The Florence Apartments at 414 and 422 Tacoma Avenue South is an imposing building constructed in 1923. The building was William T. Post and he named the property after his oldest daughter.
The Florence Apartments
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Big Catch
The story goes that the fisherman fell in love with beautiful maiden, but alas she was turned into a fish (you know how that goes). Eventually they find one another for a joyful reunion and with a kiss she returns to her human form. This statue at Big Catch Plaza (the intersection of 7th Place S. and S. 219th St., near Albertsons in Des Moines) captures to reunion. There was some controversy when the piece was unveiled because the fish has a human female anatomy on top, right where her fisherman is holding on! The sculptor is Richard Beyer and the park, which was created because of a road realignment, was dedicated in 1994. Richard Beyer, who passed away in April 2012 also created, waiting for the Interurban in Fremont.
Winds of change at Van Lierop Gardens
Van Lierop Bulb Farm at 13407 80th St E Puyallup, WA 98372 is one of two bulb farmers left in the Puyallup Valley and it is closing its door on May 15, 2013. I stopped in today and it made me kind of sad because the store seemed rather empty. The fields are full of daffodils poised for blooming.
Valhalla Coffee
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.
The UPS Store
Back 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
Bing 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
Dear 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
Borst 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.”
I 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
On 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.
Mattress Barn
Mattress 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.