The Perfect Sunday in Proctor

FINALLY we woke up to this...Sunny Blue SKY!

yes, it was a joyous occasion that we fully took advantage of in every way we love to do. (Can you see that blue sky? It doesn't look blue in this picture but trust me it was.)

(Here this photo shows the sky is actually blue a bit better than the previous one.)

As I've mentioned before one of our favorite summer time treats is to be able to eat breakfast on the patio (yes, it's the simple things in life that make us happy!) So we made a salmon scramble (more about that soon.)

and devoured our breakfast while enjoying the blooming beauty in our own backyard.

Our second favorite thing to do on a lazy, warm, sunny Sunday morning is take a long walk in our neighborhood...

This is the Proctor District where we live.

Now for Washingtonians Tacoma is considered by some to be Seattle's ugly step sister of the two largest cities in the state. But we love our neighborhood and enjoy it's beauty, especially so on a day like this.

As we walk up into the business district we pass the community garden.

We've always thought about getting a plot here but are gone so much in the summer we never end up following through with our thoughts.

We pass our two grocery stores

the newly renovated Safeway

and our favorite Metropolitan Market. If only we had a Whole Foods...but this is as close as we get without making the trek to Seattle or Bellevue.

We pass the firehouse..

which luckily is quite today,

the cupcake shop...

the historic blue mouse theater

our closest Starbucks

and Knapp's restaurant.

I have lived in the Proctor District for almost 2o years now..Wow..and there isn't anywhere else in Tacoma that I'd really want to live.

There is just something about walks like this whether it's for a purpose...

going to pick a few groceries, or a coffee or a movie, or just a leisurely stroll like today.

Our walk takes us passed Mason Middle school where my father went to school.

It takes us past Puget park which my niece & nephew used to call the "little park"

because it is so much smaller than Jefferson park that also walk to from our house.

It takes us over the bridge

and past the local nursery.

Down the massive 34th street hill, that we'd really love to own a house on someday

and along the waterfront of the Puget Sound.

We head back up to a part of town known as Old Towne to pick up a coffee

at a different Starbucks...

Which is directly across from one of our frequent haunts

The Spar bar.

We walk back up the very steep hills getting our exercise and some sunshine. Sadly a bit too much for Mr. L on this walk as he forgot to put sunscreen on his neck.

When we finally arrive back home feeling glad for both the exercise and the time in sunshine we enjoy a quite afternoon with nothing on our agenda. A true pleasure.

We decide to end our fabulous day with another favorite thing to do on a warm evening... with a bottle of wine by the fire on the patio.

Oh, finally a day like this arrived. It was starting to feel like summer might actually never come to the Northwest. We were so thankful it did at least for just this one day!