Outdoors
With many eyes on Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Tacoma's Fourth of July festivals, you may think that is the beginning and end of it. Here are the Top 10 in the area we'd suggest:TACOMA AREA1. Freedom Fest:Let's start with Freedom Fest at JBLM, the annual celebration that invites the public
Outdoors
Red, white, blue and camouflage will be the thematic colors at Joint Base Lewis-McChord for its Freedom Fest celebration, which begins at noon on Independence Day. Civilians will get the chance to celebrate the holiday with members of the Armed Forces. The free event, now in its 20th year, will
Outdoors
With summer in full swing, many people are already thinking about how they will spend their 4th of July. It is the holiday that brings everyone together to celebrate the very freedoms that we enjoy each and every day. Whether you choose to stay at home to celebrate or travel
Features
The days are long, the grill is fired up, and baseball is in full-swing. And to complement those hallmarks of summer, especially the Fourth of July weekend, we can't forget the all-American hot dog. In the Puget Sound, we're not immediately known for hot dogs (more really for our coffee), and
Features
Summer weather screams for a backyard BBQ, sprinklers in the yard, and the sound of the ice cream truck roaming the neighborhood. But sometimes you just need to put the pot-luck burger aside and head out for a burger made by people who make them for a living. There are
Music
The term "Parrot Head" was coined in 1985 at a Jimmy Buffett concert in Cincinnati, Ohio. At the show, Jimmy commented about everyone wearing Hawaiian shirts and parrot hats and how they kept coming back to see his shows, just like Grateful Dead followers, Deadheads. Thus, the term "Parrot Head"
Travel
Do you dream of warm, sunny days on a sandy beach? Then you won't want to miss out on Port Townsend. A short road trip away, this vibrant beach community is less than a two-hour drive from Joint Base Lewis-McChord. One of only three Victorian waterfronts in the U.S., Port
Music
It is hot as hell in the Pacific Northwest, right about now. Still, something that always sits right with hot weather is music, and summer tends to burst with concerts and events to take your mind off the encroaching sun and its dastardly ways. In addition to the many events
Features
Not satisfied with the sub-par Chicago dog offerings in the Puget Sound, Debby Graham decided that with her close proximity to Joint Base Lewis-McChord, she most likely wasn't alone in her frustration. And rather than settle for less, she did something about it. She started her own business - Hometown
Music
For some readers, the phrase "concert band" conjures vivid memories. One strain of a Sousa march may be enough to remind us of strutting around in fuzzy hats playing "Baby Elephant Walk" for unimpressed football fanatics. Out here in the real world, concert band encompasses a variety of genres and
Music
An unfortunate thing that music fans in the South Sound have come to expect is for fun, new venues to bite the dust. Noise ordinances, safe-guards (damn those necessary sprinklers!), and generally obscene costs of upkeep tend to get the majority of new venues to bite the dust. This is
Arts
The Roger Shimomura painting exhibition at Tacoma Art Museum mines the tradition of pop art and the history of Japanese-American relations to skewer prejudice and stereotype with painfully satirical paintings. Shimomura, an American artist living in Seattle, was born to a Japanese family shortly before the outbreak of World War II.
Outdoors
Summer in Washington means warm weather and clear skies. This is the perfect time of year to get out and explore the beautiful scenery of the nearby lakes and inlets of the South Sound. Whether you want to sit down and kayak or stand up and paddleboard, there are several
Outdoors
The Fourth of July is one of the busiest days of the year for any theme park. That's especially true if the holiday's unseasonably hot or lands on a Saturday. Imagine the mayhem if a park boasts, not only roller coasters and thrill rides, but also a full-size water park.
Stage
Strindberg's classic play Miss Julie was extremely controversial when first produced in France at the end of the 19th century. This newly adapted version by Niclas Olson's New Muses Theatre Company and performed in Tacoma's Dukesbay Theater in the Merlino Arts Center building, is dark and slightly confusing, but definitely
Attractions
The Puget Sound is a maritime region. Even if you're not a boater, you can still delve into the local maritime heritage in plenty of ways - some of the best of which are festivals, museums and actual water vessels. Get up close and personal with submarines, Navy destroyers or
Music
We're entering the portion of summer where things really begin to pay off. I mean, some of you weirdos have been enjoying this hellscape we call Washington under the thumb of climate change, but we reasonable people have been locking ourselves indoors. But now, the truly exciting parts of summer
Features
One of my favorite things to do is to walk the different events and festivals and partake in all the different tasty offerings. Each event always has a little different feel and taste appeal to it, and Art on the Ave this Sunday on Tacoma's 6th Ave is no different.
Attractions
You know those road movies where the characters stop to see some colorful attraction - something like the world's largest ball of string or maybe Graceland? While such scenes typically seem to be set in the South (Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, for instance) or perhaps
Arts
The Southwest Washington Juried Exhibition at South Puget Sound Community College is better than your average juried exhibition. It's such a stellar collection of regional artists that I should be able to list the names and leave it at that, and readers would rush to see it. There are a lot