Crooked Tree Coffeehouse
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: Community
Fircrest Park
Fircrest Park is located at 471 Electron Way, but also fronts on Contra Costa Avenue and Spring Street. It features a community building, an outdoor pool, picnic areas, ball fields and a sidewalk area around the perimeter.
A Touch of Spring at Optimist Park
I didn’t realize that Tacoma had a park named Optimist Park (1330 N James St.). Today was lovely, so I went to find this darling neighborhood park. There is a baseball field and some really cool playground equipment, some of which plays music!
Yakima Avenue Garden, a community garden
Tacoma is lucky that it has so many community gardens. Today I stopped to take a photo of the Yakima Avenue Garden on Yakima Avenue, just north of South 48th Street. The garden has 19 raised beds, most of which are full of veggies.
Local Treasure, King’s Books
King’s Books is a Tacoma treasure. It’s not the largest bookstore I’ve been in (that would have to be Powell’s in Portland), but they have a great eye towards purchasing, an inviting space and they have made themselves part of the community. King’s is located at 218 St Helens Ave Tacoma, WA 98402 and they are open every day from 11 to 7.
Today we went to the Artist Craft Fair and walked away with a darling pair of earrings, some pie on a stick and an interesting new book. But more importantly I walked away with the feeling that in my small little way I was supporting the local community.
Their website is here
http://www.kingsbookstore.com/
An article about the store can be found here
http://www.tacomaweekly.com/citylife/culture/kings_books_an_old_favorite_revamped/
As a side note, I just heard today that one of my other favorite bookstores in Seattle is closing because of the economy. It is so important to support quality local businesses!
Home, Community, Art
The City of Tacoma has a wealth of wonderful murals, many of them recent. This one is located at 38th Street & Portland Ave (3804 Portland Avenue) and the lead artist is Chris Sharp. Participating artists include Shanna Duncan, Asia Tail and Patricia Vazquez Gomez.
And interview with Chris Sharp can be found here:
http://www.exit133.com/5139/a-conversation-with-chris-sharp
and more info is here
http://thetelephoneroom.blogspot.com/2010/08/chris-sharp-i-dont-hate-anyone_02.html
More information about the Tacoma Mural Project is here:
http://www.tacomaculture.org/arts/murals.asp
As I was taking some photos of the mural, two young men came up to me and asked me to take their photo!
Beyond the Bridge Cafe
2010 was a good year for new coffee houses in Tacoma. One of the best is Beyond the Bridge Cafe at 2717 6th Avenue Tacoma, WA 98406 – (253) 572-9199. My dear daughter and I went thinking at first that it was at the west end of Sixth Avenue near the Narrows Bridge, but it was more towards the center/east end of Sixth. It had a unique art/coffee house feel with plenty of big comfy chairs. A different art bird was painted on to each of the tables and the wall also had a mural. This is the kind of place people come with their laptops and settle in for a while. The art on display made it all the more interesting and was reasonably priced.
We ordered a latte for me, a vanilla Italian soda for the teen and a full monty bagel sandwich minus the bacon to share. They forgot the drinks, but felt bad about it and not only gave us our drinks but a get two free card. In addition to coffee, they offer wine and beer. The sandwich was very tasty and so were the drinks once they arrived.
http://beyondthebridgecafe.com/
http://www.facebook.com/bbc4life?ref=ts&v=info
Note: I’m sad to say that Beyond the Bridge Cafe closed its doors on May 14, 2011.
http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/entertainment/spew-blog/2011/05/The-last-day-of-Beyond-the-Bridge-Cafe-tacoma-coffee-shop-closes-ben-and-patricia-rubke/
Fair Trade Market @ Bethany Presbyterian Church
Today dear daughter and I went to the Fair Trade Christmas Market at Bethany Presbyterian Church. The church has done this every year for a long time. The subtitle the event “a different way to Christmas shop”.
The Fair Trade Christmas Market Vendor List includes:
Church World Service – shares, miscellaneous goods
Dough for Doe [funds fight local domestic violence] – cookie dough
El Guetzal [Guatemala] – shirts, scarves, hats, bags
Fish Food Bank [help feed the local hungry] – (shares)
Grass Roots Uganda – inexpensive beaded jewelry & bags
Heifer [world wide] – give a hand up through living gifts
Hfj Community Services
Jubilee Traders [Nepal & India] – jewelry, tablecloths & runners, purses
Kilimanjaro [Kenya] – baskets, jewelry, pictures, musical rhythm instruments
L’arche Farm and Gardens [local community for developmentally disabled adults]– wreaths & cards from handmade paper
Nativity House [local homeless] – (shares)
Rwanda baskets
Serrv – fair trade products from 36 countries
Suradi Imports [Indonesia] – toys
Un Solo Pueblo – [Ecuador] – woolen caps, sweaters, scarves & purses
Zimbabwe Artists Project – art
If you are interested on being on their mailing list for next year, go to their website and email them your information.
http://bethanytacoma.org/default.aspx
Tacoma Lutheran Retirement Community
Originally uploaded by Gexydaf
My dear daughter did some volunteer work today at Tacoma Lutheran Retirement Community today and I went to pick her up and made this my new place of the day. I’ve been past the entrance to this community hundreds of times, but never really noticed it before.
The community features several styles of living units including condos, independent apartments, assisted living, a care center, a dementia care unit, a medicare/rehab unit and a respite care.