I felt, last week, like Dorothy in reverse, coming back to a black and white Kansas after an amazing trip to Oz.  Maui was everything cliché about “tropical paradise” and after a week of that, to come home to grey skies and drizzle and a pesky post-flight malaise that seems to be a lingering low-grade viral headache funk, “home” seems anticlimactic.

I want to click my slippers and say, “there’s no place like Maui, there’s no place like Maui,” but it won’t do me any good; the wee one’s got school, the man has business trips, and I have a life to return to.

So it was with my state of mind last week; I was grouchy, grumpy, tired, and a whole lot of no fun to be around.

I forced myself out and about, though, and found some “only in T-Town” delights that helped bolster my mood:

Third Thursday Art Walk was fun.  I loved the energy and hyped vibe surrounding the very cool Helm Gallery, and I loved the family spirit that was Sanford and Son. James Hume’s pop-o-rama slices of Tacoma met up with five new works by Jeff Olson, just back from a summer of nature-lovin’ in Oregon.

Public parks rock.  On a bike ride through Point Defiance Park, I noted the “Ride for US” event, an eagle scout project, a Sierra Club trail works project, and three weddings.  Later in the day, as we went to the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, I noted two more weddings and two octopi, the highlight of the wee one’s trip.

While construction underway for a new and improved, expanded Kid Zone made for an obstructed park, I really liked the improvements made to the aquarium recently, as well as the goat grooming in the Kid Zone. 

We also had fun at the new and improved Puget Park in Tacoma’s Proctor Business District, after which a painting play-date at Art and Soul warmed us up.

Wieners rule.  The significant one and I finally stopped by The Red Hot, on a date night out with two friends.  The names and descriptions of the dogs made me laugh, the Frito pie made me drool, the Roger’s pilsner made me happy, and the whole experience â€" the ambiance, the people, the music, the conversation â€"made me realize:  I love Tacoma. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler