5 Things To Do Today: Rick Steves, Downtown to Defiance, Shakespeare on speed, Dreamfest and more ...

By Volcano Staff on September 22, 2013

SUNDAY, SEPT. 22 2013 >>>

1. The Broadway Center welcomes travel guru Rick Steves to its Pantages Theater for a travel chat at 5 p.m. Steves - book author, Europe expert, pot smoker, global wanderer, TV host - has spent four months each year overseas for the last 30 years. According to pre-event hype, "Travel helps us appreciate the spiritual diversity of the planet while nourishing the soul of the traveler as he/she encounters the beautiful and the unique in new and unfamiliar places. Rick shares how the other 96 percent of humanity sees our nation and explores how his social activism has grown naturally out of his travel experiences."

2. Be prepared, Tacoma - prepared for a trail system the likes of which this city has never seen. We have the waterfront trail along Ruston Way. We have a network of trails in Point Defiance. But, until now, these two trails were so close, but so far. Downtown to Defiance: Sunday Parkways will usher in a new era - the beginning of these two trails coming together. The city of Tacoma, Metro Parks and Tacoma Pierce County Health Department have partnered up to close down one lane of the streets running from the Tacoma Dome to Point Defiance Park between 8 a.m. and noon, opening up almost seven miles of waterfront streets for cyclists, walkers and runners. Starting at 7:30 a.m., participants can gather at the T-Dome. The walk/ride along the parkways starts at 8.

3. Revered by fans and artists alike for it's fantastic stage, professional lighting and wonderful sound, Louie G's Pizzeria in Fife is loved in numbers. Beginning at 1 p.m., the venue's 2nd annual Dreamfest opens for day two action. Though the event is only in it's second year, it is shaping up to become the establishment's trademark music festival. For complete schedule, click here.

4. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) closes today at 2 p.m. in the Tacoma Little Theatre. The show is a whirlwind revue of the Bard's entire run of comedies, tragedies, histories and even sonnets in less than two hours. Imagine Monty Python on speed - except don't, because neither you nor aged British comedians should ever take speed. Stay in school, kids. we mean it.

5. Brian Lee & The Orbiters fills The Spar in Old Town Tacoma with blues beginning at 7 p.m. 

LINK: Sunday, Sept. 22 arts and entertainment events in the greater Tacoma and Olympia area