Category Archives: Tacoma

Morrell’s Stadium Dry Cleaning

Leave a reply

8286664374_f54e9cb77a_zSo, I was cold and tired and really just wanted to go home. But I got talked into stopping at Stadium Thriftway for some of their soup. While there I ran over to Morrell’s Stadium Dry Cleaning at 608 North First Street and snapped a photo. The building was constructed in 1928 and apparently has always been a dry cleaner, starting as the Puget Sound Cleaners. Their website is here http://tacomadrycleaner.com/

Side note to the young man who was yelling at his girlfriend through the payphone, complaining about your “soon to be ex-girlfriend” to me in no way makes me inclined to give you bus money to Everett. Just saying. And to the guy that I thought might be stealing a bottle of wine from Stadium Thriftway … really?!

University of Washington Bookstore

Leave a reply

8283245200_603c77be3f 8283246148_1cca58c090

University of Washington Tacoma’s Bookstore is the only bookstore in Tacoma that exclusively sells new books. People think of them as being primarily for student textbooks, but they have a bunch of great stuff including all types of books, art supplies, jewelery, scarfs and, of course, plenty of Huskies material. And there is a Starbucks adjoining. Just remember not to get lost in book store browsing and forget to pay the meter!

https://www.tacoma.washington.edu/shopuwt/business_detail.cfm?business_ID=2

8282062635_a7ddd4e1d5_b

 

The Holiday Dragon on 56th Street

Leave a reply

8275752693_95ce2ce9cf_cEach and every holiday this wonderful hedge dragon lights up to share the joy! It is across the street from the Moore Branch of the Tacoma Public Library (215 S 56th Ave  Tacoma, WA 98408). I truly admire folks that go all out for the holidays! This holiday ledge dragon even has a Rudolph red nose! 🙂

8276831796_14ba3d52e0_c

Adriatic Grill

Leave a reply

We had a lovely luncheon today at the Adriatic Grill at 4201 South Steele Street. I must have been having a good time because I forgot to take a good shot of the interior! But here is a photo of the table decorations and below a shot of the entrance that my daughter took out the car window! I remember when the space was occupied by one of Cucina Cucina’s twelve restaurant. The chain only has one remaining location in Issaquah.

http://www.adriaticgrill.com/

Basic Goods

1 Reply

Basic Goods is a around the corner at 1734 Pacific Avenue in Tacoma’s Museum District. I discovered it because I was out for the first time in a couple of days (darn cold) and went to pick up dear daughter. She begged for a Starbucks drink and I ran down the street in search of a new place.

Basic Goods’ space is about the size of a small garage. On their website they say that they “focus on curating a small collection of well designed, long lasting and useful merchandise”. Really, I liked everything they had from little notebooks to stamp sets to scarfs to thermoses. I picked up a sweet stocking stuffer for dear daughter. Much of their stock can be seen and ordered on their website http://www.basicgoodsco.com/

Next to Nature Pet Food

Leave a reply

Next to Nature at 1624 Tacoma Avenue, Tacoma, is a splendid pet supply store with friendly helpful staff. Today we stopped by with our two pups and purchased some holiday treats. Our pups were thrilled that the store had cats, though the store cats sensibly wanted nothing to do with them. I hadn’t realized that there are two other Next to Nature locations, one in Edmonds and the other in Seattle.

Per Tacoma Public Library, the building was originally the Coast House Materials Property which was founded in 1900 by Frank McHugh. In part of the 1980s and the 1990s, it was a hardware store.  It closed in 1990. In 2001 Coast House Furnishings
opened and in July Next to Nature Pet Food opened.

http://www.next-to-nature.com/

The Basket Nook

Leave a reply

The Basket Nook at 1007 Martin Luther King, Tacoma, WA is one of the Hilltop’s oldest businesses. It was originally “The Launderette” Tacoma’s first laundry with
individual automatic machines. It opened in 1947. By 1949 the business had evolved into a Laundromat with baskets and eventually it became baskets with gifts and now is primarily gifts. The delightful owner said he had been there for 33 years come January. He must have started really young!

Anyway, I had always thought it was primarily baskets, but the store was full of interesting unique items. I bought a few items for my mom’s Christmas stocking.

 

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Leave a reply

http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/Default.aspx?type=default Dear daughter was in a concert tonight and we needed a fast place to have dinner. The Chipotle Mexican Grill at the Tacoma Mall (exterior entrance between Panaras and Sears) was fast and tasty and felt fairly healthy.

Sir-Amicks Mural

Leave a reply

A wonderful mural appeared on the side of the commercial building at 5441 South Sheridan this year. The lead artists were Kenji Stoll and Chris Jordan and the artist team included David Long, Yvette Simone, Chelsea O’Sullivan and Natalie Oswald. Sir-Amicks is the name of the ceramics business that occupies most of the building. The building was constructed in 1940 as a Safeway.

http://www.tacomaculture.org/arts/MuralsComplete.asp

  

 

Sarah Bernhardt in Opera Alley

Leave a reply

This interesting statue is located at 765 Court C in Tacoma and represents Sarah Bernhardt, the famous French actress. The most interesting thing that I learned about Sarah Bernhardt (1844-1923) is that as an adult she often slept in a coffin! Also she performed at our very own Pantages theater and visited Wright Park. What little information I can find said the statue’s artist is unknown.