San Francisco’s Musee Mecanique at Pier 45 at Fisherman’s Wharf is “one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines.” It is fascinating and free. We happily whiled away the better part of an hour playing games and watching amusements from our youth and earlier.
http://www.museemechanique.org/
The Tacoma Glassblowing Studio at 114 South 23rd Street in Tacoma offers glass art that is lovely and unique. We got there almost at closing and were told that there was no rush. We came for the charity bake sale to benefit orphans in Romania, but ended up with a lovely blue class ball and information on taking a glass blowing class. Dear daughter is pretty enthused about the possibility.
I especially liked the way the evening light made their pumpkin glass pieces glow. They make pumpkins year round and in the fall they have pumpkin patches in different spots. How cool is that?! I’m looking forward to going to a couple already. 🙂
Their website is here www.tacomaglassblowing.com
It was a lovely day to walk Ruston Way with three of my friends. Along the way I stopped to photo the Tacoma Fallen Firefighters Memorial near the Lobster Shop on Ruston Way. The sculpture is called “Fully Involved” by Larry Perkins and it was dedicated in honor of those firefighters who have given their lives in the line of duty in 2001. There are twelve names on the memorial with the most recent being from 1963. A plaque near the memorial tells me that the first volunteer fire company was formed in Tacoma in 1880 and the first paid fire department in 1889. The first African American firefighter joined the force in 1972 and the first woman firefighter in 1981.
On our way home from Long Beach, we visited the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge at 3888 State Route 101, Ilwaco, WA 98624. It was really a treat! There is a small display room in the ranger’s work area and of course a delightful ranger. There is a short, level boardwalk area with plenty of interesting art. The boardwalk goes next to a pond, which was full of newts! For the more ambitious walkers, there is a trail that is relatively steep and has nature facts along the way. It is a lovely and challenging walk and at the end is a meditative labyrinth.
Their website is here http://www.fws.gov/willapa/
A spring day during spring break, what a gift! So I made my dear daughter on a walk along Dock Street an East D Street (the East D Street Grade Separation Project) to look at the concrete images honoring Washington State Ferry Boats. We walked from Freighthouse Square along East D Street which is elevated over the rail tracks. Along the way are depictions of various ferries and Fire Boat #1. Each one has the general outline of its named boat. It is a nice touch. On Dock Street I stopped to snap the panorama above.
Watson’s Nursery at 6211 Pioneer Way E., Puyallup, WA 98371 is a soothing place and its it is easy to while away a couple of hours. I joined my friends for lunch at their Flower Pot restaurant and then two of us took advantage of their special ($9 for 4 fuchsia starts planted in our own pot)
Each year the YWCA has a benefit for their domestic violence prevention & intervention programs. This year it was at Larson’s Mercedes-Benz of Tacoma at 1701 Alexander Avenue in Fife. It was great.Their showroom was filled with more quality wearable art then I’ve ever seen in one place and it was an added bonus that it supports the YWCA’s excellent mission. I walked away with a lovely necklace and a pin for my friend. While I was there I checked out a new Mercedes-Benz (I can dream!).
What was funny is that when I came home I took the Fife exit onto I-5 and pulled in right behind my husband’s blue truck. Really, what are the chances?
Today I took an interesting class in ebooks (the way of the future!) at the Puget Sound Educational Service District at 800 Oakesdale Avenue, Renton, WA 98057. It’s a nice office building with plenty of training and conference rooms. They do good work there.
No, I don’t think ebooks will completely take over, but what a great option. I once lifted my dear daughter’s backpack to discover it must have weighed 50 lbs! Putting all of her text books on an ebook reader would have brought that weight down to something much more reasonable. Another plus is that library patrons can read their library books from anywhere.
The website for the PSESD is http://psesd.org/
Stadium Video at 29 North Tacoma Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98403-3124 is closing its doors. Today dear daughter and I went back to visit and pick up a couple of anime dvds. I remember a few years back I was stuck home for a couple of weeks during a quick recovery period and I sent my dear husband to Stadium Video every other day. They were the only ones who had the quirky, interesting movies that I needed and they always have such great recommendations! I will miss them when their gone.
An article on their closing is here http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/28/2003287/sad-news-for-tacoma-movie-buffs.html
Their Facebook page is here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stadium-Video/63099191351
Their going out of business sale is going to continue for a while, so go check them out!
Fresh Northwest Design in Gig Harbor creates custom art on wine bottles, which is so cool! Our family was lucky enough to get a quick tour and see the pre and post production bottles. Individuals and companies order personalized bottles to celebrate and commemorate events and occasions.
To learn more, go to their webpage http://www.freshnwdesign.com/ and their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/freshnwdesign
