Glass Museum

We'd planned to see Tacoma's museum of glass today, but a late, lazy start leaving Port Townsend - and less than stellar reviews on TripAdvisor - made us almost decide to pass it by. Boy, would that have been a mistake!

We loved it! And could have spent many, many more hours there, especially in the Hot Shop.

From the outdoor fountain,

to the Chihuly Wall of Glass

(and ceiling, below)

that connects the Glass Museum to the U.S. Courthouse area,

to the indoor exhibits,

especially the children's gallery that took a child's drawing

and turned it into 3-dimensional glass art,

we loved it all.

But the place where we could have spent days

was the Hot Shop,

where a team of glass artists

work in an auditorium

with close-up cameras and narration,

to turn hot molten blobs

into Art.

I was bummed we had to leave before they finished this vase. Next time, we'll plan to spend a LOT more time here.

More glass pieces.

Some are Dale Chihuly's,

some not.

Countdown to Home

While planning this trip, we'd left the last two days open so we could do spur of the moment stuff, or just veg out if we felt like it.

And what we felt like was finding a place where we could see the ocean from our room, and relaxing for a day.

I wanted to see Port Townsend (no special reason . . .) so that's where we headed. I researched hotels (hooray for TripAdvisor!!), and made a reservation, while hubby drove. Tides Inn turned out to be fantastic.

Not only were we right at water's edge - literally two steps from our balcony - we had a fireplace (which we used) and a jacuzzi tub (which we didn't).

Morning view - low tide - from our balcony.

Books were read, dinner was devoured (Silverwater Cafe was great), and relaxation was accomplished.

Mid-afternoon high tide.

Sunset. My favorite. See the ferry docked to the left? It was fun to watch it go in and out.

I'd love to come back and spend a week month here.

Seattle

Hubby took a walk before I woke up and brought back breakfast and flowers from Pike's Place Market.

Rachel the piggy bank, the Market's official mascot.

View of the bay behind Pike's Place.

After lunch, we headed over to the Space Needle park.

Views from the top were aMAZing.

As you'd expect when you're over 600 feet in the air.

I love the (kinda hard to see) spider sculptures on this roof - only visible from the Needle. How cool is that?

And we got to see Mt. Rainer. A real treat, since it's often hidden by clouds.

The highlight of the day for me - and I have 5,137ish pictures to prove it - was the Chilhuy glass exhibition.

I'd seen Rachel's pictures from his Denver show,

but nothing can compare to seeing these in person.

Words can't describe it -

Amazing

Enormous

Colorful

This is glass??

He's even taken his knowledge of weaving,

inspired by Native American art,

and come up with beautiful vessels,

bowls,

and other pieces.

Chilhuy's bigger pieces start with drawn pictures and paintings.

Fascinating how he gets from there to here -

More pictures in Part 2 (and this isn't even half of what hubby and I shot. Fantastic exhibit!)

More Seattle - Chilhuy Puctures

(See "Seattle" for the start of this story.)

Tiny, delicate glass sculpture, especially compared to the bigger pieces.

Chandeliers

all in a row.

A ceiling of glass.

Travel Day

View from our hotel last night in Sidney, British Columbia.

There were numerous sailboats out there this morning, taking advantage of the very breezy conditions. Sidney is a neat little town, somewhere I'd like to return for a longer visit. Especially if it included another dinner at Beacon Landing Restaurant. Best halibut hubby and I have ever had. The shrimp wontons and chocolate pate were also pretty spectacular.

Then we were back in line for the ferry, enroute from Sidney to Anacortes, with a short stop over in Friday Harbor.

We were able to get window seats for the second part of the trip. Nothing much to see though - just grey clouds and passing ferries.

Tomorrow - Pike's Market!