Matt Thomson Gig Harbor, WA Real Estate & Relocation

If you're a parent (or grandparent, or guardian) of kids and you live in Gig Harbor or the Key Peninsula, here is something that should interest you. Safe St organized the Peninsula Prevention Forum, a chance for Gig Harbor residents and their children to talk about substance abuse among Gig Harbor's youth. There's no question that Gig Harbor is a great place to raise a family, and for the most part Gig Harbor's kids are a great group, but like anywhere drug and alcohol can be problematic. This forum will be a great place to get together and share ideas. Feel free to contact me or visit Safe St's website for more information. The forum will take place Tuesday, August 12th from 6-8pm at PHS.

One of the great things about living in Gig Harbor is that you get the small town lifestyle, yet you're still quite close to the big city events. We got some tickets to the Seattle Mariners game today versus the Cleveland Indians. From our house in North Gig Harbor it took 53 minutes to drive up to SafeCo Field in South Seattle. Not bad. Our tickets looked pretty good online...section 137 row 6. What we didn't know until we got there was that section 137 is right behind the visitor's dugout, and the first 4 rows are the dugout...so we were in the 2nd row! Sunny skies, 72 degrees, and baseball. What a great day! The M's are horrible this year, and although they gave up 9 runs before they had an out in the 3rd, it was still fun. Here's a few photos from the game.

Oh yeah...it was 80's day at the ballpark.

Small towns are fun. Gig Harbor is a small town. Therefore Gig Harbor is fun. One of the fun events that you'll find in Gig Harbor this summer is the Gig Harbor Concert in the Park series. Various local artists set up under the pagoda (I think that's what it is) in Skansie Brothers Park right on the downtown waterfront and put on a free concert. It's a pretty fun deal. You can't beat the view, and the music is usually pretty good too.

Click here for scheduled performers and more information on the concerts in Gig Harbor.

Photo courtesy of the Butner Family on Flickr.

Sometimes blogs don't need words...come enjoy Gig Harbor, Washington.

Photo courtesy of LaVeta Jude and Flickr. Posted here with written permission.

I'm happy now. I love softball. I'm not sure what it is that I love so much, but I just love playing. Yesterday was the first game of the season for our team, the Believer's Fellowship Harborites. At 6:15pm, we gathered at Harbor Ridge Middle School underneath a glorious sun filled sky. You know that picture you always see of Gig Harbor, the one with the boats on the harbor and Mt Rainier in the background? That's the view from Harbor Ridge.

With temps in the 70's our team met up with the folks from United Methodist Church. They can hit. They can hit far. They did hit far. At the end of 1 1/2 innings, we were down 8-0 thanks to 3 balls that they hit over the trees that make up the outfield fence. I was ready to bench our pitcher, Phil Hoffman (owner of Phil's Landscaping in Gig Harbor; not the most creative name but certainly one of the most creative and best landscapers in Gig Harbor), but he's a nice guy and I can't pitch, so I figured might as well leave him in there.

I'm happy to report that even down 8-0, we were still all having fun. We've got a great group of guys and gals on our team this year, and while we weren't thrilled about getting trounced, we were still having fun. To make a long story less long, Phil settled in, our defense woke up (minus my 2 errors at short), and our bats woke up (well, Steve Harlander's bat did...he's a member of one of our vocal teams at church and an auto mechanic who was complaining about old age, but he didn't look too old crushing a ball over the right field fence trees and later legging out a triple to center). Steve and recent GHHS grad Brandon Mower kind of kept us in things. We entered the bottom of the 7th (we only play 7 in softball) down 10-9, and a 2-RBI double by Scott Mower gave us a walk off win. Fun stuff!

There aren't too many good softball fields in Gig Harbor, but I think there are some proposed parks that are working on that. Harbor Ridge is beautiful, but the infield is kind of like concrete. One of my errors was a result of me being in perfect position to field the ball, then having the ball hit a rock and bounce up off of my forearm (my other error is the result of me not being able to catch a pop up...ooops). The sunshine, the folks, and the game made for a perfect day. I love softball, and I love summer in Gig Harbor! You can follow all of the league's action at our new website, www.ghcsl.org

Lighthouse Christian School principal Tim Hoy preps to hit a 6th inning double to help bring us back in the game.

It looks like Jay Buhner's out of retirement, but really it's Scott Mower, on his way to hit the walk-off double that gave us the 11-10 win.

"Mommy, why doesn't daddy catch the ball? All the other people are catching it?"

Our only fan trying to figure out this funny game.