Oscar’s Enemies photo credit! In September we made it out to a few of our High 5 activities like Tacoma Clay Day and Oscar’s Enemies Lincoln District litter pick-up event. Catch the next litter pick up day on Saturday, October 23rd - rsvp here!
Tacoma High 5 is our way to nudge you toward what we love about Tacoma, toward 5 things that bring balance to our life in the city. It’s a short list with a commitment to the local—it embraces the season, invites delight, celebrates a spirit of exploration, and encourages some generosity as well. For October we’re continuing with our 5 categories:
Community Event
Sweet Treat
Exploration & Adventure
Local Love
Volunteering & Sharing
This list is about choosing to participate in the place we call home, and it’s about small things that make one day distinct from another so that it becomes part of the story of summer, the kind of time about which you say, “Hey, remember when…” And it’s nothing huge like, “Remember when we knocked out the kitchen wall and spent the next 6 months figuring out what to do next” or “Remember when we quit our jobs and started a business?” Nope. It’s more like those small remember-whens, the remember-whens you have about a day when you just stepped outside your routine and lived in the present. If you’re thinking, “Of course we’re living in the present! What else is there?” we think you’ll fit right in here.
Maybe we’ll see you out there this month! But if we don’t see you, we hope you’re doing okay, and that someone else saw you instead and gave you a friendly wave and a big hello.
Image from Tacoma Night Market
1. Community Event - Tacoma Night Market at Point Ruston
Saturdays, October 2nd, 16th & 30th
3 - 9 pm
The Tacoma Night Market lives on, and boy are we all glad about that! Find it at Point Ruston’s Grand Plaza every other Saturday this month. The October markets focus especially on the arts, and you’ll soon see why.
Image from Tacoma Sunday Market
Bonus Event: The Tacoma Sunday Market at Alma Mater
Sunday, October 10th
11 am - 4 pm
The Tacoma Sunday Market (a market you may know and love from its Lincoln District summer spot) is opening a new season at Alma Mater, so now you have one more weekend of outdoor markets accounted for - thank goodness!
Image from The Cat & Rabbitt
2. Sweet Treat - The Cat & Rabbitt Cakeshop
Cake by the slice! Tis the season when chilliness and fog and bluster begins to set upon us. Embrace the weather with a hot pot of tea, or a steaming cup of coffee, and a hefty slice of layer cake (we’re serious, these slices are no joke). The Cat & Rabbitt is a window of delight on 6th Ave. Really, it is a window! You stand on the sidewalk desperately trying to choose between so many lusciously wonderful layer cakes, and then finally choose, and then are not sorry because you can’t go wrong. See what flavors they’re baking, and get “sold out” updates by staying in touch on Instagram and Facebook.
Image from Tacoma Arts
3. Exploration & Adventure - Tacoma Arts Month
Tacoma Arts Month is celebrating 20 years! And since this is the Exploration & Adventure section of our list, we’re not going to tell you what to do, how to do it, or where to go. Okay, we’ll tell you to link up with the astonishingly wide array of arts events and experiences on the Tacoma Arts Month Events page, Facebook page, and Instagram too. But you have to explore and figure this out! Choose a day and just see what’s happening, or commit to one arts experience each week, or go wild and crazy, make it a variety show and try to see a film, hear a concert, watch a dance, take in an exhibit, and create something of your own.
4. Local Love - The Borderless Kitchen: Rustic, Ranch Style, Traditional Foods
Images from The Borderless Kitchen
Even if you haven’t heard of The Borderless Kitchen, you may be more familiar with it than you think. The same Molly Alvarado who founded and organized the La Paloma Marketplace, countless seasonal feasts and holiday events, and took care of us with tamales by the dozen as Molly’s Tamales during Covid (and in the before times too) is re-envisioning her way of working. Meet The Borderless Kitchen, a place to take cooking classes (learn to make tamales, gnocchi, and sauces from scratch), a place to gather for seasonal crafts, a place to order tamales-to-go, a place to turn to when you need a beautiful charcuterie board for a party. The Borderless Kitchen is all that, but it’s more. It’s about tradition and creativity, culture and sharing, learning skills and finding inspiration. Show The Borderless Kitchen some of our local Tacoma love. Explore her offerings, sign up for a Craft & Create class to celebrate Dia de los Muertos , choose a wine tasting and gnocchi making night, or set up a private cooking class (invite some friends, host is free!) at her outdoor kitchen.
Find more about Molly and The Borderless Kitchen and keep up with what’s on offer in the months to come at the new website, or on Facebook, and Instagram.
5. Volunteering & Sharing - Bags of Kindness with Tacoma Public Library
Image from Tacoma Public Library
Now through October 30th, drop by your favorite Tacoma Public Library branch with items to contribute to the Bags of Kindness project. The bags full of essential items will be given to people in need of these basic supplies (like toothpaste, deodorant, warm hats, some food items, bandages) needed for health, comfort, and wellness. You can help! Here’s the list of what’s needed, get lots of one thing, cover the whole list, or choose an item of or two. No contribution is too small.
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