Tag Archives: festival

Great Udon at the Tacoma Hongwanji Buddhist Church

Great Udon at the Tacoma Hongwanji Buddhist Church

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My udon and mochi at Tacoma’s Buddhist Church during their Fall Bazaar were delicious and my husband said his miso soup really hit the spot. Our meal was served by the nicest volunteer waitstaff and our tea was topped off on a regular basis. Really the fall festival was a positive experience.

The Buddhist property at 1717 Fawcett Avenue, in Tacoma, is sometimes referred to as a temple and sometimes as a church. The building, which features a lovely red tile roof and stone lanterns flanking the main door, was originally constructed in 1930 for its current use.  It is listed on the city, state and national historic registers. One interesting note to the building’s history is that it was closed in May 1942 for the duration of World War II. Many of the members of the congregation were sent to Camp Harmony (now the site of the Puyallup Fair) and the leader of the church taught Sunday School at the camp. The camp was a detention center for Japanese Americans during the war.

Luckily that time is behind us.

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The tugs at Harbor Days in Olympia

imageOlympia’s Harbor Days is held Labor Day Weekend (Friday evening through Sunday) and is always fun. My favorite part is seeing all the vintage tugboats, several of which were available for tour. My least favorite part was when the largest tug sounded its horn right next to me and almost gave me a heart attack! But is was funny later 🙂 There was some great entertainment including music and a juggler. More information can be found here.

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Tulip Town, Mt. Vernon

13593484365_1182d48495_b(1)I needed a change of scenery and the Skagit Tulip Festival is in progress, so off I went. It was a little early for the full effect, but the daffodils are in full bloom. In search for actually tulips, I stopped at Tulip Town in Mt. Vernon. For $5 per person, there is easy parking, a wonderful display building with background paintings of Holland, a great outside display with a windmill and huge kites and tulip fields in bloom. There is also the possibility of a tractor pull.

I also snapped a photo of a field of daffodils which isn’t in Tulip Town.

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Edible Book Festival at the Collins Memorial Library at UPS

8612732922_ca0d1afc7f_bThe Edible Book Festival took place in the Collin Memorial Library at the University of Puget Sound. My favorite was Jello Pages, which was covered in a cheerful yellow jello. It was all I could do not to tap it to see it wiggle 😀

Below are photos of the one day exhibit and some of the exhibits. The art includes Little Men (with small gingerbread men), Ketchup in the Rye, Who is Afraid of Virginia Ham and Moveable Feast (the banana). There is also a photo of the library (interior and exterior) and the bound periodicals entrance. The last one lead to an interesting conversation about old fashioned library practices. The library was constructed in 1954.

 

The Holiday Dragon on 56th Street

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! 🙂

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MV Lotus

The MV Lotus was moor along the public dock during Maritime Fest this weekend in Tacoma. The vessel, which is on the historic register, was built in 1909 as Edwardian Houseboat Cruiser. It is available for event and would be perfect for a wedding! More information can be found here: http://www.mvlotus.org/

Below is another photo I took while at the fest. http://www.maritimefest.org/   What a beautiful day it was!

Update 6.18.17 We again went to the Tall Ships event (to see the Big Rubber Duck) and here are a couple of new photos of the MV Lotus.

 

Ostrom’s Mushrooms

I’ve always wanted to see a mushroom farm and I was delighted when Ostrom’s Mushrooms at 8322 Steilacoom Road SE, Olympia, WA 98513 offered tours as part of the Pacific Northwest Mushroom Festival. The tour began with the plant manager (I think it was the plant manager) showing up how they create the soil out of mostly straw and then how they add the mushroom spores attached to millet. He walked us through each step of the multi-day process. The mushrooms grow in large beds which are stacked one on top of another about seven deep with about a foot clearance between each one. The pickers climb moveable steps and go from the top bed to the bottom. It sounds like very hard work.

http://www.ostrommushrooms.com/

http://www.pnwmushroomfest.com/

Sequim Lavender Festival

HipstaPrint by Gexydaf
HipstaPrint, a photo by Gexydaf on Flickr.

I’ve been wanting to go to the Sequim Lavender Festival for years, but it seems like I always have had a conflict. But this year was looking good. Except that we left rather late and traffic into Sequim was awful and I we ran out of time. The festival downtown was great with more lavender stuff then I’ve seen for a long time. Next year I’ll go earlier in the day and right to the farms. Live and learn.

http://lavenderfestival.com/component/content/article/45-15thfestival

Art on the Ave (Sixth Avenue)

Today was 13th annual Art on the Ave and today’s new place is the Sixth Avenue Business District.  We knew from reading status updates that parking was going to be tough, so we went to the TCC transit center and caught the #1 bus to Sixth Avenue.  It let us out withing a block of the festival.  It’s been a couple of years since we’ve been to this festival and it has really grown with lots of quality art for sale.  We purchased some 253 (the local area code) tshirts and I bought two hair clips.  We watched Vicci Martinez (recently on The Voice) belt out a couple of songs and then we had a cool drink and went home.  I think my favorite photo below is the guy who was filming Vicci Martinez on his iPad!

The website for Art on the Ave is here http://on6thave.com/art-on-the-ave.html

 

 

 

Blue Willow Lavender Farm

 



What I should have been doing is cleaning the kitchen. Why do we have six nut crackers? Really, we don’t even eat nuts in a shell!

But I really wanted to go to the festival at the Blue Willow Lavender Farm (10615 Wright Bliss Road, Gig Harbor, WA 98329) , so I did that instead. The farm is lovely and smells divine. The festival was small, but really nice. There was an excellent harp player in the middle of one large field. We enjoyed the the you pick (cut) lavender and the gift store and all the booths.

http://www.bluewillowlavenderfarm.com/Blue_Willow_Lavender_Farm/Welcome.html