Reporter goes on tropical vacation without leaving bitterly cold Tacoma. You can, too
The forecast for the coming days is alarming. I should know. I wrote a couple of stories about it.
Friday night’s low could drop to 16 and Saturday’s high will only reach 27.
It’s enough to make a guy frantically check for last-minute flights to Palm Springs.
I did the next best thing on Thursday. I took a mental vacation to an island paradise. It involved some driving around Tacoma to several tropical-themed locations, but it was quicker than flying to Honolulu.
Seymour Conservatory
It smells like spring inside the W.W. Seymour Conservatory. Maybe it was the blooming lemon tree or the pink hyacinth flowers. Either way, the aroma hit me as soon as I entered the glass Victorian greenhouse on the edge of Wright Park.
Seymour is a botanical paradise, jammed full of tropical and tropic-adjacent plants. They are oblivious to the cold, cruel world outside all that glass. So was I for a bit as Metro Parks Tacoma horticultural specialist Joseph Gabbamonte showed me around.
A 20-foot-tall bird of paradise fills the soaring center space. It competes with a nearby monster agave.
Impressive, I told Gabbamonte, but not tropical enough. That’s when he gave me that “I might have something in the back” look shopkeepers get in the movies.
Turns out, there’s an entire tropical wing at the conservatory. Just inside the entrance are anthuriums with their shiny red, pink and burgundy flowers.
“It’s a classic Hawaiian type flower,” Gabbamonte said, noting they’re easy to grow at home.
Nearby were ginger plants, and orchids of every shape and color. Gabbamonte showed me a small delicate orchid that smells like maple bars.
“Wintertime is actually the best time to come view our orchids,” he said.
The temperature is kept at 72 degrees with 80 percent humidity. You can just laugh at snow flurries bouncing off the glass as you lounge in the tropics.
“People will bring their lunch in here, a book,” Gabbamonte said. “It’s quiet, relaxing. There’s a couple of benches to sit on.”
Seymour Conservatory
Admission: Free.
Hours: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday.
Information: metroparkstacoma.org/place/w-w-seymour-conservatory/
Da Tiki Hut
If Seymour is a light-filled oasis, then my next stop was a tiki torch-lit luau.
If you haven’t been to Da Tiki Hut lately, you haven’t been to Da Tiki Hut, a Hawaiian food restaurant on Tacoma’s 6th Avenue.
A dining room that once had all the ambiance of a truck stop is now full of tropical vibes. Tiny hula dancers sway above a green-lit waterfall. Polynesian masks glare above a small flock of pink flamingos.
It’s a bit kitschy, but then what good tiki bar isn’t?
To be clear, there’s a bar separate from the restaurant space. That’s where I cinched up my masculinity and ordered a Cinderella mocktail: lemon, orange, pineapple, grenadine and ginger beer for $8. It arrived with a manly pink orchid on top.
If you’re not working as I was, you could order the classic Blue Hawaiian cocktail and a number of others.
I wanted a light lunch, so I tried the ahi tuna poke plate with rice and seaweed salad ($13) and the ube mochi ($2.75) dessert. The mochi, cut in squares, had an almost marshmallow-like consistency. It was purple and fun to eat. I felt like a kid.
If you are looking for Hawaiian staples, Da Tiki Hut offers a combo plate lunch, loco moco, Spam musubi and dozens of other dishes and drinks.
DA TIKI HUT
Where: 4427 6th Ave., Ste. 101, Tacoma
When: 3-9 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday; 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Thursday-Sunday.
Information: datikihut.com, 253-625-7690
Anita’s Hawaiian Boutique
You won’t find Anita at her eponymous clothing store in South Tacoma, but you’re likely to find her daughter, Sapphire Adam.
Adam had just flown back from Hawaii on Wednesday, she told me. She’d been visiting her mother, friends and family, some of whom supply her with the merchandise she sells in the small but jam-packed store she manages.
Adam’s customers are an even split between Islanders and non-Islanders. She’s got them all covered.
“We have so many (different) Islanders here,” she said, name checking Palau, Tonga, Guam and some I’ve never heard of. “I have to make sure everyone is covered.”
There are baseball caps emblazoned with “Samoa” and T-shirts with the Marshall Islands’ area code.
Adam is Fijian but grew up in Hawaii.
“When I come in here, it feels like I’m home,” she said.
Racks of men’s Aloha shirts and women’s sarongs fill the store. There are displays of jewelry and plenty of shell necklaces. There aren’t any fresh leis but she’s got the artificial variety. She’s even got ukuleles for sale.
Adam is usually in the store after 11:30 a.m., but not always.
“It’s all about the island way for me with this store,” she said. Translation: she does what she wants, when she feels like it.
ANITA’S HAWAIIAN BOUTIQUE
Where: 4823 S. 66th St., Tacoma
Hours: 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday but it’s best to call ahead.
Information: 253-267-0136
Devil’s Reef
I was technically off the clock by 8 p.m., but I knew the day would be complete by visiting Devil’s Reef. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe this seafaring-themed Tiki bar in downtown Tacoma’s Opera Alley. It comes from the fertile imaginations of Robyn Murphy and Jason Alexander.
In 2012, the couple opened the now-closed Tacoma Cabana, a bar and restaurant that had “Gilligan’s Island” on continuous play.
At Devil’s Reef, Alexander and Murphy weren’t content to just fill the place with enough flotsam and jetsam to make Capt. Jack Sparrow feel at home. Three cannon barrels point out of hatches above the seating area.
There were just 16 drinks on the menu when the hideaway opened in 2018. Now, there are over 50. I was drowning in options, and neither of the bartenders seemed willing to throw me a lifeline. They probably see it all the time. One suggested a Mai Tai.
I instead pointed to the “Voodoo Villager,” a concoction of spice, citrus and extra dry pot still Jamaican Rum ($13).
I chose wisely.
Alexander helpfully puts a skull rating on his menu, adjacent to each drink. The scale goes from two skulls = “goes down easy” to five skulls = “Cthulhu waits.”
Something much worse than Cthulhu was waiting for me as my tropical staycation came to an end outside Devil’s Reef Thursday night. Snow flurries.
DEVIL’S REEF
Where: 706 Opera Alley, Tacoma. 21 and older only.
When: 5-10 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 5 p.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday
Other tropical ideas
Music: Need a soundtrack for your day in paradise? Nothing sets the mood more than Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s ukulele accompanied “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” or, if you’re old school, Don Ho’s “Tiny Bubbles.” SiriusXM offers Radio Margaritaville (channel 24) with Jimmy Buffet, Bob Marley and others artists on island time. Hawaii and other Polynesian islands are rich in traditional music and their own takes on pop music.
Movies: Do the kids need entertaining? 2016’s animated “Moana” will chase away the winter chill. Older folks might like 2003’s New Zealand made “Whale Rider” about female empowerment, family, tradition and, of course, whales. Adults will be intrigued by 2016’s “Tanna” — a richly photographed Australian movie about a forbidden romance on the archipelago of Vanuatu using actual tribal members and shot in their villages.
Get warm: Hot yoga, massage, sauna, spas ... there’s no lack of opportunities to warm your body and soul in the South Sound. Lakewood’s women-only Olympus Spa offers sauna, whirl pools, infrared ray-heated rooms and a number of services, including a chocolate detox body wrap and a yam and pumpkin skin peel.
This story was originally published January 12, 2024 at 10:50 AM.
