Monthly Archives: October 2010

Yum! Sweets! Johnson’s Candy

Leave a reply

Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

In doing a little research about today’s new place of the day, I discovered that the company originally opened in 1918 as a small ice cream shop. The family owned business has a wonderful variety of candies including any kind of old fashioned chocolate that you could want. Their customer service is top notch and the place just has a comfortable feel about it. It is very much worth the trip!

The property is located at 924 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tacoma; 253-272-8504.

An article on the business can be found at http://www.thenewstribune.com/2007/02/14/27359/a-candy-company-with-a-big-heart.html

To see how this property looked in 1993, go to http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldg1image.asp?j=1&o=1&n=29877&i=7846#text

Home Depot for all your toilet needs

Leave a reply

Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

Sometimes it’s just about the practical. Our toilet handle fell off (cheap, plastic thing that it was), so off I went to Home Depot where they have an amazing array of toilet fixing supplies. I went all out and purchased the metal replacement handle at almost twice as much — $9!

I did have to smile at two auto decorations that I saw on the way home. The one below shows two hand prints on an older, well traveled van that says “push here”. The other, on a small, older truck of said “Nice truck, sorry about the size of your penis”!

Bella Latte

Leave a reply


Bella Latte

Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

My goal for today’s new place of the day was to find an espresso cafe that wasn’t Starbucks. So my dear daughter and I stopped at Bella Latte. They had excellent coffee, an out of this world Bella Bar, great customer service and a lovely decor. I will certainly be back and next time we’ll try lunch! It was a lovely reward for getting our flu shots.

A place for one’s thoughts @ Office Depot

Leave a reply
Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

 

Not my most exciting adventure, but today’s new place of the day is Office Depot. It made me think of that Dilbert book, Build a Better Life by Stealing Office Supplies. 🙂 Hey! Today is 10-10-10 and that’s kind of cool!

http://www.officedepot.com/

Jo-Anns for Crafting & Art Needs

Leave a reply
Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

 

My dear daughter informed me that she needed oil pastels desperately and we went to Jo-Anns in Tacoma to have our craft needs met. I sent said daughter off with my phone/camera to snap a couple of photos while I waited in line to check out. This is the photo we both liked the best. 🙂

There are 29 Jo-Anns in Washington State and I guess that Spokane is the craftiest city because they have three!

http://www.joann.com

Black Bear Yogurt

Leave a reply
Originally uploaded by Gexydaf
 
 
 8520 Steilacoom Blvd., Lakewood, WA 98498

 

The new place of the day quest was a good excuse for visiting the Black Bear Yogurt and I’m sure glad we did. It was great. I had the peanut butter banana with chocolate sprinkles, my dear daughter had the chocolate with rainbow sprinkles and the husband had raspberry in a cone. They also had praline, vanilla and Euro Tart. They always have six flavors at a time and change about once a week. It was a really nice space with a fireplace and whimsical carved bears.

http://www.blackbearyogurt.com/

A Daily Suicide, Washington State History Museum

Leave a reply
Originally uploaded by Gexydaf
 
The Washington State History Museum, located at 1911 Pacific Avenue was today’s new place of the day and it was a real treat to have a chance to look around. The photo is of Handcrafted Native American masks in the Epidemic Memorial exhibit. The sign adjacent to the mask is titled Daily Suicide and in part states “Forty-five is another magic age for the Indian. That’s the age of death from alcoholism…it’s a daily suicide”. It’s a very powerful exhibit.

http://www.washingtonhistory.org/wshm/default.aspx

Since the orginal blog, it has been announced that the State History Museum will be closing.  I hope not.  It will be a tremendous loss for the State of Washington.

http://www.wshs.org/performanceMeasures/CustomerComments.aspx

Paper Zone

Leave a reply

Today I ran into the Paper Zone in Tacoma Central Shopping Center off of Union and South 23rd. There is just something so inspiring about all those stamps, art paper and crafts! There are six Paper Zone locations in Washington State and three more in Oregon.

General information about the stores can be found here

http://www.paperzone.com/

And their blog, with some fun craft ideas, is located here

http://paperzoneblog.blogspot.com/

Update: 5.6.2011  I’ve heard that the Tacoma Paper Zone is closing the door at the end of May 2011.  Makes me sad.

The interesting history Titlow Lodge

Leave a reply
Originally uploaded by Gexydaf
 

 

I took a quick photo of Titlow Lodge today for my new place of the day. The history of the Lodge, which isn’t now actually used for lodging is pretty interesting. When it was built in 1911 it was called the Hotel Hesperides and had 30 guest rooms. The building’s architect was Frederick H. Heath who also designed Stadium and Lincoln High Schools and the Central School Building. In 1926 the property was purchased by Metro Parks and between 1937 and 1941, the top two floors were removed. The building is now being upgraded and is not open to the public.
http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=734

A photo of the building taken in 1977 can be found in the Tacoma Public Library’s Tacoma-Pierce County Building Index.  http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/buildings/bldgv2.asp

Do you know the mystery of the Jackson Senior Living Project?

Leave a reply

I watched this building at 2358 Yakima Avenue being constructed, happy knowing that there were some construction folks with decent paying jobs. And then one day it all came to an end. The most recent newspaper story I could find about the property proclaims “Half-finished building project in downtown Tacoma gets new name, investors” and states that the project is now called the Jackson Senior Living Project. But except for security fencing being installed and some sealing of the property, no work has been done on the building for many months. If anybody knows any more, I’d be happy to update this new place of the day for 10/4/2010.

Condos