsbo! We spent a little time browsing in shops (primarily antiques), did a wine tasting at Eleven Winery, and stopped at Sluy’s Bakery (ALWAYS! ALWAYS!) for some cookies.

We ran out of steam at that point. Didn’t make it to Port Gamble. Instead, we headed home for a light dinner and to do some chores around the house that needed doing. (Sue is an awesome houseguest…she offered to mow my lawn while I vacuumed the carpet.)

***

On Sue’s 4th full day, we finally made it to downtown Seattle. There was a method to my madness for waiting this long:

1> It’s easier to find parking at the light rail station on the weekend (as long as the Mariners or Sounders aren’t playing – which they weren’t).

2> Seafair weekend – which means we’d see the Blue Angels.

We started out at Pike Place Market, where Sue got some pictures of the fish-throwing guys (though they weren't throwing any at the time). Then we grabbed some breakfast at The Crumpet Shop. Being the Anglophile that I am, I’m ashamed to say that this was my first visit. After our crumpets, we walked a short distance to the Seattle Art Museum (SAM). That was also a first for me. I got in free with my military ID, and because the guy at the ticket counter was nice, he let Sue in for free as well.

So we spent a couple hours exploring the SAM. Europe kind of spoiled me for art museums, but I still enjoyed this. I especially liked their temporary exhibition, “Beauty & Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration,” which runs through September 11. Go check it out.

Sue also wanted to see Seattle Central Library. Again, I am ashamed to say that I hadn’t been there yet, despite being a bibliophile. I LOVED this place. The architecture. The light. Just the massiveness of it.


(Are you kidding me? Can I live here?)

We visited the 1st and 3rd floors, snapped a lot of pictures, and made our way out and back to Pike Place Market.

We needed sustenance. Nothing too heavy, though, because it was finally starting to warm up and it was past our usual lunchtime (we didn’t want to have dinner super late, so we didn’t want to be too full). We found ourselves at Copacabana Bolivian Restaurant, enticed by the rainbow-colored umbrellas on their balcony overlooking the market. Simple lunch: black bean soup with pork, warm crusty bread with butter. It suited us fine. From there, we had an unbelievable view of Pike Place Market and of the Blue Angels, when they occasionally swooped past us on their way back to the Seafair crowd.



I could’ve sat there all day. That was truly my favorite part of it. But we had other places to see. We walked through the market, then made our way down to the waterfront and the Olympic Sculpture Park. From there, we headed to the Space Needle. But Sue was far more interested in the Experience Music Project (EMP), since she’s a fan of Frank Gehry’s architecture. Coming from Cleveland (home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), she wanted to see how the EMP compared. We went in briefly, and she was sufficiently impressed with both the inside and outside.

(That reminds me. I visited the EMP in June and took pictures, but never posted them. Perhaps I should do that.)

After that, we called it a day. Tired of walking, we hopped the monorail back to Westlake Center and took the light rail back.

Check out my Flickr page for more photos.

So...links:

- Seriously, go to Amy's on the Bay if you find yourself in Kitsap County. Soooooo good, especially if you like seafood. Try the crab cakes. Thank me later.

- Eleven Winery, whether you're in Poulsbo or on Bainbridge Island. Great tasting! I even liked the reds, which is saying a lot!

- You've got a month left to see the Beauty & Bounty exhibit at SAM. (If you're military or a military dependent, you get in free until Labor Day with your military ID.)

Gig Harbor & Destiny Harbor Tour

Today is my birthday, and my husband and I planned to go to Portland, until I discovered that they were having the Grand Floral Parade as part of their annual Rose Festival. I figured this might limit parking and impede our ability to get around, especially since the parade route was right in the area where I planned to do most of my exploring. I checked into Amtrak, but the fares were too high just for a day trip.

So I came up with an alternate plan. Gig Harbor.



Lance and I were there briefly last year. We met a friend for dinner and ate at Anthony’s. We said we wanted to go back and see more of the town because we liked what little of it we saw.

Today seemed as good a day as any.

We got there around noon. Mostly we just meandered around the historic downtown area. We stopped for some ice cream at Kelly’s. There was nothing particular we had in mind to do other than a Destiny Harbor Tour. And that was scheduled to leave at 3:30. Gig Harbor isn’t a bad place to kill time, believe me. It was overcast today, so we didn’t get the amazing view of the mountains that we had last time we were there, but it’s still a picturesque town and a great place to wander. We even saw a bride and groom getting their pictures taken at Skansie Brothers Park. It’s a nice place for people watching, if you like that sort of thing.

At 3:00, we went to the dock where the Destiny Harbor Tour departs (right at Anthony’s Restaurant). We got there a tad too early, but better too early than too late, right? Captain Tom showed up a short while later, and once he got the boat ready, we boarded along with some of the other passengers. The Destiny is an old Coast Guard utility boat.

This 2-hour tour was definitely the highlight of my day. It took us out underneath the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. We got close up looks at Salmon Beach, Point Defiance, and the beautiful homes at Point Fosdick and Gig Harbor’s waterfront. I was especially fascinated by Salmon Beach, where people live in fishing shacks at the water’s edge. Perhaps a bit isolated, but stunning. Access to this Tacoma neighborhood is either by boat or by foot down a very steep cliff, if this tells you anything about why I found it fascinating.

We learned a little about history, geology, architecture and wildlife. We saw two Bald Eagles (unfortunately, I wasn’t able to zoom in close enough for good photos), a couple seals, and several Pigeon Guillemots. We also heard a fascinating story about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge (and how it got the nickname "Galloping Gertie"), but I'll leave that to Captain Tom to tell you.

It was a fantastic time! I highly recommend this tour if you’re in Gig Harbor, but the company also runs tours out of Tacoma.

Link: http://www.destinymarine.com/

And as always, a link to my Flickr album with today's photos.

Girls' Day Out in Tacoma

As a military spouse, I have the advantage this summer of getting into a number of museums for free with my military ID, including the Museum of Glass and the Tacoma Art Museum. So my friend Erin tagged along with me today and we had a great time.

To make things easy, I parked at the Tacoma Dome Station, which is free. From there, you can take the Tacoma Link Light Rail (also free) to Union Station - a ride of approximately 5 minutes (which puts you just a stone's throw from the Museum of Glass).

But we didn't hop on the rail immediately. Historic Freighthouse Square is right across the street from the Tacoma Dome Station. It's filled with shops and restaurants. So we poked around in there, got coffee (made for us by a very chatty and hilarious barista), visited an art gallery, and then hopped on the rail.

Five minutes later, we were at Union Station, and making our way toward the Museum of Glass (MOG). We headed to the hot shop first, where artist Ed Archie Noisecat was working with his crew. We hung out in there for awhile and watched before exploring the galleries. The highlight for me was the "Kids Design Glass" exhibit, where the MOG hot shop team created glass sculptures based on drawings that were submitted by kids from ages 5-12. They were adorable, weird, remarkable, and hilarious (I'm jealous of the imagination of children).

After browsing the museum shop, we decided it was time for lunch. Sitting out on the patio at Woody's on the Water sounded like a good option (it's right next door to the MOG and you have a stunning view of the reflecting pool, MOG, and the Thea Foss Waterway). We had a nice lunch. I ordered a crab melt with coleslaw. Tasty.

Once we finished lunch, we leisurely made our way to the Tacoma Art Museum, stopping to check out anything that was of interest on the way. Overall, I liked the Tacoma Art Museum quite a bit. They have a pretty small collection and it only took us about half an hour to get through the exhibitions that were open (they are currently preparing for another one), but they have a nice Impressionism collection. I liked their Dale Chihuly collection and the current landscape exhibit. The highlight for me was Leroy. I love Leroy.




And judging by the fact that Leroy's image appeared on half the stuff in the gift shop, I would say that I'm not the only one who loves Leroy.

After the art museum, we just walked around and explored shops. We went into Hello, Cupcake because well...HELLO! CUPCAKES! I had a raspberry lemonade cupcake - lemon cupcake with raspberry buttercream frosting. Delicious. I'm honestly not much of a cake person, but the frosting was fluffy, light and not too sweet.

After a stop at the UW-Tacoma bookstore (where I got Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential for the bargain price of $4 + tax), we headed back toward the Tacoma Dome Station.

I had one stop to make before leaving...the Tacoma Book Center, right across the street from the Tacoma Dome. This unassuming building hides the fact that an enormous book mecca lies within. You are spoiled for choice here. You could easily spend an entire day in this store and probably wouldn't cover all of it. I sold some books and stayed near the door because I was trying to resist temptation. After all, I have enough books here at home already that I haven't even had the chance to read yet.

Today was a fun day. Erin and I had a great time and the more I see of Tacoma, the more I like it. It's sad how many tourists overlook this city because it didn't always have the best reputation. But if you get the chance, visit. You won't be sorry.

And I have the photos to prove it.

Links:
- Tacoma Dome Station (better than on-street parking, I promise)
- Tacoma Link Light Rail map and schedule
- Freighthouse Square
- Museum of Glass
- Woody's on the Water
- Tacoma Art Museum
- Hello, Cupcake
- Tacoma Book Center

Valentine's Day in Tacoma

There was a lot of confusion about what we were doing today.

The original plan was Gig Harbor. Then it changed to Whidbey Island. Then it changed back to Gig Harbor again.

And then we woke up this morning after a night of almost constant pouring rain. We were both tired. And a combination of those two things pretty much made our decision for us. We were going to have a mostly restful day at home and perhaps venture out to the Museum of Glass later.

So I went back to bed around 10 and woke up at noon to...bright sunlight?

That settled it. Something outdoors then.

I decided on Wright Park, which is part of Tacoma's Metro Parks system. They had a conservatory there, art scattered throughout the park, plus it is located in the middle of the historic and architecturally interesting Stadium District, which we'd never been to before.

Just to give a pop culture point of reference - the main landmark in the district is Stadium High School, which was featured prominently in the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. We saw that today as well, but we couldn't find parking close enough for me to get out and photograph it. It's a very impressive building.

Anyway, the park is lovely and seems quite popular. It was busy today. The W.W. Seymour Botanical Conservatory, which changes its displays every month, had a beautiful predominantly red and pink themed display with tulips, hyacinths and other early spring flowers. They had musicians performing romantic music inside the conservatory as we walked around (I recognized "Romeo & Juliet" but everything we heard them play was lovely).

We were only in the area for about an hour, but I could've stayed longer. It's a charming district and I think I would like to go back and meander about a bit more and explore more of what it has to offer.

Now for some pictures and links about the area:


My Wright Park photos (slideshow)

Wright Park Information - Tacoma Metro Parks website

Stadium High School

Karpeles Manuscript Library (across the street from Wright Park - closed today)

Tourism Matters Symposium

I was invited by the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau to attend the Tourism Matters Symposium today at the Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Tacoma. The symposium included breakfast and lunch catered by the wonderful Pacific Grill. I had no idea what to expect, but it ended up being very fun and informative. This is going to be a fairly link-heavy post, but that's only because I met so many great folks there who deserve your patronage. I'll put all the links at the bottom.

For starters, I met a fellow attendee in the parking lot. We just started randomly talking, and she asked me if I was going to the symposium. So we walked there together. She told me she worked for the Hampton Inn & Suites Tacoma. Once we got inside and checked in (my name tag even said "Itinerant Writer" on it), she got together with the other Hampton Inn folks to set up their vendor booth. They were giving away a Nintendo Wii, so I was invited to play a few rounds of Super Mario Kart with them. It was fun, but I was soundly defeated. Turns out, I'm a reckless driver when it comes to the Wii. Who knew?

While we waited for the ballroom to open up, we stood around and mingled a bit. I looked over the Tacoma & Pierce County tourism booklets. Spoke with the representative from Fife Flowers, who did the lovely centerpieces for the tables. Drank some coffee. Took a look at other vendor booths, including Stina's Cellars.

The ballroom finally opened, and there was open seating for breakfast. I found myself sitting next to two nice women from Seattle Southside Visitor Services. To be honest, I had no idea such an organization existed. They cover tourism in Tukwila, Sea Tac, Kent, and Des Moines. I also sat with a couple of women who worked for the Pierce County government. The breakfast (which was great: croissant, fruit and mini broccoli and egg casseroles) took place during the annual meeting and business plan.

I want to make a few important points that I took away from this meeting.

Why does tourism matter?
- Pierce County gets 4.735 million visitors.
- These visitors have generated 11,360 jobs.
- These visitors spend $968 million, which generates $71.6 million in tax receipts.

After the breakfast meeting, we had a 20 minute break before the expert panels. There were three: Tour + Travel, Meetings + Events, and Marketing + Public Relations. I attended the Tour + Travel panel. The two experts on that panel were Jake Haupert from EverGreen Escapes and Michael Rogers from Beeline Tours and Seattle Food Tours.

It was an insightful panel. They talked a lot about how they got started in the industry, how they started their businesses, how they run their businesses, do their marketing, etc. It was very inspiring to hear the passion in their voices that they have for their work. These are guys who clearly love what they do and bend over backwards to accommodate their clients.

The panel lasted about an hour and then it was almost time for the awards luncheon. We had assigned tables for that, so I ended up sitting with 2 folks from Hampton Inn & Suites, 2 guys from Hotel Murano, C.R. Roberts from The News Tribune, and 2 people from the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau (including Zak, who invited me). Lunch was salmon with pesto, grilled chicken with beurre blanc, mashed potatoes, asparagus and individual apple tarts. Delicious.

On to the awards!
If you're interested, a quick summary by C.R. Roberts here.

After the presentation of the awards, that was pretty much it! It seems some people stayed and mingled, but I actually had to head home. I had quite a few projects I needed to get done.

Thanks to Zak from the Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau for the invitation. It was interesting and really motivated me to get out there and explore more of Tacoma and Pierce County! It was also really nice to meet people in the industry.


Links:
- Tacoma Regional Convention + Visitor Bureau
- Pacific Grill
- Fife Flowers
- Stina's Cellars
- Seattle Southside Office of Tourism
- EverGreen Escapes
- Seattle Food Tours
- Beeline Tours
- Hotel Murano (named one of the top 100 hotels in the U.S. in Conde Nast Traveler's Reader's Choice Awards.
- Hampton Inn & Suites Tacoma
- Marriott Courtyard Downtown Tacoma

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Today, as you know, is Veterans' Day, and with my husband being in the military, we can sometimes get some nice perks.

One of those perks today was free admission to Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium. We have never been there, and I've been wanting to go. Luckily for us, the weather is also fantastic today. Beautiful blue skies, lots of sun, and a chill in the air which was not at all uncomfortable.

I'm not going to say much about the zoo. It's not the best zoo I've ever been to. It's actually pretty small. But it's in a gorgeous setting. I've never seen a zoo in a prettier area, actually. And it has a couple of fantastic things going for it: the polar bear exhibit and the walruses.

The polar bear exhibit BLEW MY MIND. We got there when the feeding was taking place. You can see the bears both above and below water. One of the bears came up to the glass right next to us, and stuck its paw on the glass. Only a couple panes of thick glass separated us. It was amazing.

The walruses were like that too. We didn't really see them well from above the water, so we went to where we could watch them underwater. And they kept swimming up to the glass on their backs, and then flipping over against the glass and swimming up to the top of the water. It was really cool.

I also liked the aquarium quite a bit - particularly the seahorse exhibit.

Lance and I both enjoyed our trip to the zoo today. It only took a couple hours to get through everything, so we were done by noon. We stopped at a few other places in the vicinity: Owen Beach and Fort Nisqually (which is a museum, so we didn't go in, but you can see parts of the fort from outside). And then we headed back toward home, stopping at Applebee's (free entrees for active duty and veterans!) for lunch on the way.

Without further ado...
Click here for pictures!

Tacoma Museum of Glass/ Martin Blank's "Fluent Steps"

This evening, my friend Lisa and I had the privilege of attending a cocktail reception at the Tacoma Museum of Glass to celebrate the unveiling of Martin Blank's "Fluent Steps," a permanent exhibition in the main reflecting pool. I received the invitation because I do payroll for Martin Blank's employees.

There was a nice turnout for the event, and we got to peek at some of the exhibitions and browse the gift shop. Drinks were flowing (they had a martini bar where they poured the drinks through an ice sculpture, as well as a regular bar), hors d'oeurves were being passed around. There wasn't much going on the first hour except for mixing and mingling. Lisa and I didn't really mix and mingle with anyone (other than saying hello to Debra, Martin Blank's office manager, who invited me to the event), but we looked around and did some people watching.

Around 6:15 or so, everyone was ushered into the theater, where Martin Blank gave a presentation on the conception and implementation of "Fluent Steps." It was fascinating and hilarious. He's not just an artist, but a really funny guy. And he got very emotional at the end of his speech. This exhibition is a huge, HUGE deal for him. As he told us, today was one of the most important days in his life. He got a standing ovation at the end of his speech.

Afterwards was the ribbon cutting ceremony and a champagne toast. It was dusk at the time, but the display was supposed to be very pretty at night. So we headed to a restaurant right next to the museum - Woody's on the Water. We didn't have much in the way of appetizers at the reception, so I ordered an appetizer at the bar and we just enjoyed some conversation until it got dark. We could see "Fluent Steps" from the restaurant and when it was lit up, I paid the bill and we left so I could get pictures.

Just a note on the restaurant: I liked it very much. It's in an excellent location. The food is priced right. And they had live music this evening, supposedly jazz, although it was just some guy playing a keyboard. Not very interesting, but overall, I really liked the restaurant.

It was a very nice evening. Probably the first and only time I'll ever get invited to an event like this, but I really enjoyed it, and so did Lisa.

Links:

Museum of Glass website
Woody's On The Water
Martin Blank Studios

Pictures here.

Getting Your Irish On in Tacoma

I was invited out by some friends this evening to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I wasn't sure what exactly was in store, but I knew it involved a pub somewhere.

So we ended up at Doyle's Public House, near the waterfront, which looked like a perfectly delightful pub, when not completely stuffed full of people. Apparently, they sponsor Tacoma's largest St. Patrick's Day party. They were expecting so many people that they had to set up a beer tent. Everyone looked to be having a great time, but it was really too crowded for us. We all had one drink and then decided to go elsewhere, especially since we were in need of sustenance. We also wanted live entertainment, but they weren't planning to have any until 9 pm, and we were there sometime between 6-7 pm.

Doyle's seems to have a pretty decent menu, but I don't think the focus was on food this evening. Still, I would like to go back on a night that's nowhere near an Irish holiday. It looked like a cozy little place to kick back and have a pint or two, with some yummy pub food like bangers and mash.

So anyway...in search of dinner...

We made a dash for Katie Downs, an Irish-themed tavern and eatery that's right on the water. I've been past the restaurant before and it's in a beautiful area, with walking trails that give you a nice view of the sound and both of the nearby mountain ranges (including a stunning view of Rainier on clear days).

Surprisingly, Katie Downs still had tables available, and they had some Irish specials this evening: corned beef and cabbage, lamb stew, and reuben sandwiches. By the time we got there, they were out of everything but the reuben sandwiches, and they still had their regular menu.

Supposedly, they have the best pizza in Washington state, but I didn't test this claim. Instead, I ordered fish and chips, and ate them the British way, with copious amounts of malt vinegar. Very good, but huge portions. We also split appetizers: onion rings, calamari, and spicy shrimp diavolo. All very good (and I'm not a huge fan of calamari, so I don't say this lightly).

The atmosphere was fun. The best part - NOBODY UNDER 21 ALLOWED! So if you want a laidback, adults-only evening, this is the place to go.

Just for this evening, they had a couple of musicians playing drums and bagpipes, and they gave free raffle tickets to everyone because they were giving away all kinds of prizes. But they were just t-shirts and ball caps and stuff like that with beer logos on them.

Anyway, I really liked this place and I would love to come back again with Lance, especially on a warm day when we can sit out on the deck over the water.

Overall, I had a really enjoyable evening. It was much better than sitting at home. And the more I get to know of Tacoma, the more I like it. I feel it's highly underrated and often overlooked in favor of Seattle, when Tacoma has so much going for it.