Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Pacific Northwest Trip July 2009 Day 7 Monday July 27 Tacoma

UPDATED: February 5, 2022

This is the seventh of a series of posts dealing my fifth trip to Seattle and second of two trips that year. I’ve made minor corrections to these reports. Also, I’ve added additional thoughts with the hindsight of three years later or to add further clarification. 
 
Still have a few days left but today was the last of the insanely rushed days.

I took a bus downtown, added money to my ORCA card, then took another bus to Federal Way.  There I visited Wal-Mart to see about getting a map, decided against it; did buy a pop from a machine outside.  Walked north a bit as I got my bearings, decided to remove a couple shops from the itinerary, visited Movies and More (gone), Barnes & Noble, Blockbuster (closed; meant to get back there but ran out of time), Sharon's Books (gone), Borders, Ynot News (gone; that's y-not), Cine Town (gone), Spy Comics (closed; sadly due to timing had to chose between this and another comic shop), Pawn X-Change, Action Comics & Games (bought a Watchmen movie book that was on sale).

[NOW:  The bus downtown was King County Metro Transit. The bus to Federal Way could have been either Metro or Sound Transit.  That Blockbuster has since closed down. Borders is now defunct. Spy Comics & Games is now Fantasium Comics. Pawn X-Change is now Cash America]

Took a bus to Puyallup's Sounder station (basically the downtown area; very peaceful, lots of statues; would kind of look old fashioned except one of the statues was of a naked woman).  Bought a drink at 7-11, then tried to visited Pioneer Books, which was gone and replaced by a comic shop named Comic Evolution; the dealer seemed very confused when I asked about books about comics; even mentioning "interviews" didn't seem to help. Then since it was very hot got more drinks at AM/PM.  Unfortunately a bus schedule wasn't to scale so I believed there was a number jump as I headed to the south end of town; there wasn't and it was uphill.  Finally I caught a bus midway; knowing what I know now I'd get off downtown but then just hang out there until the next bus.

[NOW:  The bus to downtown and the South Hill area of Puyallup was the 402/Pierce Transit.  Comic Evolution moved to the south end of Puyallup before closing. Most of the statues in Puyallup, including the naked woman statue - Salutation - are no longer there.]

The reason I wanted to visit Puyallup was basically adds I saw on TV as a kid.  It took a 1/4 century, ut my memories of the ads finally got me there.

At South Hill Mall (in hindsight the "Hill" should have been a tip-off) bought a DVD at FYE, walked to the nearby Borders, then took a bus to Parkland Transit Center.  I bought another drink at the AM/PMM next to that, making that my big Parkland experience, then took a bus to Tacoma Mall.

[NOW: That FYE is now closed. Borders, again is now defunct. Both buses were Pierce Transit.] 

Visited Suncoast and FYE in the Mall (bought a DVD at both places), got more photo memory cards at nearby OfficeMax, got a DVD at Half Price Books also nearby (got a DVD show that I had bought before but which was stolen in last year's trip), then went to the Tacoma Mall Transit Center and took a bus downtown Tacoma.

[NOW: That Suncoast is now closed. This bus was also Pierce Transit.]

Walked to King's Books and got permission to get a pic of the cat there (whenever I want permission to take a pic of a store cat, I ask to take a pic of the beautiful cat/lovely cat, that sort of thing).  I didn't pet it though because it was having its beauty sleep in front of the till.  Visited Stadium Video (I previously thought it was gone but someone told me in May that it was actually around the corner despite another store with the same address; true).  I visited Mother Records (gone), YMCA for a much needed late lunch (it was on Market St but there's very few if any real markets on that street), Buzzard's (got a couple DVDs), University Books (bought another drink; most drinks I had today were types of Arizona iced tea as they have a 99c price printed on the 680 mL can), then the Glass Bridge

[NOW: Buzzard’s folded into Stadium Video before both closed.]

The Glass Bridge is on the way to the Museum of Glass.  The bridge isn't actually made of glass, but there's two glass sculptures (also known by avian residents as "a perch"), plus a "tunnel" on the bridge where one side has glass vases etc on display.

I took the free TacomaLink streetcar to Tacoma Dome station, visited Tacoma Book Center,  and returned to the station for a bus downtown.

[The streetcar, now called Line T is Sound Transit. The bus downtown was one of the 590s/Sound Transit.]

I had to sit beside someone and shot over him but luckily he was sleeping so I had no real trouble shooting over him beyond the stop  signal cord being in the shots.  Of greater concern was a bread truck seemed to be in a race with the bus and kept blocking the view.  I would have been happy to declare it the winner if it meant getting more clear shots.   

I took another bus to 7-11 near Seattle Center, bought another ice tea there, then went to the International Fountain, actually using up over a full 2GB memory card taking photos there.  Before that though I "went in" the fountain again; all the running around in the heat had made me quite ripe and was glad for once to smell of chlorine or equivalent.

[NOW: The bus to Seattle Center was probably King County Metro Transit. This fountain is such that you’re not actually submerged because the water just goes down the drain and gets recirculated] 

A couple hours later I went to Pagliacci Pizza across from the Mercer St bus stop back to the hostel , bought a couple of slices and ate them waiting for the bus, then took a bus/walked back to the hostel.

[NOW:  The bus was King County Metro Transit. The Queen Anne branch of Pagliacci Pizza is now closed.]

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