Please consider Washington’s reopening plan and check all recommended locations’ current status and hours prior to planning a visit.

I really don’t have to go far for this week’s Travel Local highlight, because it’s where we live… Tacoma, Washington! When Evan moved here, I had NO idea how much I would fall in love with this city that would later become my home too. The beaches, the parks, the food, the small businesses and just the community… this city has SO much to offer. So today we’re diving into some of my favorite places to hang out in our city.

Neighborhoods

Something I love about Tacoma is there are so many great neighborhoods within the city that all have different vibes. This, by all means, is not all of them but here are a few we spend a lot of time exploring.

Proctor

This is probably my favorite in the city. Proctor is such a cute neighborhood with gorgeous homes and a really cute downtown area with some of my favorite restaurants and shops — including Compass Rose, The Fernseed, Lapis, Waffle Stop and more! I also love their Farmers Market that takes place on Saturdays and has my FAVORITE scones from Upper Crust!

Stadium District

This was our old neighborhood and I love walking up and down the streets checking out the historic and victorian style homes. There are great food and bar options in the neighborhood and it also overlooks beautiful views of the water! We spent a lot of time at Shake Shake Shake, Indo Asian Street Eatery, and the Rhein Haus.

Downtown

Back when meeting up with friends was a thing (I miss you pre-COVID life), downtown was one of our spots we’d go. Pacific Avenue is a great place to grab a bite to eat and bar hop. A few blocks up, Antique Row is another cool spot to check out. Downtown is also where a lot of the museums and theatres are located!

6th Avenue

This is another hot spot for going out. 6th Ave kind of gives me vibes of my old neighborhood in Portland which I also really loved, so it’s no surprise I love this area! There are a ton of great bars and restaurants and it’s impossible to go wrong down there!

Dome District

The Tacoma Dome is known for hosting concerts and large events, but its neighborhood is also filled with unique things to do too — including shopping at Freighthouse Square (be sure to check out Adorned Abode!), the LeMay Car Museum, Tacoma Glassblowing Studio and more!

Favorite Beaches & Parks

I didn’t think I was a beach person until I moved to Tacoma. Obviously our beaches are a little different in Washington than other places but that’s why I love them! I can’t get enough of the rocky shores filled with driftwood and the regular seal spottings.

Owen Beach

I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent walking the waterfront at Owen Beach, I love it down there! It’s definitely one of my happy places. It’s so relaxing walking along the water and watching the seals swim around. It’s one of the more popular options so it can get busy during the summer but it’s a great option to visit year-round.

Point Defiance

We are so lucky to have a park like Point Defiance in Tacoma. It’s HUGE and there are so many different places to visit there — a little something for everyone. It’s actually where Owen beach is too. I love spending time in the flower gardens when they bloom, walking one of the many trails, visiting the Point Defiance Zoo, Owen Beach, Fort Nisqually, and taking in the views on the 5-mile drive!

Chambers Bay

Since we bought our townhouse, I’ve been spending more time at Chambers Bay, which is technically in University Place, but I group them together because they’re so close. This park is huge since it also has a golf course and I love walking on the rocky beaches or walking around on the walking trail.

Ruston Way

Another super popular option (especially in the summer) is Ruston Way. I love walking along the water down there and it hands down has the best views with Mt. Rainier peeking out in the background. At the end of Ruston Way there’s also a ton of development going up full of restaurants, shops and their own market.

Titlow Beach

We are SO spoiled with so many beach options! Titlow Beach is another great one to visit (and yes, that’s really its name). This one is on the other side of Tacoma near the Narrows and it has ample rocky beaches to enjoy. It’s also a go-to for kayaking for us.

Food

The food scene is hopping in Tacoma and there are still so many places we haven’t even tried yet! These are the spots that are on our tried and true rotate list though!

Shake Shake Shake

We used to live across the street from Shake Shake Shake and it was dangerous.. in the best kind of way! You cannot go wrong with any of their burgers, hot dogs or their delicious shakes. SO. DANG. GOOD!

Dirty Oscar’s Annex

If you’re looking for a bomb brunch or lunch Dirty Oscar’s Annex is the place to go. When you walk in, it has casual bar vibes but their food is Ah-mazingggg. You can’t go wrong with anything you order there.

Happy Belly

For delicious and healthy bites you need to make a stop at Happy Belly! Their menu is vegetarian focused plus they offer an amazing juice bar. Literally the besttt spot for a tasty lunch, juice or smoothie!

Pomodoro

Pomodoro is the perfect date spot in the adorable neighborhood of Proctor that serves up seriously delicious Italian. There’s a reason it was voted Tacoma’s Best Italian by the readers of Tacoma Weekly!

Cactus

We’re obsessed with the queso and margaritas at Cactus! SO dang delicious. There are other locations than just in Tacoma but we’re so glad they’re here now too!

Waffle Stop

If you ask me to go to brunch in Tacoma I’m probably going to take you to Waffle Stop. Because hello… waffles! These aren’t just any ordinary waffles either, they’ve gotten really clever with some of their menu items including one of my favorites, the messy but oh so delicious monte carlo sandwich.

Art House Cafe

Another great brunch spot is Art House Cafe in the Stadium District! It has cozy vibes and I love that the menu is built around local and in-season options. Everything is just always very fresh tasting.

Katie Downs

If my mom is visiting, you’re probably going to find us at Katie Downs! It’s one of our favorite places to go to Happy Hour and enjoy gorgeous views on the water. We usually order a bunch of their appetizers but they’re also well-known for their pizzas.

La Cà Bar

Pho! Something I didn’t realize was missing from my life until I moved back to the PNW was pho and I’m obsessed these days. My personal favorite is La Cà Bar off of 6th Avenue and let’s just say we’re regulars in the fall and winter!

Ice Cream Social

If you’re looking for some sweetness in your life, Ice Cream Social is the spot! They have two locations in Tacoma and you cannot beat their all-natural, homemade, local ice cream! They rotate flavors each month and my mouth is watering just thinking about them. My favorite that got added to the everyday menu is their Almond Poppyseed. Holy YUM!

Bars & Breweries

We also have a ton of unique bars to go to throughout the city, which makes going out so much more fun! Some of these are temporarily closed right now because of COVID but save this for later so you can check them out and support them when they’re back!

Triple Knock

Pinball bar, need I say more? I’m convinced there’s nothing more fun than enjoying a brew while playing pinball and Triple Knock delivers! If I’m being honest, I’m not even very good at pinball but it’s still fun nonetheless!

McMenamins Elk Temple

If you read my Olympia travel guide you know I loveeee me a McMenamins and the Elk Temple takes the cake for my favorite! It’s HUGE! It’s 7 floors and there are a variety of restaurants and bars, a tasting room, hotel, concert venue and even a hidden bar. It’s bomb and you could spend a whole evening exploring different areas.

The Red Hot

Craft beer and hot dogs FTW! The Red Hot is the spot to enjoy some quality beer or ciders and also get adventurous with their hot dog creations!

Rhein Haus

If you’re in the mood for German beer, grub and some bocce ball or miniature golf, Rhein Haus is the spot. Yes, they really have all of that inside! It’s a great spot to watch sports in the fall or enjoy some time by their fireplaces in the winter too!

The Camp Bar

If you love camping, or are just looking for an awesome local dive bar, The Camp Bar is where you need to go! Their decor is filled with fun camping vibes, they have bomb food and you can even order tableside s’mores!

7 Seas Brewery and Taproom

If I had to pick my favorite place to go out with friends, this is it! 7 Seas Brewery is the best! It’s located in Hilltop in a huge warehouse building and I just love the vibes. Plus their beer is BOMB, we love to do the tastings although the IPA is my all-time fav. 3uilt Tacoma is also located there and they have amazing sandwiches!

Locust Cider

If ciders are more your thing (I also love them) you’ll definitely want to check out Locust Cider. It’s located on 6th Avenue and is such a fun spot where you can have tasting and play board games. I’m all about the tasting and checking out their rotating ciders too!

Parkway Tavern

Last but definitely not least, Parkway Tavern is another one of our go-tos — especially when we lived in the Stadium District. It’s a great chill bar that has a ton of brews on tap and they also have games in the back! Can you tell, I like having things to do when we go out? Highly recommend!

There are so many awesome things to do on a visit to Tacoma, these recommendations don’t only touch the surface! This should give you a good starting point though. Have other favs? Drop them in the comments!

P.S. Want to keep up with my adventures around Tacoma and the PNW? Follow along on Instagram!

Visiting Austin has been on my travel bucket-list for awhile now. So when we got the opportunity to plan a getaway to the city to celebrate Evan’s 30th Birthday, you know I was PUMPED! Plus, it was our first big trip together (eek) and we both came out alive, so I think that’s a good sign right?! Ha. In all seriousness though, this trip was so much fun to plan and explore together. Since Austin is pretty close to a few other cities, we also decided to squeeze in a few day trips too — one to Waco (because I’m a basic Fixer Upper fan) and another to San Antonio!

Austin

I reallyyy loved Austin! I’ve heard it be compared to Portland a lot and I can totally see the connection. I think if I had a good comparison to where I’ve been before I’d say it was a mix between Portland and Nashville. Portland for the hipster and foodie scene and Nashville for the wide collection of live music + a little bit of a country flair (although not as much as I thought). It was interesting too because even though Austin is home to nearly a million people, it felt really manageable. Like, driving downtown Seattle scares the crap out of me, but we drove all over the place downtown and it wasn’t bad at all. Plus the city is pretty easy to navigate (and I’m a terrible navigator) so that’s saying something. Def a solid city! So let’s get down to the nitty gritty on some of my recs on things to do on your visit.

Get your Grub on

Not that this will surprise you, but one of the things I was most excited about checking out in Austin was the grub! And it did not disappoint! Between bomb bbq, tacos and food trucks galore, Austin’s food choices were grubbing! Here were some of my favorites

• La Barbecue: If you go to one place to eat in Austin, let it be La Barbecue. Seriously. We were going to order some pork ribs but everyone in line ahead of us was ordering the beef ribs, so we joined in too in fear of missing out. The ribs were insanely huge but so. dang. good.

• Torchy’s Tacos: This was recommended from one of my friends and it was solid! It’s actually a chain but they have SO many options and it was very tasty.

• Bird Bird Biscuit: I actually found this place on Instagram and we had to check it out! It’s a little off the beaten path from downtown (or I think so at least lol) but I’m so glad we checked it out. The food was so tasty plus the restaurant is just super adorbs!

Get Your History on at the Capitol Building

Austin is the capitol after all! While we were looking for parking downtown, we ended up near the capitol building and decided to take a peek inside where we stumbled into one of the tours starting. It was the first full day of our trip, and I have to say I know way more about Texas’ capitol than Washington’s now. 🙈I may need to look into a visit to Olympia soon! Truly, the tour was pretty cool though and it was interesting to learn a little history before getting set free to wander all over the building.

Check out the Bats under the Congress Bridge

In normal circumstances I think the idea of going to see bats might freak me out a little bit. Although I did like to hike through bat caves growing up… but this is definitely a sight to see! Not only is the population of Austin expanding in people but it also has the largest urban community of bats! We opted to take one of the boat tours along the water which was great not only to see the bats come out but also to learn more about the city and take in the views. As cheesy as tour buses and what not can seem sometimes, they are suchhh a good way to learn about the cities you visit. The tour was awesome and we learned a lot plus saw a ton of bats. Guys, there’s 1.5 million of them! Although who is counting those? No matter how many there are if you’re visiting during prime season (somewhere between May and October) definitely make time to check this out.

Learn to 2-Step at the White Horse

You can’t visit Austin without hitting up a honkey tonk, right?! I think before this trip, I was expecting the city to be a littleee more country — I mean it is Texas after all. We got our dose of country in though learning to two step while wearing matching plaid shirts. No that wasn’t planned… and yes we got crap from a few people that night haha. No matter what you wear though, it was a fun little spot to check out in East Austin and definitely a place where it seems like more locals go, which was cool.

Seek out some Street Art

Austin is busting at the seams with street art! Like seriously, the city is SO colorful which naturally my little Bold & Pop color loving self ate that up! Which btw, you can get locations of some of these walls here. Here were a few of my favorites.

Get your Pub Crawl on at Rainey Street

Last but definitelyyy not least in Austin, Rainey Street is suchhh a blast! It’s kind of the Bourbon street or Broadway of Austin and it was just a really fun scene. There was live music at just about every bar which was awesome and pretty much every place had a tonnn of outdoor space — perks to living in a warmer climate. I imagine it gets pretty nuts on the weekends (we were there Wednesday and Thursday) but it was so much fun and it felt like a lot of locals also hit up the scene so it’s not totally just touristy. A few of my favorite places we went to were:

• Container Bar: This bar is built out of storage containers which was so neat and unique. They also had hoola hooping lessons that night to keep things interesting.

• Unbarlievable: Guys, this may have been my favorite bar ever… I mean, there was a slide in the bar! Say whattt?! And yes, I went down several times! They also had a giraffe statue outside and beanbag chairs in the backyard. SOLD!

• Banger’s Sausage House and Beer Garden: This place was also a blast. They had a huge selection of beer — expected at a beer garden I suppose and they have a giant outdoor space. We caught some live music and it was a great place to chill.

Austin, you definitely get two thumbs up from me!

Waco

When I realized that Waco was only an hour and a half from Austin, I had to make a case to include that on our trip! Lucky for me Evan agreed just about as soon as I suggested it. Totally necessaryyyy for this die-hard Fixer Upper fan girl! Full disclosure, we visited Waco for the sole reason of visiting the Magnolia Market & Silos Baking Co.. Which I imagine as a resident of Waco it might be a smidge bit annoying… but at the same time it’s also put Waco on the map for tourism so I imagine the local economy has benefitted from that.

It’s funny because Waco was just about everything I expected it to be. I had read a lot of reviews about the downtown district and people just thinking it was something it wasn’t because of the how it was portrayed on TV, but for me it really hit the nail on the head for what I was expecting. Maybe being from a small town (much smaller than Waco) set my expectations on that, but it pretty much lived out what I would visioned a small town in Texas to be like. Which truthfully it’s really not that small, 136k people live there, but it definitely still has that smaller city kind of vibe. It reminded us a lot of Ellensburg in Washington actually, if you’re familiar.

One thing I actually wasn’t expecting was that the market was actually right downtown! I think since Chip and Joanna live on a farm (actually not in Waco at all) I just envisioned the silos being more out in the country, and not so centralized but they’re actually right smack dab in the middle of downtown which surprised me. Maybe I missed that point on the show?! The market and bakery were everything and more that I could have dreamed of too. I’m not a big crowd person, but we went on a Thursday and the space is so big that it wasn’t too crazy, all things considered — although I hear Saturdays are reallyyyy nuts! Which btw, they aren’t open on Sunday so Saturday is your one weekend shot.

We started out our visit at the bakery to pick up some cupcakes. Apparently the wait can get nuts on the weekend, but we hit the timing right and only waited about 10 minutes. I can’t give enough props to the staff too, everyone was just incredibly friendly and had their system down to give everyone the best experience in a timely manner. The cupcakes were delightful too. I ordered a pumpkin spice (of course) and Evan got the campfire one — both of the seasonal options. I always appreciate a cupcake with a great frosting to cake ratio too and these were on pointttt!

The great thing about the grounds too is it’s been thought out SO well. They really created a space with a family experience in mind. The actual shop was a little crowded, but nothing I didn’t expect. Truthfully, I could have just sipped on some sweet tea and sat in one of their porch swings all day. They also had an impressive food truck selection, an area for kids to play, tons of picnic tables and a gardening area. Even the bathrooms were nice and not too crowded and I expected those to be a zoo.

If you’re a fan of the show, it’s 100% worth a day trip too if you’re staying in the area. There are also quite a few cute other little shops nearby the market and a Dr. Pepper museum if you’re into that. We also played creeper status a little bit and drove by a few of the houses they remodeled that were nearby too. Just LOVE their work!

San Antonio

Our last stop on the trip was San Antonio, and I have to say it was even cooler than I thought it was going to be. Truth be told, I was swampedddd with work before this trip (as well as a few other trips I had in the weeks prior) so Evan pretty much planned most of the spots we checked out and I truly didn’t know much about San Antonio before we went. Plus it was also only about an hour away from Austin so I’m glad we could add it to the trip. Our stop here was short so we mostly stuck to the touristy things to do but it was still so much fun! Here were some of my favorites in San Antonio:

• The Alamo: I feel like this is kind of a must for a visit to San Antonio and it was something that Evan was really excited about. It’s right downtown so it was easy to navigate to and we definitely got our dose of history in.

• La Villita Historic Arts Village: On our way back to our hotel, we came across an adorable little village square with a bunch of different shops that were really cute.

• River Walk: You can’t go to San Antonio without visiting the River Walk. Yes, it’s kind of touristy, but it’s so cool that there’s a little river running through the collection of shops, restaurants, and hotels. We ate at the oldest Mexican restaurant on the walk, Casa Rio that had the iconic umbrellas. Then later on we also stopped at the walk’s oldest bar The Esquire Tavern, which was also a neat place. We also opted to take one of the boat tours which was another fun part of learning about the history of the River Walk.

Texas, you were so good to us! This trip was such a blast and I’m so happy we were able to squeeze so many different places in and get a good mix of touristy and local spots in. Always nice when you get to see a little of both! Until next time, yehaw!