On Sunday we stopped at the plant sale at Tacoma’s Lincoln Center’s Greenhouse at 3600 South G Street. It was the last day of the sale, but there was still a good selection and we came away with some lovely flowers and a couple of herbs. They money raised goes back into the program.
Northern Fish Company at 2201 Ruston Way in Tacoma has a wonderful setting with Commencement Bay out its back door (if it had a back door!). There are two Northern Fish Co. locations in Tacoma with the other one being at 3911 South 56th. The Ruston Way location not only offers seafood to prepare at home, but also seafood chowders and baskets to either eat there or at home. Their website is here http://www.northernfish.com/
During this extended winter I’ve had more then my fair share of coffee. Today I went out for a walk, but it started to hail! So, I ducked into the Northern Pacific Coffee Company at 401 Garfield Street South, in the Parkland area of unincorporated Pierce County. The coffee shop features lunch, sweets, wine, beer, coffee drinks and frappes. I had a delicious Americano and a chai cupcake.
Northern Pacific Coffee Company’s facebook page can be found here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Pacific-Coffee-Company-NPCC/167740459948412
Update: Northern Pacific Coffee Company closed as of January 2017.
After work my friends and I went to Stonegate Pizza and Rum Bar at 5421 South Tacoma Way Tacoma, WA 98409. It had a comfortable feel, good food, friendly service and was reasonably priced. I didn’t haven rum, but apparently there are over 100 types. While we were enjoying our meal, a magician came to our table. How cool is that?! And he was great. Even up close, I couldn’t figure out how the magic was done.
The building was constructed in 1908 and renovated for its current use in 2007. Their 
Facebook Page is located here http://www.facebook.com/pages/STONEGATE-RESTAURANT-BAR/252566649502
Yesterday I ran into Fred Meyers Market Place at ., Tacoma. It was a quick stop brought on by the need for some allergy eye drops. Fred Meyers Market Place is a nice clean, well stocked store. I’ve always thought it was interesting that there is a more traditional Fred Meyers right down the street at 4504 19th Street.
There web site is here www.fred meyer.com
Faith Dairy at 3509 72nd St. E., Tacoma, WA opened in 1963 and closed in 2007. I remember stopping there for some of their delicious ice cream and some fresh milk. I found a few articles from back when the facility closed.
http://www.dairyexpress.net/FaithDairy.htm
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2007/07/30/121562/ideas-abound-for-saving-iconic.html
http://www.thenewstribune.com/2007/07/16/110871/time-for-a-last-bottle-of-chocolate.html
I guess we’ve reached that stage of life where we are looking at colleges. Today is my dear daughter’s birthday and we celebrated by going to visit DigiPen Institute of Technology at 9931 Willows Rd NE Redmond, WA 98052. Digipen has five undergraduate degree programs
So, it is a pretty narrow focus, but they have a great reputation for what they do.
The Tahoma Indian Center at 1556 Market Street, Tacoma, is part of Catholic Community Services and their website is at http://www.ccsww.org/site/PageServer?pagename=families_emergencyservices_tahomaindiancenter
Their website states “Located in downtown Tacoma, the Tahoma Indian Center has met the basic needs of low-income and homeless Urban Native Peoples for more than 20 years in a safe, warm, peaceful and drug- and alcohol-free environment. The purpose of the Center is to restore and sustain the dignity and culture of Urban Native Americans in Pierce County.”
This is great old building and it has an interesting history.I’m not sure, but I think it use to be connected to a building on the now vacant lot next door. So, in full disclosure I’m not sure of the history of the property, the lot next door or both. Tacoma Public Library says the Lorenz Bldg. / Sisson House was constructed in 1890. The Astor House opened c.1899 as the first major Japanese hotel in Tacoma. It was also known as the Hiroshimaya Hotel. As of 1946, the property was known as the Columbus Hotel / Yunan Ling Herbal Medicine / Tacoma Jujitsu School. The same year, a petition was denied for the hotel and the headlines read “all colored hotel” closed for prostitution violations.
In 1947 it was Fukui’s Grocery Store (and was “surprised by the police!”). And by 1996 it became the Intertribal Cultural Arts Center. When looking at the spectacular doorway, I noticed that the Lion King is hanging from a coconut over the doorway. I bet there is a story there!
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!
