Tacoma, Washington: Brown & Haley Almond Roca Factory Store

This adorable building originally comes from Seattle, at the time of the 1962 Century 21 Exposition. More specifically,  it was where Elvis rested between filming scenes of It Happened at the World's Fair.

Now it sits outside the Brown & Haley factory, source of Almond Roca and Mountain Bars.

If the rotating Almond Roca tin on top is not proof enough, wait until you get inside!

While there is no longer a factory tour, there is memorabilia inside and a piece of equipment outside.

But the real star is the candy.

Reviews consistently exclaim about the low prices, and that is accurate. 

You can come away with quite the haul. We spoke to a shopper stocking up on Mountain Bars, but worried about whether they would fit into the saddlebags on his motorcycle.

I appreciated that long with great selection on their own candy lines, they also had products from Liberty Orchards, makers of Applets & Cotlets, because customers are often looking for the other Washington brands. I appreciate that they care. 

That was reflected in the great customer service, making the entire thing a good experience.

COVID: The store is pretty small, and the business is fairly brisk, but you can also get out pretty quickly. I did wear a mask, but online ordering is an option.

Accessibility: There is a ramp, but I can imagine the door and the inside of the shop being a bit tricky to navigate, just based on size. That also makes the online ordering advantageous.

https://www.brown-haley.com/roca-stores

Portland: Bloom Tour 2023

I have explored seasonal local art displays multiple times on this blog -- Winterland PDX, two years of the Winter Light Festival, and Project Illumination -- but they have been overwhelmingly winter-themed. The 2023 Bloom Tour is all about the spring.

If the need for a winter boost is more obvious, Portland is the City of Roses. It makes sense celebrating our blooms.

In terms of city exploration, it has more stops than Project Illumination, but is more contained than some of the other festivals, with all of the installations on the West side, both North and South.

It ended up requiring three different trips to see everything, but there were multiple factors involved, including being combined with other activities.

In some ways participation is easier: exhibits can be temporary and nothing needs to be lit up.

At the same time, the exhibits can be much more ephemeral. Some planned for fading, or started with plants that were already dried.

 Some used other materials to give the impression of flowers.

I admit to favoring the ones with real flowers, but some of them were done where you were not necessarily sure.

We know most about the technique used by Jen Rich of Rich Earth Designs, who created sister windows at Crafty Wonderland on SW 10th and Event Cosmetics around the corner on Taylor.

For the multi-week festival she has a plan that included the metamorphosis into a monarch butterfly, where the chrysalis will fade before sprouting flowery wings. 

We know this from a delightful conversation with Event Cosmetics founder Katherine Sealy, who incorporated botanical samples and a photo booth with floral props, while pointing us toward local businesses and telling us more about the tour.

It is nice to walk around and find new things to see, but the tour is a wonderful business opportunity. For example, Mercantile Portland on Alder displays art by local artist Boo Johnson, but also takes advantage of spring floral prints in the clothing displays.

Getting everything coordinated right between a business and an artist (and possibly between artist and florist) is not easy, but it can result in displays that really capture beloved aspects of the city, like this display by Gone West PDX outside World Foods on NW Everett.

The Bloom Tour continues through June 30th, but in what condition? The Pioneer Courthouse Square display seems to have already disappeared, though there are still plenty of hanging baskets and greenery.

For now, there is plenty to see. and many of the installations are clustered together, where you can at least see a few with relatively little effort. Yes, it can be easy to get sidetracked.

COVID: One way the web page is not accurate is that it shows only two of the installations being inside.. it is more than that. Still, the majority of the pieces are at least visible from outside, if not actually outside. Some places did have staff masking as well.

(Different kind of masks, outside of The Fossil Cartel on SW Taylor)

Accessibility: Pretty good, with walking access to everything, and most places being not just close to public transportation but specifically to MAX and Streetcar.

https://downtownportland.org/2023-bloom-tour/

Japanese American Museum of Oregon

This is one of the best museums in Portland. That is even more impressive considering its small size.

The entrance is on 4th, and you need to be let in. This allows them to greet you, answer questions, and give handouts.

Along with a flyer for an upcoming exhibit, each of us was handed a different passbook, with a photo and information about an internee from Oregon. Group members are encouraged to trade, so you can learn about more people.

The museum is organized around the internment, and done very well. You start with a model of Portland's Japantown.

It is easy to forget that it ever existed, because the traces are gone. How that happened -- and that it happened -- are important to remember.

We then see artifacts of those lives. Many of our residents were farmers, and some had a famous celery variety, Golden Plume:

There are relics of Boy Scouts and beauty queens, and a whole dentist set up.

Then the war comes. You can hear the radio broadcast, looking at a typical living room set up.

Multimedia is an important part of the experience. As well as looking and reading, you can hear the voices of former internees being interviewed.

Little touches make the history more vivid, like full fly strips in the recreated barracks.

 It is worth remembering that there are people alive today who were in the camps as children.

A section followed on those who got out of the camps by enlisting.

The subject of my passbook, Frank Hachiya, was one of them. He was shot when volunteering his translation services, "likely mistaken for an infiltrator".

There were other ways to give distinguished service. Minoru Yasui received a Presidential Medal of Honor for challenging the curfew. The museum has an old jail cell on display that was excavated from Multnomah County Jail, where Yasui spent nine months.

The medals for Hachiya and Yasui were awarded posthumously.

Despite that, there were people who returned, and played an important part in Portland history.

COVID: They take masking seriously here, which was nice to see as it is all too rare.

Accessibility: This seems pretty navigable. The route has a reasonable width, and there are places to sit and rest. In addition, recorded material had text accompaniment which would be a benefit to the hard of hearing.

https://jamo.org/