An Adventure in Edgewood

Our adventure in Edgewood began with booking a reservation for an ABNB (Air Bed and Breakfast) hosted by Lanis. Edgewood is a fast-growing city (population of 9387 in the 2010 census.) tucked in-between Fife, Milton, Federal Way, Sumner, and Puyallup. Sometimes you can leave Edgewood on your way to a different location in Edgewood. Our adventure in Edgewood resulted in crossing those lines repeatedly. The ABNB is the second offering owned by the same couple who provided an apartment in downtown Puyallup recently – thesubtimes.com/2020/02/04/living-in-downtown-puyallup-an-abnb-adventure/

We had a lovely basement apartment with a secluded view of naked, winter trees sometimes wearing moss, sometimes not.

While Peg made herself at home, I drove to Dollar Tree. Part of our trip would involve an evening in Issaquah with a return around midnight. There were steps leading down to the apartment and it struck me that we might want to have a flashlight to help guide us in the middle of the night. I bought two flashlights and batteries. They provided us with the enlightenment we sought.

After relaxing and reading for a couple of hours, we left for an early dinner at Giorgio’s in downtown Puyallup. The main street in Puyallup is Meridian, a major arterial which runs from Edgewood down to the Puyallup Valley, across the Puyallup River and upwards to South Hill and beyond. In the heart of Puyallup Meridian is one-way headed south. We’ve been caught in constantly streaming traffic before, so we wanted to avoid the auto-onslaught. We drove down Meridian and turned right just past Pioneer Park and found a spot for our car roughly forty feet from the door of Giorgio’s. While Peg went inside to secure our private booth, I walked around the sculpture I call “Baby in Hand,” but is really titled “BEGINNING” by Sabah Al-Dhaher. A simple walk around Pioneer Park and along Meridian reveals many interesting pieces of Art. I love art that transcends borders . . . all borders. “Sabah Al-Dhaher was a political prisoner of Saddam Hussein prior to Operation Desert Storm, kept alive only because he would make works of art for his guards.” Born in Nasriyah, Iraq, he now lives in Seattle.

After a wonderful dinner we drove back to the apartment. Going north in Puyallup and Edgewood during rush hour is a piece of cake compared to going south. Back at the ABNB we relaxed. I read, while Peg enjoyed the large screen TV and played the electronic remotes.

Friday morning, Valentine’s Day, I was up early. It was going to be a long day. While Peg slept in, I stepped outside and was shocked by the constant roar of traffic off in the distance. I-5 must be a mile away or better and the Port of Tacoma is probably four or five miles away with Tacoma another four or five miles, I could see them all through the trees. The morning sun lit up the Port, downtown and the Hilltop area of Tacoma. The huge warehouses and office buildings now covering once bountiful fields of food crops appear as finger lakes with their flat roofs acting as catch basins.

I walked to my car and left Edgewood behind as I crossed into Milton for breakfast at Dave’s of Milton. If I had continued on the same road I would have been back in Edgewood within a quarter of a mile. Jennifer served my coffee and excellent hash browns. Beside me there was one man waiting for a “to go” order and two tables of seniors out celebrating Valentine’s Day. Jennifer was friendly. She wiped off my table saying, “You deserve a clean surface you make your own mess on.” My table and another close by hadn’t received the final clearing from the night before. One of the seniors advised I had dropped something. I looked down and laughed. I don’t like to put my baseball cap on the table, and have lost many that I simply laid on another chair; so I usually place my cap so it fits nicely on my knee. This time it had fallen off (a rarity). Dave’s of Milton was a nice friendly place. I will return for Chicken Fried Steak sometime in the future.

Leaving Milton, I drove back to the valley. Creeks and streams abound all around the rich valley floor and are major sites of beauty if you know where to look. Mostly, you have to enjoy the views from roads. Fences as well as the rich earth would make short work of oxfords or sneakers, protecting the wildness.

The shoots and leaves of vibrant spring grasses had turned into wild tangles of winter grey and brown. Each season brings a new look with new growth. The twisted snarls remind me of my own image in the morning mirror. My mirror image probably won’t change much in the next couple of months, but spring will soon be here and change the grey and brown.

On our previous drive through downtown Puyallup we had seen My Lil’ Cube, an Asian Café. We returned on Friday and parked in front about a quarter after noon. We stepped into the restaurant and soon had a table by a window. It’s not a huge place, as you could probably tell from their name. We were shocked when we were told that they were out of dumplings. An Asian restaurant being out of dumplings would be like a Texas BBQ being out of ribs. We made do with a wonderful pork appetizer, an order of tempura, and a corn and ramen miso soup. There was a constant stream of people from babies to adults. (All babies and children were accompanied by their parents.) We had never heard of My Lil’ Cube, but enjoyed their food – m.facebook.com/My-Lil-Cube-Ramen-and-Asian-Cuisine-1492551467679634/

She Loves Me is the perfect Valentine’s Day gift. At a Christmas family dinner in Edgewood my daughter-in-law’s sister Christie and I talked about plays. She mentioned that the Village Theatre was producing Guys and Dolls in January and She Loves Me in February. Christie, her husband Scott, her sister Wendy, our daughter-in-law, and her Nancy and Brent, her parents, had tickets for Valentine’s Day. They have been season ticket holders for years. I asked her about additional tickets. Done deal. Peg and I joined their group for the Valentine celebration. Almost all of the actors belonged to Actor’s Equity Association (meaning professional getting-paid actors). It was like attending an evening at the Fifth Avenue in Seattle except our fourth row center seats costs less than $60 each instead of considerably more. The musical was outstanding. The voices and the acting were exceptional. Very, very entertaining. She Loves Me is one of our favorite musicals. I only wish we had been able to attend Guys and Dolls as well.

Peg and I met the musical loving group at four-thirty on Friday afternoon. Wendy, Christie and Scott live within half a mile of our ABNB and Nancy and Brent’s home. Christie and Wendy’s parents live perhaps a mile away from our ABNB, also in Edgewood. Wendy drove. We met up with Scott at Chinoise, an Asian restaurant in the Issaquah Highlands above Issaquah. If Peg and I had known we would be eating Asian, we might have chosen a different restaurant for lunch, but we enjoy Asian and all kinds on cuisine, so it didn’t really matter. After a leisurely dinner we drove down to Issaquah and the Village Theatre. The theatre crowd was friendly and fun. We chatted with our seated neighbors like we were old friends. Afterward, Wendy drove like a professional through the dark with pouring rain and we arrived back in Edgewood a little after midnight.

Saturday morning we slept in till almost nine. We packed up and thanked our hosts. I wanted Peg to have breakfast at the quiet Meridian Café where I had enjoyed breakfast two weeks earlier. At that time, I walked through the nearly empty restaurant and enjoyed a quiet and relaxed meal. However, that had been during the week. This was Saturday morning. I had to park a block away. There were very few seats open and instead of one friendly waitress there were six busy, busy, busy waitresses taking orders, delivering food and picking up the dishes on the tables. Peg asked for a breakfast sandwich without cheese. Impossible. The sandwiches are prepared elsewhere and they come-as-they-are. Just the idea of a pre-arranged sandwich put us both off a bit. The hash browns were brown as I had requested, but there was a lot of white in the middle. We left disappointed. We should have gone to the West Pioneer Grill. Next time, perhaps.

We hate to leave town on a downward note, which would be very unusual, so we made one more stop. For our last stay in Puyallup we stayed at a wonderful ABNB owned by the same couple that provided our Valentine Day rest – abnb.me/M82QHxU7O2

The ABNB was on the second floor, but right next door was a woman’s consignment shop, Ashley’s Room at 206 S. Meridian. I dropped Peg off and parked around the corner right in front of the West Pioneer Grill. Peg found a bracelet and earrings she wanted as well as a plaid shawl and warm plaid blanket . . . very Celtic choices. I pointed to a 50% Off sign for a collection of purses. Soon Peg had one great selection to carry her art supplies. We left Edgewood and Puyallup happy and pleased with our short stay.