Gig Harbor Shopping Center’s and Restaurants

                                          Uptown Shopping Center Gig Harbor

I remember when I was a kid in Gig Harbor there were only a couple shopping centers and only a few restaurants. We did not eat out very often. In fact most of the time we did eat out was when we were traveling north to Seattle, Bellingham and Vancouver, British Columbia. We ate out primarily in Marysville going to Bellingham and Vancouver. There was a restaurant that had good pie usually berry or apple. It was so delicious.

In Gig Harbor than there was the down town shopping where Thriftway was at along with drug store and bowling alley. Thriftway store is no longer and they are looking possibly turning the place into condos. The post office has been there for some time however they will be moving location as well. The bowling alley has been gone for a long time and the drug store been gone for a few years too.

The other shopping center is Olympic Center. It had only a few stores when I was a kid including a grocery store.  When I was in junior high school I was left off there when the basketball games were over when we went on a road trip. Olympic Village has been remodeled a couple times since those days. Fred Meyer’s is going to be moving into a new shopping center on the other side of the highway so hard to know who will be moving into their current spot.  The other stores there could struggle after Meyer’s move. The coffee shop I go there is very popular so they should survive.

On the other side of the highway there is currently three shopping centers so where Fred Meyer’s will be relocating will make it four.

There are two of the three shopping centers that have been around for a while during most of my adulthood. The third one went in about seven years after the second Narrows Bridge was built. The bridge brings traffic to and from Gig Harbor to Tacoma.  Growing up the current shopping center was almost all woods with a motel taking over a small area. Walmart wanted to build their however the citizens didn’t want them in. That shopping center also includes a ten-plex movie theatre as well.

When you go further north on highway sixteen after Gig Harbor there is what’s called North Gig Harbor. That area was all woods when I was growing up now there are a couple shopping centers and another one proposed.  A lot of homes are built and more being built in that area. Actually I am a bit disturbed along with a lot of others who have lived here a long time. All these homes are being built right next to each other and so many trees have been taken out. I don’t go there very often either.

So you see though Gig Harbor is still a small town it certainly larger than when I was growing up. I really hope that the area doesn’t grow a  lot more after these expansions but most likely will. Now people can eat out more often than I was a kid. I am sure most people my age had the same experience when they were a kid no matter where they lived. I guess you call it progress which I wouldn’t call it myself.

Though Gig Harbor has grown there are areas where the small town feeling is still in. At least that is good in my mind.  

                                           Green Turtle Restaurant on the Waterfront