Tacoma's going green. How do we know? Just the other day a nice man (without teeth) in a pickup truck swung by the office and offered to recycle all the "scrap metal" in our yard ... FOR FREE! How about that? Another sure sign of Tacoma's greenness is the third annual Green Tacoma Day, when the Green Tacoma Partnership invites everyone to get out and explore local parks and natural areas. Thea epicenter will be the Tacoma Nature Center, where the new nature themed playground, Discovery Pond, will be in full effect.

[Tacoma, 9 a.m. to noon, free, cascadeland.org]