Gallery, Tacoma Museum of Glass – Post 21 of our August Seattle trip

After watching the artists blowing glass in the hot shop, we visited the gallery. Not all of the glass art was blown glass. Here’s a disappearing ball of color:

This chair was really amazing, but I think they could have exhibited it better with more lighting and a darker background. It was hard to see! Maybe that was the point.

You can definitely tell it’s not all Chihuly in this exhibit, lol.

These were large, wall-sized exhibits. Clear glass and shadow.

These squid-in-glass were a little strange, but it seemed like it would take some skill to make.

In one of the rooms in the gallery there was a fair amount of unnerving or grotesque art, which I ignored. Sorry, I didn’t take any photos of it. I just like simple, pretty things, lol.

I also like things that reflect a regional sense of place. Jellyfish are common in the Puget Sound.

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Hot Shop in Tacoma – Post 20 of our August Seattle trip

The week after we went to the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, we went to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Of the two, we preferred the Tacoma Museum of Glass because it was larger, contained a hot shop, and was generally more interesting. It contained some exhibits by Dale Chihuly, but it showcased other glass artists as well. However, if you’re specifically interesting in Chihuly’s work, the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle did a better job with his exhibits.

We started with the hot shop where they make glass art. They have two primary methods of heating the glass; the torch, and the “glory hole”, which is a furnace. Here is a short movie of them heating glass with a torch.

They inflate the hot glass by blowing down the long handle of a blowpipe. It seems like it would take a lot of lung strength but they told us, no, you only blow softly or you will explode the glass. When they blow on the pipe, you can’t really see much happening – the glass just slowly gets a little larger.

In this next video they transferred their glass from one pipe to another one in order to turn the glass around. First they put a small blob of warm glass on the end of the new pipe (the orange blob). Then they stick the new pipe with the warm glass into the back end of the glass piece. Then they crack the glass off of the original pipe.

They break glass in a controlled manner by scoring it where they want it to break, and sometimes also dripping some water on it the break point, and then striking it sharply and quickly but without too much force. Sometimes the glass piece will shatter at this point, and they have to start all over again.

When the piece is done, they crack it off the pipe and put it into the annealer (a hot oven) to cool it slowly. 

It was a very interesting demonstration. One of the artists explained what was going on as we watched. They also had an overhead screen where they projected explanatory slides, or a close-up camera view of the action below.

There were elevated walkways along the sides and back where we could stand and look down.

The artist in the photo below was off to one side, shaping a piece of blown glass. We could stand nearly directly above him on the walkway and watch. He rolls the pipe back and forth on the two rails with his left hand, turning the glass, while holding the mold steady against the glass with his right hand.

In addition to molds, they also use stacks of wet newspaper and wooden paddles to shape the glass while it’s hot.

Here’s the audience watching.

The architecture is cool. This is the ceiling.

In addition to the hot shop, there was a museum gallery, a children’s design section (which was truly fun), and outdoor exhibits. I will post about those next!

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.

Sunset over the Sound – Post 19 of our August Seattle trip

The same day as we went kayaking at Alki Beach, we walked down to Lincoln Park in the evening. Alki Beach is not within walking distance, but Lincoln Park is quite close by, just a steep hike.

The sun went down after we got back up the hill. This next picture is taken from the alley, looking out over the neighbor’s driveway behind us.

This is next photo is what we can see from our patio. It’s not a full view of the water, but it isn’t bad!

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Kayaking on Alki Beach – Post 18 of our August Seattle trip

At some point recently (I am losing all track of time), a couple of days after we bicycled along Alki beach, we rented kayaks and kayaked along Alki beach. Same place, completely different perspective.

It started out cloudy but became sunnier during the trip.

I think we spent more time sitting around taking pictures of each other than we did paddling.

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John’s still joyriding ferries – Post 17 of our August Seattle trip

Ferries plus a water taxi! Which, as far as I can tell, is just a small ferry. I didn’t go on this trip, so I don’t have much to say about it other than, here are the pictures! I believe he took a water taxi from Alki Beach to downtown, and then a ferry from downtown out to Bainbridge Island.

John took this gorgeous photo of Mt. Rainier, which was barely visible on a cloudy, early morning ferry ride from Fauntleroy to Vashon Island a couple of days later. I can’t write a new post every time John rides a ferry, so I’m tacking this photo onto the end of this post.

In Washington we have an expression, “the mountain is out” because it is often obscured by clouds. Depending on your location and angle, the mountain can really dominate the sky – on those few days it’s actually visible.

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Biking along Alki Beach – Post 15 of our August Seattle trip

The day started out foggy. John went for an early morning run with Biska down to the water in our neighborhood.

By late morning it was a warm sunny day. We drove our bikes down to Alki beach, where there is a long, flat bike path. I wanted to ride down there because I don’t like riding with cars and prefer a path. Also there’s no way I could ride a bike uphill from the Puget Sound into the hills where we are spending this month in West Seattle. It’s only a few blocks but the streets are incredibly steep.

It was beautiful and relaxing riding along the waterfront.

I generally don’t take many pictures while on a bike ride because I’m too busy hanging onto my handlebars. But we did pause on this overlook and take a few shots.

Dill weed! I remember it from my childhood.

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A few more Chihuly Glass Pictures – Post 14 of our August Seattle trip

As if there wasn’t already enough Chihuly pictures in that last post! But John was disappointed to discover that he hadn’t sent me his photos, and I hadn’t noticed that I didn’t have them because I had so many of my own.

So here’s Chihuly Glass from John’s perspective. He took a large number of pictures of me taking pictures, most of which I left out because, enough already! But it does make for a different perspective. You can consider this your “behind the scenes” post.

These first couple of photos are useful because you can see how the exhibit was set up, spotlighted in the center of an otherwise dim room. It allowed for photos of the exhibit without the spectators being easily picked up by the camera. And yet we could still get up close to the exhibit.

You can almost point your phone randomly into the exhibit and get a great shot, but here you can see John was highlighting the reflective mirror effect of the exhibit. I’ve seen other Chihuly exhibits that weren’t nearly as well done. Same art, less impact. This gallery did a great job with display.

This next one is useful because it shows the size of the artwork.

As we hold our phones aloft in appreciation.

And lastly, a well-balanced ballsy shot, right into the sun.

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Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle – Post 13 of our August Seattle trip

It’s hard to get a feel for the size, but those icy glass sculptures are at least 6 feet tall.

Apparently Dale Chihuly also did some basketweaving before becoming probably the most famous glass artist ever. Some of his early glassworks resemble baskets.

I took pictures of nearly every single thing in this gallery. I apologize if it gets a little monotonous! I thought it was all wonderful.

This is a ceiling!

I took tons of pictures of the ceiling.

I considered laying on the floor to get a great photo of more of it at once! But I would have gotten walked on because everyone was looking up and not looking where they were going!

Hmmm, I think that’s a spoon in this next one. Is that a spoon? How is there a spoon in the ceiling exhibit? What do you think – art or spoon?

I finally dragged myself away from the ceiling, but promptly got completely entranced with this lily pond. It is amazing how well the gallery designed the background exhibit space and lighting to really show off the glass art. This exhibit is in the center of the room and there were numerous people walking around it, but you’d never know it from the pictures.

I reluctantly left the lily pond room to discover – boatloads of glass!

The next room was – wow – bowls?

They look like alien flowers.

And then – the glasshouse! An enormous suspended vine of glass flowers in a greenhouse.

With the Space Needle visible through the windows.

There were also outdoor exhibits integrated with the landscaping.

It was actually a fairly small gallery, but I loved it all and took pictures of everything. I guess you don’t have to go yourself now. There’s almost nothing else left to see!

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Epic Hike – Post 12 of our August Seattle trip

Our trailhead was about 4 hours away (depending on traffic), so we decided to drive out the evening beforehand and camp in a campground near the trailhead, so we could get an early start. There were a good number of campgrounds on our approach, not too far from the trailhead.

But after we got out there, we discovered that the campgrounds were all full. And it wasn’t even a weekend! Now what? Sometimes camping is allowed at trailheads – and sometimes it’s not. We hoped it would be. We knew it was unlikely that we could just pull out on a side road somewhere. Most of the area was a national park (we were planning to hike just outside the park). Boondoggling (camping at large) is usually not allowed in the parks. Also it was all very rugged and steep – no gentle, accessible meadows with meandering dirt roads for boondoggling. Just a highway cutting through sheer drop-offs.

We couldn’t camp at our trailhead, but luckily across the highway was a Pacific Crest Trailhead where there were no signs indicating we couldn’t park overnight. We figured if it didn’t say we couldn’t, then we could! It was great to be so close to our trailhead.

Perfect except for the mosquitoes! The mosquitos were thick and swarming and hungry. We spent the rest of the evening cowering in the van.

When John got up in the morning he announced it was sunny.

Lucky for him, he had taken a photo and could prove it, because by the time I got up a few minutes later, it was getting cloudy:

I jokingly gave him a hard time about it because he always puts an overly positive spin on everything. Yes, there’s a patch of sun on that mountain, but the sky is cloudy! This is not “sunny.”

I remember when I lived in the Pacific Northwest it would often look like it was going to be a nice day when I first woke up, but by the time I got the kids up, fed and dressed it was rainy. It was so frustrating.

So yes, it was clouding over, but wow, was it ever beautiful on that hike!

I look like a dork in this outfit, but as you know, I hate mosquitoes and the whole region was one big swarm of them.

The lake was beautiful.

We kept climbing…

At this point in the hike I was feeling pretty confident. We had been hiking uphill for awhile and I was doing well. I was pleased I was able to hike again after my cancer treatment in 2020 knocked me down for awhile.

If we had turned around here, the hike would have been relatively easy and I would have had all these epic photos. But no, we kept going. And it got harder.

There were still some idyllic moments.

Interspersed with not-so-idyllic moments.

It was impressive as we reached the top, but also a bit intimidating.

By this point, it was also drizzling.

Can you see the marmot in the middle of this next picture?

If you look in the top left of this next photo you can see a blurry mosquito. I’m surprised you can only see one. They were swarming.

The route down from the pass gave me pause.

I’m afraid of heights. I hung out at the top for a bit to get my nerve up.

Ok, here I go.

It helped that a confident and cheerful young couple headed down first. This first part wasn’t too bad. I asked John to keep the dog away from me, because I didn’t want her bumping into my legs.

It was a good trail and quite safe, but I had to not look down.

This next part was hard – drop off on both sides. Even though the trail was wide and flat and easy, I had to keep my eyes on the ground and not look out or around. It was a shame to miss the scenery, but it was too sheer for me.

One more exposed stretch and then I was able to stop and take a look around.

Terra firma on both sides of me, yay!

Trying to smile, but looking tired.

At this point I thought the worst was behind me, but I hadn’t gotten very far down before I started having trouble with one of my knees. I hobbled out of there painfully, leaning awkwardly on my walking stick. But it was worth it!

We got a bunch more great pictures on the way down.

John took this video of the lake – it’s not of any action, it’s just a panorama shot. You can see the mosquitos flying around – and the sheer heights are more impressive in the video for some reason. The pictures just don’t look as dramatic.

Just about there…

My knee hurt, and I was exhausted, and I was so happy to see the van!

Here’s the map of where we were – Maple Pass Trailhead.

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All we do is walk! – Post 10 of our August Seattle trip

Sunday nearly did me in. First we walked a mile to the grocery store. It was a beautiful morning and it’s a nuisance to drive our big camper van on the narrow, twisty and hilly streets of West Seattle. So we walked! A mile there and a mile back. Then we had something to eat and then John wanted to ride the ferry again. He’s like a little kid, I swear!

We walked a mile down the hill to the ferry terminal, rode the ferry for a couple of stops and got off at Southworth.

From Southworth, John intended to hike on a trail in a park – you guessed it – a mile away. Actually the park was more like a mile and a half up from the ferry terminal.

We walked the mile and a half to the park but by the time we got there I was hot, exhausted and wanting to pee (available at the ferry terminal but not at the park). So John gave the trail a wistful look, and we turned around and hiked a mile and a half back down to the ferry terminal. He will have to go back out to hike that trail himself some other day.

Maybe we could take a bus out there – which by the way – we saw a bus on the ferry. As well as a taxi. Multilayers of public transport.

This ferry line has 3 stops; Fauntleroy, Vashon Island, and Southworth. Cars getting on are marked with a tag in the dashboard showing where they are going and loaded appropriately. Most of the time they can get the cars lined up in the right place at the right time facing the right direction by utilizing two sets of ramps in a U-shape on the ferry. But the ramps have a low clearance, so tall vehicles have to ride in the center of the ferry. There’s nowhere for them to turn around. So depending on which direction the ferry intends to dock, those vehicles may have to back onto the ferry.

We watched this large truck back onto the ferry. The driver did a great job. He had only a few inches of clearance on either side, and he quickly backed straight as can be, with no hesitation. The locals say it can be pretty funny to watch a tourist try to back a boat trailer on. I sure couldn’t do it!

While waiting for the ferry back to Seattle, I struck up a conversation with a cute little boy, probably about 4 years old. We had a great conversation about how ferry docks were constructed and how they operated, and which lines were power lines and so on.

Then the child noticed Biska. “That’s a nice dog over there,” he said. “She’s my dog,” I replied. He considered this, looking at her and looking at John who was holding her leash, and then the boy said to me, “Is that your dad?” lol.

It was a fun day, but I was tired by the end of it.

Are you getting tired of pictures of forest paths and ferries yet? We’ll do something else soon, I promise.

To send Kristina a comment, email turning51bykristina@gmail.com.