Flowers aren't the only things about to reopen after a quiet winter in Tacoma and Pierce County. Tacoma's Museum District is about to spring back into action, and attractions all over Pierce County are welcoming visitors back in safe new ways. So as you make plans for your family for spring break, or just a weekend break during spring, think about Tacoma, Mount Rainier, and Pierce County.
To start, we've created a couple dozen itineraries: One-day, weekend, and longer. Time to hop in the car and find your change of scenery!
A trip to the mountain
if you're looking for a Mount Rainier getaway for the spring, Visit Rainier has you covered for itineraries.
Paradise Inn has announced their seasonal opening for May 21, when their 121 rustic guestrooms offers the much-needed disconnection from modernity, and a reconnection to the natural world of trails, waterfalls, and fields of wildflowers. When your window looks out onto "the most luxuriant and the most extravagantly beautiful of all the alpine gardens I ever beheld in all my mountain-top wanderings" (John Muir, 1889), who needs a TV anyway?
Museums are (coming) back!
All six museums in Tacoma's Museum District have announced their opening dates, mostly at the beginning of April!
The LeMay Collections at Marymount are open, and running extended tours through their main exhibit building and Union Station, showcasing several hundred classic cars in a chronological tour through automotive history. While you're there, you can also sign up for a Model T drivers-ed course, where you'll learn about the Model T, learn how to drive it, and then you'll be in the driver's seat, taking it off-road into the fields and forested paths of the Marymount estate. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience you won't find anywhere else.
Join the animals
Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park (along with Kids Trek) are both open and letting you get face to face with the wildlife.
At Point Defiance, you'll see the massive warm-water sharks, tropical fish and moray eel of the South Pacific Aquarium, as well as the hammerhead sharks, eagle rays and warm-water fish of the Pacific Seas Aquarium. Keeper chats and animal encounters along the zoo's pathways are also still happening, but are unscheduled to prevent congestion, and all foot traffic is one-way to keep social distancing possible.
At Northwest Trek, Kids Trek (the nature-inspired, half-acre space with tree forts, slides, and ladders) is also open, and Keeper Adventure Tours (driven by a keeper in a specially outfitted 4WD vehicle) and Wild Drive (in your own vehicle) give you access to the 435-acre Free Roaming Area full of deer, elk, moose, big-horn sheep and bison. However, Trek's tram tours are temporarily offline due to COVID restrictions.
The Spring Fair is on at Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup
The Washington State Fair's Spring Fair is on, April 7-11 and April 14-18, with a new hybrid model of fair that includes some drive-thru experiences, some step-out experiences. According to the website, " while this year's Spring Fair might look a little different, it's still jam-packed with fun things to see, unique experiences, entertainment, rides and, of course, FAIR FOOD!"
Baseball is back!
Spring break and baseball are two of the most American harbingers of spring, and the Tacoma Rainiers Triple-A baseball team just announced that fan attendance will be allowed this season, with details to come. The season starts May 6!