Dear husband and I were delighted to see that the movie Her was still playing somewhere and the place is the Federal Way Gateway Cinema (Starplex Cinema, at 2501 S. Gateway Center, Federal Way, WA, 98003. This is a discount theater, with our tickets being $2 each. We went to the 11:15 show and had the theater to ourselves. Their website is here.
Dear husband and I were in search of lunch when we noticed Sammy’s Pizza at 1308 North ‘I’ Street, Tacoma. The restaurant had previously been under the Garlic Jim’s franchise and on Sixth Avenue, but now it is independent. The original intent was to have a liquor license and there is even a bar in place, but proximity to the local elementary school is problematic and as of our visit, beer and wine were not available. The restaurant is named after the owner’s dog. We had the special, which was a large meatball pizza and it was tasty.
Jersey Mike’s Subs has newly opened at 3555 Market Place, Suite 4, University Place, WA 98466. I hadn’t heard of the chain before, despite the fact they have over 1,300 locations! The first Jersey Mike’s was in Point Pleasant, NJ in the 1970s not too far from where I had my annual Jersey Shore summer family vacation. Anyway this location is a good new place for dear husband and I to pick up a cheese steak or a sub. There are also Jersey Mike’s in Gig Harbor and Puyallup.
Before my book group on Monday, I ate at Pho Than Brothers at 1712 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98402. This chain of restaurants got its start in 1996 in North Seattle. There are 18 locations, all in the Puget Sound area. Dinner includes delicious pho and included a cream puff. I’m sure this location serves students from both Tacoma’s School of the Arts, University of Washington Tacoma and visitors to the near by history, arts and glass museums.
I’ve been wanting to visit Kelsey Creek Farms Park at 13204 SE 8th in Bellevue for a while, so on Saturday after dropping off dear daughter for her ride back to college I stopped by. There was a birthday party going on and plenty of children in the under five crowd. The 150 acre original site had been a forest and was developed as the Twin Valley Dairy Farm in the 1920s. Despite pressure from real estate developers, in the 1960s 80 acres of the property was sold to the City of Bellevue for use as a park. It receives over 200,000 visits a year. ThePark’s website is here.
The log cabin is the Frasier House, built in 1888 and moved to Kelsey Creek Farms Park in 1974. It was built by two Norwegian woodsmen and lived in for a short time. Mostly it was used as storage.
To celebrate Friday and dear daughter’s last day with us for a while we took the dogs to Thea’s Foss and took a photo of a traveling new place, the Jin Rui, a bulk carrier built in 2009 and flagged out of Hong Kong, China. This ship is on its way to South Korea and should arrive in about two weeks. Interestingly, I am writing this as I watch All is Lost, about a man (Robert Redford) lost at sea after his boat is damaged by a lose shipping container.
Jamba Juice in the Tacoma Mall is really pretty good and relatively healthy. Dear daughter and I stopped this afternoon. She had a strawberry banana drink and I had the Aloha Pineapple drink. It was our first time to visit any Jamba Juice, but apparently there are another 800+ locations we could investigate in 26 states. The chain began in 1990 and has gone through several changes over the years.
Taking dear daughter home for Spring Break, we crossed the Vantage Bridge which spans the Columbia River and is part of I-90. This bridge was built in 1962 and is the second Vantage Bridge. The first bridge was constructed in 1927, but had to be replaced when the water level rose due to the new Wanapum Dam. It spans Kittitas and Grant Counties.
Royal City, a small town in Grant County, WA was founded in 1956 and incorporated in 1962. I stopped at the grocery store there on my way to WSU to pick up a soda and advil. The clerk was extra nice and I noticed that when he moved on to the next customer he switched to Spanish. That makes sense since per Wikipedia, the town’s population is almost 89% is Hispanic. Going through the town I found a few smaller grocery stores, a convenience store, an auto parts store, a feed store, a post office, library and other services that would support a town of slightly over 2,000 people. The town and the surrounding area is primarily agricultural including apples, cherries, peaches, timothy and alfalfa hay, melons, potatoes, onions, wine grapes, pears, mint and corn.
When Dear Husband and I first came to visit Washington State we stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel at 1531 7th Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 in downtown Seattle. I remember the hotel stay as being a good experience, but I was so happy to be exploring Seattle for the first time, that it would have been hard to dampen my excitement! It was completed in the deco style in 1929 with John Graham and Harold Lockland as the architects.
