We've been getting to know our local university, recently. For the first year we lived in this neighborhood, we never set foot on the UPS campus. After a trip to pick up a relative from the airport shuttle that stops on campus, we discovered a whole world of resources within a few blocks of our front door.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Oppenheimer Cafe, inside the University of Puget Sound's new science center. There's another UPS cafe just blocks from our front door, at the Wheelock Student Center. Like the Oppenheimer, Diversions Cafe sells Fair Trade Coffee and an assortment of pastries, and is open to the public. There's outdoor seating for rambunctious kids, but the largely undergrad clientèle isn't terribly picky about noise level.

Inside the student center, there's an ATM, a mail room that's handy for purchasing stamps or sending packages, and the university's bookstore. It's much smaller than the UWT bookstore, but it has a nice little assortment of fiction and children's books, as well as the typical gifty sorts of things college students might buy each other. If you live in the neighborhood and you need to purchase a quick gift for someone, it's not a bad place to look. Today, after coffee and chocolate milk, the youngest and I went downstairs to the bookstore and picked out some fresh bedtime reading.

We didn't need it today, but I've also found UPS Copy Services to be pretty useful. I used to drive all the way out to University Place just to make 40 copies of a newsletter, until I realized I could do that right down the street, with better service and no lines. They offer everything a full-service copy shop does, and I can go over to Diversions and enjoy a latte while I wait.

Wheelock Student Center

N 15th and Alder St

Tacoma