Monthly Archives: February 2013

Valhalla Coffee

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Valhalla Coffee at 3918 6th Avenue is a wholesale and retail coffee roaster. I stopped in after work to brace myself for a long meeting that turned into a short meeting (and now I won’t sleep!). But it was darned good coffee and while there isn’t any food available, there is a nice reading selection. They roast their coffee on the premises in the fine roaster pictured below. Their client list includes other places I’ve made my new place of the day including Corina Bakery, The Grand Cinema, Metro Market, Puget Sound Pizza, Rosewood Cafe, Tacoma Food Co-Op, Tacoma Boys, The Spar, Indochine and Northern Pacific Coffee Company.

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The UPS Store

8517885968_a93aa9647cBack in August 2010 I used the UPS on South 38th Street. Shortly after that they moved to their “new” location at 2602A S 38th St, Tacoma, WA 98408. This time we were using UPS’s services to mail off college applications. Hummmmm.

Bing Crosby was born here

8510838375_821a1f1f49_oBing Crosby was born at this private home at 1112 North J Street in Tacoma on May 3, 1903. He only lived there until 1906 and then his family moved to Spokane. Bing’s most famous song is White Christmas, which has sold over 100 million copies. Although I tend to think of him as a singer, Wikipedia tells me “With 1,077,900,000 movie tickets sold, Crosby is by that measure the third most popular actor of all time, behind Clark Gable and John Wayne.”

International Children’s Park, Seattle

8511100315_b8b798eee4_z 8512214354_3bc4cc6a7d_z 8512213550_25bfd65199_z 8511097155_31731e6fce_zDear daughter wanted to go to Seattle’s International District for her birthday this weekend and we wandered over to the International Children’s Park to have a time playing on the dragon, playing the drums and spinning. The park is located at 700 South Lane Street and was established n 1981. The dragon, which I climbed on and successfully got off of, was created by Gerard Tsutakawa. His father was also a sculptor and he design The Lily Statue in Lakewood.

I was delighted to see that the cherry trees in the park had begun to blossom!

Fort Borst Park

8502517126_51e3a51db8_oBorst Park in Centralia was really chilly when I went there on Friday. It is a pleasing park with a small trout lake, a dog park, a picnic area, sports fields, a 1889 fort building and a children’s play area. Wikipedia says “After the Indian Wars, Joseph bought the blockhouse from the government for $500 and used it as a granary. Originally the blockhouse was located on the Chehalis River just beyond the mouth of the Skookumchuck River in front of the Borst House. In 1919 it was moved to Riverside Park and in 1922, to the present site in Fort Borst Park.”

8511129003_e1bcfca807_z 8511133813_2c67d2d497_zI was going to walk the trail around the lake, but it was closed part way around for construction. It was kind of cool that there was a large group sword fighting (in a safe way!).

 

Masa

MasaOn Friday afternoon, I stopped at Masa at 2811 Sixth Avenue for a happy hour with some friends. It was an excellent way to start the weekend 😀

Satellite Coffee is houses in the same space. I had stopped in there in January 2011.

Masa’s website is here

and their Facebook Page is here

Mattress Barn

8503636395_239038655f_bMattress Ranch at 8916 Lakewood Drive SW in Lakewood has a barnyard theme (in case you didn’t notice!). I hadn’t realized it was part of a chain with four locations in Alaska and six in Washington State. I have to say that I’m impressed that all of their mattresses are completely American made.

Mattress Ranch

The Coolest Basement at Casablanca Apartments

8486085817_f4d0cd6cce_zThe Casablanca Apartment at 720 North 2nd, Tacoma was originally constructed in 1890, but was significantly remodeled or rebuilt in 1944 by Ray Gamble. The building’s original name was the Lincoln Apartments. During the 18 year (yes, 18 years!) remodel, Mr. Gamble designed the basement level of the building based on tiles he had collected on his international travels. The three story building has 30 units. In the 1960s Mr. Gamble turned over the income from the property to the University of Puget Sound for use as scholarship money.

Tacoma Public Library’s Page on the property includes additional information and photos.

Casablanca

 

 

What Seattle Icon Do You Remember at MOHAI?

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Seattle’s Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), 860 Terry Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 in Lake Union Park.

It is impossible to walk around the new Museum of History and Industry without remembering something or learning something new. It is like a trip down memory lane! I went with a group and had lunch and heard a lector and got to explore the museum. At first blush the museum looks lovely, but not very full. But the opposite is true. There are a bunch of areas devoted to different themes all over the building. The 4th floor shows off the wonderful view and there is even a telescope! In addition there is a gift store and a cafe. It was a great time 😀

Some of the Seattle icon’s displayed include:

  • Ivar’s Clam on a bicycle
  • The Rainier Beer sign
  • The Toe Truck
  • The very first Starbucks sign
  • A display from The Dog House (which I once ate at) and
  • The Lusty Lady sign from the place across the street from the art museum.

I was delighted by the musical presentation on the Great Seattle Fire of 1889. The museum is next to Seattle’s Wooden Boat Center, which is free and had the Foss Tugboat available for touring. The ship below wasn’t open when I went by, but I thought the light was lovely.

One of the best finds of the day was the parking lot, which is just on the other side of the trolly tracks. For $2 I could park for up to 9 hours! And while I didn’t do it this time, next time I might just take the trolly off somewhere!

Buck’s Fifth Avenue, Olympia

8476851353_b6c04c8f7b_zBuck’s Fifth Avenue is a splendid spice store at 209 5th Ave SE  Olympia, WA 98501. There website says “We have every imaginable spice” and they told me the same thing in the store. They did indeed have a great selection of spices in hand labeled mason jars and apparently they can get anything else. The joy of the store is that all of the dry spices can be sniffed and most smell wonderful. And you can buy a pinch of anything, which is great for recipes with something unusual. Really, I loved the atmosphere of the store and the outstanding customer service. The owner, Anne Buck, said the store had been around for 43 years.

http://www.culinaryexotica.mybigcommerce.com/