Category Archives: Parks

Goats at McKinley Park

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McKinley Park at 800 Park Street East sets above the downtown and dome districts of Tacoma.  The park has a relatively steep terrain and is prone to being overrun with Himalayan Blackberry, English Ivy and Scotch Broom. Several times a year, the Park’s Department rents about 230 goats from Healing Hooves to clear out this unwanted, invasive vegetation.  The goats must arrive hungry because they set right to work! They are contained inside an electric fence and each day of their six day stay, the fence line moves.

The park continues approximately 25 acres and the majority of it is undeveloped. There is a trail along the upper ridge of the park and some picnic tables. And there is also a rather nice play area for the kids and a skateboard park.

http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/news.php?id=221

 

We went back a couple of days later to see the work of the goats and they had gotten a great deal done. When we went back they were mostly on a coffee break! We also discovered the skate board park the second time.

A lovely day at Penrose State Park

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Penrose State Park is one of the prettiest parks around. Situated on Mayo Cove at 321 158th Avenue Kp South, Lakebay, WA. the park offers over two miles of shoreline, picnic tables, shelters, a grassy area and a rocky beach. It is obviously a popular spot for pleasure boats and kayakers. Dear daughter and I walked a fair distance along the beach, discovering that flip flops were a poor shoe choice considering the slippery mud and rocks/shells filled with barnacles.  But we went slowly and did OK. The best part was wading in the water and flipping over rocks to catch little crabs, both regular and hermit. In the picture of shells below some of the shells house hermit crabs and some snails.

     

The Chinese Pagoda and One Year

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It’s been one year since I’ve started this new place of the day project and I wanted to pick an extra nice new place.  I was going to go to the Pacific Ocean, but it was just too darned rainy and cold, so instead I went to Pagoda in Chinese Reconciliation Park at 1741 N. Schuster Parkway, Tacoma.  The pagoda is a gift from a gift from Fuzhou, one of Tacoma’s sister cities.  Apparently there was some vandalism on the building in May 2011 and now perimeter fencing is in place until security cameras can be installed. The pagoda, called a ting, will be open to the public in mid-September.  The park also contains the Bridge of Pearls footbridge, which is accessible.

Looking back at this one year project, I have some observations:
  • 257 of my new places are in Tacoma. Lakewood, with 18 places came in a distant second.
  • Tacoma has some pretty darned interesting places! Lots of art and history in T-Town!
  • I’ve learned a bunch, about the places, Google maps, blogs and research
  • My most popular type tag is restaurants (85), followed by Art (77) and then History (56).
  • Some of the places I checked out alone, but I often brought my husband, daughter and occasionally dogs along for company. They are good sports about the whole thing.
  • I did miss a couple of days. There were a few days that I was sick and the weather was bad and there was that week I took a time consuming class (yes, I passed). The world didn’t end.
  • 30 places were tagged “their future is in question”. Of these 13 have had a change of use and several more remain vacant.
  • My strangest place was probably the sky.
  • Tacoma has some pretty darned interesting places! Lot of art, history and stories here.
  • It’s been good for me to visit a new place everyday and I’ve started keeping a list of potential place.
  • I now carry my camera with me 98% of the time now, though sometimes it is easier to use my phone.
  • I’ve come to admire all of the folks that do a 365 project!
  • I plan to continue until it isn’t fun any more or I run out of places, whichever comes first 😀
  • The encouragement that I’ve received along the way has meant the world to me! Thank you!

Trail of Shadows

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Today was too lovely to stay inside or even in town, so I grabbed dear daughter and we went to Mt. Rainier to take a stroll on Trail of Shadows in the Longmire area of Mt. Rainier.  It is a short trail (.7 miles), but really lovely with views of open areas, Mt. Rainier, wooded areas and a pioneer cabin.  James Longmire settled in the area in the late 1800s and when he saw the mineral springs he built a spa to capitalize on them. The one photo below with the reddish mud is the remains of one of the Longmire Medical Springs. There is a sign near the springs that says “Please don’t drink this water. It can make you very sick!” Never crossed my mind that somebody would actually drink it!

 

 

Kitakyushu, Japan Monument

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I didn’t set out to make the Kitakyushu, Japan Monument at 3691 Rustin Way my new place of the day, but I found myself driving along Rustin Way enjoying the lovely weather and it just seemed like the thing to do! Kitakyushu was established as one of Tacoma’s sister cities in 1984 and this shiny sculpture was presented in 1989. The art piece shows a map with both Tacoma and Kitakyushu with an anchor in the middle.  

Looking over information from the Port (see the link below) I found the imports/exports interesting.  Our biggest export to Kitakyushu is cereals with a value of $203.1 million.  The other top four exports are inorganic chemical and rare earth metals ($198.2 million), prepared vegetables, fruit, nuts ($167 million), oil seeds, miscellaneous grain, seed, fruit ($160.6 million) and meat and edible meat offal ($141.2 million).

Their largest import to us is vehicles and parts  with a value of $2.4 billion and the next four are industrial machinery ($1.7 billion), electric machinery and electronics ($823.3 million), optic, photo, medical and surgical instruments ($276.9 million) and articles of iron or steel ($200.9 million).  Seems a little lopsided to me!

http://www.portoftacoma.com/page.aspx?cid=521

And more info can be found here:  http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/page.php?id=771

  

 

  

Red Oak in Wright Park

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Usually I use the FourSquare app on my phone to record that I have been to a place, but once in a while I use an alternative app called Gowalla. I was amused to see that somebody had gone through Wright Park and made many of the individual trees separate destinations! I’m sure I won’t get around to all of them, but today’s new place is one of the Red Oak Trees in Wright Park. How do I know its a Red Oak? The parks folks thoughtfully labelled it!

If you’d like to know more about Red Oaks, check out this site:

http://ostermiller.org/tree/redoak.html

The World’s Tallest Totem Pole

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Firemen’s Park at South 8th and ‘A’ Street in Downtown Tacoma is reputed to have the world’s largest totem pole.  At 105′ long (82′ above ground) the 1903, red cedar totem pole certainly is tall. The park also features a bronze statue, Leading the Way, by Larry Anderson.  Mr. Anderson has several sculptures around town including the one in front of Union Station. Today somebody placed a shawl on the logger, perhaps to help with the cool nights!  The park is rounded out by views of Commencement Bay, the Port of Tacoma, the Murry Morgan Bridge, Mt. Rainier and the Tacoma Dome.

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A handy bench in Fern Hill

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The pocket park at the northwest corner of South 84th Street and Yakima Avenue in the Fern Hill District is charming. It has a couple of benches, a clock, a street light, thoughtful landscaping and some art. The hand bench is just plain fun and there is also a relief of the original Fern Hill School as seen in 1888. Most interesting is a historic marker that says S. 84th Street is an old covered wagon trail and was legally established as a road in 1852 to create an escape route in case of an Indian uprising.

  

Titlow Beach on the 4th of July

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Some of the things we saw today while visiting Titlow Beach:

  • Lots of tiny crabs, some with egg sacks
  • Folks sunbathing
  • A man and his dog boating away in his inflatable canoe
  • A starfish
  • A wedding
  • The Narrows Bridges
  • Canada Geese
  • A low tide
  • The remains of the original pier
  • Trains, both freight and passenger

Altogether, a good outing!

Wards Lake Park in Lakewood

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The city of Lakewood has 10 parks and one game refuge and today I stopped at  Wards Lake Park at 2716 84th St South. I found it by following small sign off of S. 84th Street. This 20-acre park is a little oasis in a relatively built up part of town. It includes Wards Lake, a fishing pier, playground, picnic shelter and trail system. The lake doesn’t look conducive to swimming, but it is great for fishing and is very pretty. There is a short trail that leads back to some picnic tables and benches. And for the younger set there is a nice play area. I saw children playing on the big toys, an older guy fishing and a young couple getting to know each other.