tacoma

i swear to god, i never thought i'd write about tacoma as my beautiful thing. what i knew about tacoma prior to our visit today: its weird smell, the tacoma dome and monster truck shows (YOU'LL PAY FOR THE WHOLE SEAT BUT YOU'LL ONLY NEED THE EDGE), and my kickass wedding alterationist, who probably deserves her very own post in beautiful things. but nothing previously had led me to believe that the city of tacoma, washington, would land a spot here.

i'd like to retract all (or most) of the snarky comments i've made about tacoma.

it is beautiful.

it does have an undeniable odor on the drive in, but to be entirely fair, at that point you're located just upwind of a pulp mill, and even the prettiest french perfume probably smells like shit there.

and then you keep driving, and you find yourself in this beautiful town that reminds you of seattle, only with old buildings, and no huge towers, and a whole lot of charm.

we started at point defiance park, which is full of peeling red madrona trees and an enormous and very popular zoo. the views of the bridge that replaced galloping gertie are breathtaking, and framed by water and sky and branches of native plants. there's an offleash dog park that feels more like a secret meeting spot in the sun-spotted woods with a bunch of cool people and their even cooler dogs. there's a historical museum at fort nisqually, complete with actors in costume shooting fake guns. i'm told by jacob that there used to be a magical place called story book land right next to it, that had the gingerbread house and humpty dumpty. and then driving out, we got to see two stunning bald eagles soaring in perfect circles close overhead.

we sat outside for lunch to people-watch, and smell the cherry pipe tobacco wafting down the block. the streets are lined with lovely old craftsman houses that scream "home" without making a noise, and downtown there's fireman's park, where you can stand and watch barges glide across the sparkling blue sound, or turn the other direction for mount rainier, practically glowing in the sunshine.

but, better than all that, was spending a warm and sunny sunday (finally) uninterrupted with the two loves of my life. i am one lucky duck.

so, tacoma, i'm really sorry. you are actually really terrific. friends?

xo,

j