Tacoma At Night (during the Christmas season)

Well, no doubt by now people far and wide have heard of Tacoma, WA, and more specifically Lakewood, WA. Neither place is really where you want to be at night. Alone. Willingly. And purposefully. And now i guess horrific crimes are non-descriminant of the time of day there.

However, we've come to know Lakewood a little better as that is where we attend church now, at St. Frances Cabrini Parish, where my bro in law is the priest. The people there are good ol' hometown type people. Even though Lakewood is just a little town sucked into the urban sprawl that now marries Everett/Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia...almost all the way to Chelhalis,WA.

We like Lakewood. We wouldn't want to live there, but the people there are welcoming. It's got a *huge* reputation for being home to some real bad asses--most police calls involve not just 2 officers, but 6 or 7 squad cars--even for something as simple as "reported domestic situations." They don't fool around in Lakewood, and now the world gets to see why their officers are always so anxious to dive in and help responding officers at the scene.

However, Saturday night, we found ourselves in Lakewood, Tacoma, and a little neighbourhood called Proctor. We initially went into Proctor to it's charming downtown to acquire a pair of ghillies for Tiger Toes for her up and coming jiggin' at the Christmas recital. We ended up in the toy store...and needless to say, almost were late for Mass. You can never take us to a toy store!

On our way back through T-town to Lakewood, i got some good pictures of town. The blue columns below are actually hand blown glass from noteworthy glass artist Dale Chihuly. His Museum of Glass is nearby and has lots of beautiful pieces around the downtown vicinity.

Then there is Tiger Toes' favourite sign...


And thankfully the eagle eyed Moose caught this beauty.

I think it screams Christmas card.

However, no matter how much good i can show you from Tacoma, there is still nothing that can erase the horror of what you see on the media outlets. Today and tonight will be spent praying that they apprehend the evil man who could concieve of gunning down 4 police officers, let alone 4 fellow human beings. It baffles me to no end to see how far God will allow people to use their free will He gave them--yet we must keep our faith in Him strong. Just another thing i suppose i should pray about.