Hess Bakery & Deli - Lakewold Gardens

Once upon a time, two women lived in Germany and then moved to the Seattle area, where they met. They often discuss what they miss most about Germany, including the food. So they decided to drive down to Lakewood - just south of Tacoma - to eat at Hess Bakery & Deli. And lo, it was good...err...wunderbar!

Yes, so Lisa and I decided to make a day of it and go to Lakewold Gardens as well, since it was near Hess Bakery & Deli. But I'll get to that later. First...food!

This is the real deal, folks. If you have lived in Germany, visited Germany, or even dreamt of Germany, go here and have a sandwich. I went in there kind of not caring what exactly I had, as long as it involved brötchen. I miss brötchen. It truly is one of the most wonderful breads in the world.

Ultimately, I ordered German salami, butterkäse (butter cheese) and German mustard on brötchen. Every single bite sent me back to Deutschland. It was delicious. And I had hungered for good German bread, meat, and cheese for so long. I had a side of German potato salad with it. True happiness. Lisa was happy too.

We went to the bakery side across the hall and got dessert, but it wasn't nearly as satisfying. I may have mentioned before that European desserts aren't generally sweet enough for the American palate. There are some exceptions. But this was true of the desserts at Hess. The desserts were completely authentic, but just not for us. We're all about the deli. But if you love German cakes in general, by all means, knock yourself out. You'll love it.

After lunch, we drove a couple of miles to Lakewold Gardens. I love gardens, which may seem rather obvious if you've been reading my blog for awhile. Lakewold Gardens is stunning. We saw everything in about an hour or so, but the drive down Gravelly Lake Drive was nice (beautiful homes with well-manicured lawns) and Gravelly Lake itself looked so inviting. It was a nice, restful place to enjoy some scenery.

The centerpiece of Lakewold Gardens is The Wagner House. I won't get into its history here. You can visit the Lakewold Gardens website (linked below) if you want more information. You can go inside to see the house, but you don't get access to more than about 3 rooms or so, and the upstairs is completely off-limits. I particularly loved the library.

But the gardens were far more interesting to me anyway. And the garden shop there has some nice merchandise. Definitely worth a stop.

So, enough babbling...you want to see pictures, don't you? Of course you do! (link opens slideshow)

Links:
Hess Bakery & Deli
Lakewold Gardens

Camping and Fishing Sites Near Kent, Washington

I suppose if you ever feel so inclined to camp and/or fish here in Kent, Washington, this article might help you:

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/camping-fishing-sites-near-kent-washington-12703.html

This is the 2nd of my USAToday.com articles. I don't have any pending at the moment because I just haven't had much time for anything. We added a 2nd dog to our family on Tuesday and my hands have been full. And I'm working on my main freelance project and schoolwork right now too.

Two weeks from today, I have plans to go down to Lakewood and visit Lakewold Gardens and enjoy some German food at Hess Bakery. I'm not sure I'll have anything to update before then.

Vacations for Families in Seattle | Travel Tips - USATODAY.com

As I mentioned previously, I am writing content for publication on USAToday.com. Here is the first article. I'm currently revising the second one.

YAY!

Vacations for Families in Seattle | Travel Tips - USATODAY.com

Free Museum Admission!

If you're in a military family, you can get free admission to over 600 museums across the U.S. between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

More information is available here:
http://www.nea.gov/national/bluestarmuseums/index.php

Locally, this includes the Seattle Art Museum and the Tacoma Art Museum, so I have every intention of visiting both and reporting back here!

Announcement

Very soon, you'll be seeing Travel Tips from yours truly published on USAToday.com. Since the majority of my income-generating endeavors lately have not been related to travel writing (oh, who am I kidding? None of them are related to travel writing), I'm very excited to get back into it. It'll be nice to tap back into a more creative side of my writing.

Once I finish this massive project that I'm currently working on, I'm going to work on my first article - travel tips for family vacations in Seattle. I'm anxious to get started!

Stay tuned!

Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way

Today is one of those days where the weather is fine and I am able to put off work for a day to take a bit of a mental health break. So I decided to drive a short way to Federal Way to visit the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden. I've heard good things about it, and I love visiting gardens. So I took a couple hours out of my afternoon to go.

It's definitely worth a visit. It's a very peaceful and calming place, especially if you can tune out the sounds from the nearby freeway. And speaking of the nearby freeway - the gardens are also very accessible. They're right off SR 18 on the campus of the Weyerhaeuser headquarters. Follow the signs to the gardens. It's a short walk on a foot path from the parking lot to the main entrance.

Not all the rhodies were in bloom, but many were. And the garden isn't just rhodies either. You can find all sorts of flowers, plants, shrubs and trees here. And there are different gardens: rock garden, stump garden, woodland garden, meadow garden, fern garden, pond garden. There are benches available at every garden, so find the one you like, sit, and find your moment of zen. Or several moments. I didn't do that, but I walked around and snapped a lot of photos.

I personally enjoyed the contrasts of shadows and light in various parts of the gardens. And it was quite easy to walk around for awhile without seeing another person. Of course, it is a weekday. The weekend might be a little busier. When you're done meandering, stop in to the gift shop. They have some beautiful things at good prices.

For more information, visit their official website.

For pictures, click here.

A Taste of Bavaria in Washington

...but only a little taste.

Since we moved here from Germany, practically everyone has told us that we MUST visit Leavenworth. If you've never heard of Leavenworth, it's a small town in the Cascade mountains that is made to look like a Bavarian village. Their website and visitor brochures show pictures of smiling, dancing locals in lederhosen and dirndls, which seems to only be really accurate during festival times (we saw only one person in lederhosen today who was not working in the touristy part of town - and considering he was an elderly man with a walker, I'm guessing he just dressed like that normally).

Since it's now warm enough not to worry too much about the weather on the mountain passes, we decided to go today. I was told by friends who have also lived in Germany to not get my hopes up too much - since Leavenworth is an obvious tourist trap - so I went there only with the expectation that I could get a satisfactory German meal.

That mission was accomplished.

We had a beautiful drive. The GPS had us traveling on I-90 through Snoqualmie Pass. And it snowed some, but none of it was sticking. The views were jaw-droppingly beautiful. We were in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and the Wenatchee National Forest for part of the way. I took a few pictures from the car. There really weren't many places to stop for photo ops.

As we neared Leavenworth - in the neighboring town of Peshastin - we saw a huge expanse of apple orchards. And indeed, there were fruit stands everywhere. Of course, the trees are all bare this time of year, so there was little open.

After a 2.5 hour drive, we arrived in sleepy Leavenworth. And when I say sleepy, I mean it. Few people were there. The town looked practically dead. I think most of the locals were probably in church. We parked just down the street from the town center, so when we walked the short distance to get to the main part of town, I had to stop and look. That's it? Really? It was comprised mainly of a few blocks of Bavarian-style buildings - mostly restaurants, wineries and shops. There were a few things on some side streets, hotels and a few shops or restaurants here and there, but the majority of it was concentrated on one street.

Between the main street through town and the main tourist street was a small park with a gazebo that blasted cheesy Bavarian music from loudspeakers. There were a couple of horses with carriages, waiting to take people on rides.

Lance and I just started poking through the shops. Not much else to do, really. We first stopped at Kris Kringl (yes, that's how it's spelled), which is a Christmas shop. It reminded us a lot of the Käthe Wohlfahrt stores we loved in Germany. So far, so good. As we continued through the various shops, we could see that they sold either souvenirs or goods that were pretty easy to get elsewhere. There was; however, a fun hat shop where we tried on goofy hats and sunglasses. So that was fun for awhile.

And we had to eat while we were there. The drive made us tired and hungry. I planned ahead in this, at least. I knew I wanted to eat at Bären House, because they had a good selection of stuff: German food, pasta, sandwiches, pizza. Something for everyone. We weren't disappointed. The menu on their website is slightly different from the one we were given, and sadly, what I wanted to order wasn't on their menu (they had a similar platter, but it was way too much food, so I didn't order it). I ordered a schnitzel sandwich (with sauerkraut and melted swiss cheese on their homemade sandwich roll) that came with a side of German potato salad (which wasn't really German potato salad, but still good) and a dill pickle spear. The schnitzel knocked my socks off. I can honestly say that it was better than any schnitzel I had in Germany. It was a huge sandwich though, and I could only manage half of it. (Our server offered to box up my leftovers, but considering the long drive, I didn't want to chance it...I sure would like the rest of that sandwich right now, though. So good!) Lance ordered spaghetti (he's done with schnitzel for life, probably). We were both happy.

We explored a bit of Leavenworth's river promenade, which was nice, but we didn't actually do any promenading, since we weren't sure how long the trails were or where they went. We briefly stopped in the local bookstore (since I pretty much have to check out the bookstores in every town I visit). Neither of us bought anything at any of the shops we explored, but it was fun to look. We took note of the huge number of chocolate/candy stores, but in the end, we went to Cold Stone Creamery.

We were there maybe 2.5 hours at the most. I think our drive there took slightly longer than the amount of time we spent there.

Lance decided we should take a different route back (route 2 through Steven's Pass), so we enjoyed different scenery on the way back. That drive took about the same amount of time and we didn't encounter any snowfall. In fact, it turned out to be a really warm and beautiful day. A bit colder at the higher altitudes, but sunny and nice.

I wish I could've gotten pictures from Steven's Pass. We were often driving alongside river rapids, and the views there were also breathtaking. We were laughing about the random latte stands that dotted the sides of the highway, even in the middle of nowhere. But this is Washington after all. And we must have our coffee.

Of course, there was snow at the higher altitudes and we saw lots of people at the ski areas that we passed. This was the first time driving in these areas for both of us, and I wouldn't mind driving through the passes again. The scenery is truly unbelievable.

I'll sum up Leavenworth by saying this - we likely would've stayed a little longer if we hadn't both been really tired. And I had a headache. There were several wine shops offering tastings, and I always enjoy wine tastings. Once it warmed up a bit, the beer gardens were beckoning. I suppose if you want to spend all day, you could happily do so just kicking back with a few beers or going from wine tasting to wine tasting. I would go back if given the opportunity (that is, if a friend was going and invited me along). But now that we've seen Leavenworth, we don't feel the need to go back again on our own.

Anyway, I didn't take many pictures, but what I did take can be seen here in slideshow form.

A few links of places worth visiting:

Kris Kringl
Bären Haus
A Book for All Seasons
Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest
Wenatchee National Forest

Skagit Valley Revisited

Last year in mid-April, my husband and I made our first trip up to Skagit Valley for their annual tulip festival. Alas, our late winter meant that there were few tulips to be seen.

Things are different this year. We didn't really have a winter at all. And though the tulip festival doesn't start for another few days yet, the tulips are already blooming. My friend Lisa and I decided to go up today to try and beat the bulk of the crowds. We could not have had a better day.

On the road towards La Conner, we stopped at Snow Goose Produce. I had seen this place last year, but we didn't stop. Today, we did. And I'm so glad. This place is a paradise for foodies and flower lovers. You can get wine, produce, seafood, jams, pickled veggies, condiments, cheeses...all sorts of gourmet treats from around the area. But perhaps Snow Goose is more famous for their self-proclaimed "immodest" ice cream cones, which are every bit as immodest they claim. Served in a freshly made waffle cone, the ice cream is a delicious treat even at 10:30 in the morning.

After spending a bit of time there, we moved on to La Conner. Lisa had only passed through there before and never took the time to explore. So I insisted that we had to. We got there early enough to find a prime parking spot and started our exploration. I love this town just as much now as I did a year ago, if not more. When Lance and I were there last year, there were a lot of empty businesses. Well, things are starting to pick up, and there were new businesses to explore.

So we poked around in shops, galleries and enchanting courtyards. We bought homemade toffee from a new toffee shop and fresh scratch-made lefse from The Norse Pantry. We watched a glass-blowing demonstration. We soaked up the charm.

Shortly before 1, even though we were still a bit full from the ice cream, we decided to have a bite. So we went to Hellams Vineyard - a wine shop on the riverfront. There, we ordered a plate of salami, olives, bread, cheese and crackers. Lisa got a glass of red wine. I got a glass of a delicious Riesling/Viognier blend. We sat out on a deck overlooking the Skagit River and enjoyed a wonderful lunch. It hit the spot.

After that, it was time for tulips! Instead of heading to Tulip Town or Roozen Gaarde, we went to the other fields. I cannot properly do the colors justice with words. You just have to see my pictures.

Once we spent an hour or so exploring the tulip fields (and what was left of the fading daffodils), we headed back toward Seattle, stopping at Snow Goose Produce once again for a few souvenirs before hitting the highway (the line for the ice cream at this point was ridiculously long).

The weather was really nice, and it was pretty much a perfect day.

See my pictures from today.

Links:
Snow Goose Produce
Hellams Vineyard

Northern California

Two weeks ago, I went to Northern California. It wasn't so much a touristy trip as it was a family visit. My brother and his family just moved from Guam to Northern California in December. My two nieces were both born in Guam, so I hadn't had the opportunity to meet them until this trip.

So I'm not going to go into any details about my family visit. I doubt anybody cares about that. We did a couple of touristy things, which I will talk about. As much as I had hoped for a day trip to San Francisco or a Napa winery tour (both were nearby), it wasn't to be (maybe next time). But we went to two places in Sacramento: the zoo and Fairytale Town. I'm going to talk about both as family destinations, even though I generally don't focus on that.



When we got to William Land Park, where Sacramento Zoo is located, we noticed that there is a lot going on. This is a mecca for families. It has a golf course, Funderland (a small amusement part for very young kids), Fairytale Town and the zoo. There were also picnic tables scattered about. You could easily spend an entire day here.

Fairytale Town in particular caught my eye. If you want to do both that and the zoo, you can pay one fee for admission to both parks (at least you can at the zoo...I didn't see this when we got to Fairytale Town).

The verdict on the zoo: I've been to a lot of zoos in my life. This wasn't the best one I've ever visited, but it's nicely landscaped and has a train and a carousel.



Highlights for us were the red panda exhibit, the giraffe exhibit, the orangutans and the chimpanzees, who screeched and screamed a lot and got the gibbons excited.



I think the adults enjoyed it a bit more than the kids (mostly because my 2-year old niece couldn't ride the carousel - it only operates once every hour).



When my niece was obviously getting antsy and bored, we left. I think we saw pretty much everything, anyway. I don't think we were there more than 2 hours, and that included time in the souvenir shop and at concessions.

Then we went to Fairytale Town.



Fairytale Town is essentially a giant playground themed around fairy tales, fables and nursery rhymes.



My niece LOVED it (and yes, I mentioned 2 nieces earlier, but one is still a baby and can't walk yet, let alone play on a playground). Admission was really inexpensive and I think we all had a little fun here, even if it was just watching the kids play.

(Yeah...Mother Goose looks like she's been hitting the sauce. She has kids climbing all over her all day...can you blame her?)

Just a word of caution for adults: almost everything here is pint-sized. There are low doorways, so make sure to duck. There are even kid-sized toilets...but thankfully, there are adult-sized ones too.

Fairytale Town also has a petting zoo. There were sheep and goats. There was also a donkey and a bull, although I don't think you're allowed to pet them.

So...that was the extent of tourist activities on my trip. Maybe I'll have more to offer next time, but I still had fun, and it was really lovely to spend time with my family. Also, Northern California is beautiful. I came in via the Oakland Airport (saw some of San Francisco from the plane, at least) and the drive from Oakland to Fairfield (where my brother lives) and back was mostly scenic.

Anthony's in Gig Harbor

We went to dinner with friends last night at Anthony's in Gig Harbor, just one of several Anthony's locations. The weather was perfection, and we asked to be seated outside on their patio that overlooks the harbor. We were the only people who wanted to sit outside. This was our view.



I mean, who WOULDN'T want to sit outside and enjoy this view, especially with the weather being so fine? (And if you look closely, you can see Mt. Rainier peeking above the trees.)

Anyway, I'm hesitant to say anything else about our dining experience, because it wasn't great. I'm happy to say that Anthony's righted the wrong, however. Our entrees were ridiculously late. Over an hour, by my estimation (although I was enjoying the company and conversation, so I wasn't keeping close track of the time, but we saw one of the tables inside seat 2 separate parties between the time we were seated and the time our main courses finally arrived). My husband's food was cold when he got it (and his food was even later than the rest of ours) and his order wasn't even correct.

But to Anthony's credit, they comped our entire bill. They couldn't possibly have done more to make things right. And I have to give them props for that. There's a reason why they're so well-known in the area and they lived up to their reputation when they realized that we weren't happy. Thank you, Anthony's.

Our food was good. I got the 4-course dinner special (available between 4 & 6 pm). I had baked Dungeness crab, shrimp and artichoke dip as my starter. A bleu cheese salad with shrimp. The main course was smoked salmon fettuccine. And I had Bailey's Irish Cream chocolate mousse for dessert. The portions were smaller (which is good, because I couldn't have eaten a full-size appetizer or dessert with the salad and main course).

My friend Christy also enjoyed her food quite a bit. She said their burned cream dessert (creme brulee) was the best she ever had.

So despite the flaws, I would give Anthony's in Gig Harbor another chance. Our dinner took so long that we didn't have time to do or see anything else before we had to leave (and I want to go back, because Gig Harbor is so beautiful). But, as I said before, they couldn't possibly have done any more than they did to try and retain our business.

Spring Awakening - Lake Fenwick (Kent)

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)

Edmonds

My friend and fellow travel writer Lisa went with me up to Edmonds today, a charming town about 30 minutes north of Seattle on the Puget Sound. We signed up for a free digital travel photography class at the Rick Steves' Travel Center, so we figured we might as well putter around for a bit while we were at it.

It was a chilly and rainy day, and we were both fighting fatigue, but I think we managed to have a pretty good day. I enjoyed Edmonds quite a bit.

We arrived with about an hour to spare before we had to check in for our class, so we decided to have an early lunch (or brunch...however you want to look at it). We parked next to a restaurant called Chanterelle, which I made note of when I was doing my research. So we decided to eat there because it looked really cute from the outside. It's a popular local spot, and we could see why. It has a quaint vintage feel, complete with vintage French posters, wooden beams and exposed ductwork along the ceiling. They were still serving breakfast when we got there (around 11 am). I ordered smoked salmon scrambled eggs (complete with cream cheese and green onions), grilled potatoes and toasted sourdough bread with jam. Delicious. Lisa also enjoyed her eggs, sausage, potatoes and English muffin.

We left the restaurant around 11:30 or so and walked around the corner to Europe Through the Back Door, Rick Steves' headquarters. After perusing the travel shop for a bit, we found the classroom where our class was being held and waited, chatting to some other folks who were also joining in.

The class was taught by John Greengo, a travel photographer for Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe. It was more of a lecture than a class, really. Wonderful Powerpoint presentation and very informative. I definitely took away some information that will help me improve my photography.

As much as I liked the class and found it useful, I do have one small complaint. They crammed as many people as they possibly could into a tiny classroom, so it was claustrophobic and stuffy. Keep that in mind if you ever decide to attend a class at the Rick Steves' Travel Center (they do sometimes have classes in other locations around town). I was really uncomfortable for much of the time.

Anyway, after the class was over, we wandered around. Here's the part where I make my list of recommendations in Edmonds:

As I mentioned before, Chanterelle is the place to eat:
http://chanterellewa.com/

Arista Wine Cellars have free wine tastings every Saturday. Today was Valentine's Day themed, with some sparkling wines and red wines from Washington, California, Italy, South Africa and I'm not sure where else. A wonderful shop with a nice variety of wines and wine-related gifts.
http://www.aristawines.com/

The Resident Cheesemonger is where you want to go for all your cheese needs. Yes, you have to be able to withstand the smells of pungent cheeses, because those are sold in abundance. But you'll find a great variety, along with chutneys, spreads, olives, crackers, sausage, dried fruit, and any other possible food that complements cheeses. You'll also find cheese boards, cheese knives and other accessories.
http://www.residentcheesemonger.com

Want to stop for coffee and something sweet? Well do it, but for the love of all that is holy, do not go to Starbucks. Yes, Edmonds has one (there's also a Tully's), but we really liked Red Twig Bakery & Cafe. We shared a Nanaimo bar and we each ordered a latte and it was the perfect afternoon pick-me-up. The prices for coffee and pastries, I might add, are comparable to Starbucks. So support a great local place - they also serve breakfast and lunch.
http://www.redtwig.com

And of course, the reason why we were there - The Rick Steves' Travel Center:
http://www.ricksteves.com

I want to plug John Greengo a bit too. He's an amazing travel photographer and he does a webcast that's growing in popularity. You can get more information on that here:
http://creativetechs.com/training/john-greengo/

I didn't take many pictures. It was raining pretty hard and I had an umbrella, which makes it a bit difficult to take photos one-handed. I just wish I could've gotten some more interesting photos. But here are some randoms.



The coffee bean roaster at Red Twig


An old-time strip mall called Old Milltown. There was a Quizno's, a pizza place and a salon, among other things. Yes, notice the trees are blossoming. Early spring comes to the Pacific Northwest.


This photo and the following 2 photos all depict public art/memorials near the Kingston Ferry terminal.

Holy Spirit Retreat Center - Janesville, Minnesota

This is a little different from the posts I usually write, since it has to do with a spiritual retreat, which isn't quite the same as pleasure travel. But I feel this is worth mentioning and might be of interest to some people.

My husband and I were visiting his relatives in Minnesota over Christmas. His aunt Marita is a nun who lives at the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Janesville, Minnesota. We drove out there on December 23rd to visit her.

She lives in the main house with 2 other nuns: Sister Joanne and Sister Monique. After coffee, cookies and chat, Sister Marita gave us a tour of the grounds. We started with the main house, which has rooms available for people who come for individual retreats. The rooms are, as you can imagine, sparsely furnished. But that's for a good reason. You cannot, after all, focus on your spirituality if you're distracted. However, all the rooms overlook a beautiful lake. I was thinking the entire time that it would be a wonderful place to go for a writing retreat.

Our next stop was the group retreat facility, which can accommodate 35 people for overnight stays and 50 for meals. This facility has a library, common room, conference room, small nondenominational chapel, and a huge kitchen and dining space. There is also a big screen TV for presentations and films (and Super Bowl parties, as the nuns apparently are contemplating having one). Again, all the rooms (2 twins or double beds) are sparsely furnished.

There are also three hermitages with wonderful lake views. One is already occupied by a nun. The others are available for individuals who want to take a spiritual retreat. One is handicapped accessible and has a screened-in porch. They're both small, but they have twin beds, small desks, bookshelves, bathrooms with showers, kitchenettes, and boomboxes. There will be another hermitage built soon.

I didn't take pictures because it was blustery and cold and snowy at the time, and I was just focused on getting indoors where it was toasty warm. However, the sisters have a website for the retreat center, if it is of interest to anyone who is looking for a quiet place for spiritual contemplation and reflection. The nuns are available for spiritual counseling and discussion, and you can be of any faith. I was fascinated by this tour and wouldn't mind a getaway there myself, although I would, as I said, probably spend it more for a quiet writing retreat than anything else. The grounds are simply gorgeous.

Links:

Sisters of St. Francis - Holy Spirit Retreat Center (This has information about the retreat center, but is more focused on the Franciscans of Rochester, Minnesota. There are photos, and it's been recently updated.)

Holy Spirit Retreat Center official website (a bit outdated)

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!

*sigh*

Well, traveling may feed the soul, but buying a new furnace saved our lives.

We had to cancel our planned trip to the Olympic Peninsula this weekend because of an unforeseen circumstance. We had someone out yesterday to service our 20-year-old furnace, and he found that it's been leaking carbon monoxide into our house. We found our own carbon monoxide detector, which confirmed this.

So we have a new furnace. And no weekend trip. As much as I enjoy not breathing poisonous gasses, I'm a bit sad we're not going. I needed a change of scenery.

For now, the blog will have to be put on hold...until we're on the road again. The next planned trip is Minnesota for Christmas, but I certainly hope we'll at least take a day trip somewhere before then. We're talking about the German Christmas Market at Leavenworth.

Traveling Feeds the Soul

I'm so thrilled that we'll be on the road again in 2 weeks. Our 6th wedding anniversary is October 18th, and we're leaving very early on the 17th to drop the dog off at boarding and head up to the Olympic Peninsula for the weekend. Unfortunately, we made the plans too late to get a room at my ideal kind of place. I like quirky, charming hotels run by a friendly staff. Rooms at these types of places were either booked up or out of our price range, so we're staying at a Quality Inn in Port Angeles. It's just for one night, and we'll be out exploring all day anyway, so we'll only need our hotel room for sleep. But let this be a lesson to you - book early! Quality Inn is fine, but lacks the ambience that one requires for a romantic anniversary weekend. Am I right?

And I have free lunch vouchers at the Oak Table Cafe in Sequim, thanks to the wonderful owners (who are former clients of mine from when I worked at Paychex). I can't wait!

It's going to be a fun weekend.

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. I'm just excited.

Yesterday, I tried out a new (to me) place - Bittersweet Restaurant in Kent. They're open for breakfast and lunch. I was there for lunch, and on a chilly day such as yesterday, their chicken enchilada casserole hit the spot. Exactly the right sized portion. It came with a side salad.

Service is super friendly. The ambience is nice. Bittersweet likes to display the works of local artists. And TRY THEIR PIE!! I got to swipe a bite of my friend's chocolate pie (she got the last piece) and it was very mousse-like. Super delicious. I ordered the coconut cream pie, which was also very good. Pie slices are extremely generous.

Lunches at Bittersweet are nicely priced - under $10 for sandwich platters (which come with chips) and entrees (which come with salads). They also have daily specials, 2 soups of the day, and meal-sized salads. I will be back.


https://bittersweetrestaurant.wordpress.com/

ETA: Bittersweet Restaurant has since closed. Its last day of business was May 15th, 2010.

Tonight, I'm going back to The Red House to enjoy tapas and drinks with my friend Lisa. I love that place. I already posted about it here.

Free Museum Day

If you have Saturday free, you might want to consider visiting a museum. There's a good chance you can get in free.

Click here for more information.

Locals may want to check out this site instead. Lots of good museums to see at no charge!

http://www.yelp.com/events/seattle-smithsonian-free-museum-day

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