Road Trip, Part 6: Tacoma and its Glass

Something big has happened to Tacoma since we left in the mid-1980s: Glass as art, and especially the glass works of Dale Chihuly. A native son of Tacoma, Chihuly's influence is seen everywhere in the downtown area. 

A dilapidated train station when we last saw it, the refurbished Union Station is now leased by the Federal Government and houses federal courts, is also used as a wedding and party venue, and has an amazing display of Chihuly glass pieces in the rotunda. 

Because of security concerns surrounding federal court business, we were asked to take our photos of the higher parts of the dramatic rotunda only, so all my photos are angled upward. 

This hanging piece was immense! 

Just past Union Station, we strolled on to the famous Bridge of Glass, which is a 500-foot long pedestrian overpass that takes you to the Museum of Glass. My pictures do absolutely nothing to give you an idea of the scale of the glass pieces on the bridge, above: Each one was at least two to three feet high, and this is just a tiny section of the side of the bridge. Go to the Bridge of Glass website for some lovely photos. 

This is a small part of the ceiling of the Bridge--all Chihuly glass pieces--and it illustrates the thought that kept occurring to me: Tacoma's skies can often be gray and overcast, so the introduction of colorful glass that captures and changes the available light is the perfect pairing with the city's climate. 

The next two photos will illustrate my point--check out the gray clouds, then imagine all this glass lit up at night. 

Once we were inside the Museum itself, we spent some time admiring the creativity happening in the Hot Shop, where art is made from molten glass. 

 

Here is the interior of the Hot Shop's chimney, a 90-foot tall stainless steel cone that we could see from our room at the Hotel Murano.  As I may have mentioned before, the hotel itself was filled with glass pieces like the suspended glass canoe, below.

Road Trip, Part 5: LeMay-America's Car Museum

Once we arrived in Tacoma, Washington, we kept noticing a large new (to us) metallic structure over by the Tacoma Dome. The Dome itself was built in 1981 and was still all shiny and new when we moved across the country to New Hampshire. Remember, we hadn't been back to Washington State since living there in the early 1980s, so there were lots of new and newish things to see. 

We discovered that big metallic thing was the LeMay-America's Car Museum. You can check out a photo of the exterior on the Museum's website. Once we were inside, I made a beeline to a car that looked something like one my dad might have driven. We strolled the length of the huge building, admiring the shining antique cars lined up along either side. But that was just the beginning: The 165,000 square foot building has four floors that you visit by walking down big ramps. It can house up to 350 cars and trucks, both those from the LeMay Family collection (which eventually numbered a jaw-dropping 3,500 vehicles) and from private owners. 

The cars were stunning. They were shiny. Because there were so many people there--it was Father's Day, and what better place to take Dad or Granddad--I spent my time taking close-ups of details of all that shininess. 

If you want to see more photos of entire cars, you can go to the Museum's collection page.

As we walked and walked, and walked some more, all those beautiful shiny cars started to blur together, and I began to watch the people instead. Not to be sexist, but I did notice that the farther down the ramps we went, the more I could see that the women's smiles were starting to look a bit strained. The children were getting kind of crazy. And the men? They all had a kind of goofy, glazed look to them--you could tell they were remembering their first car, their first car payment, their first flat tire, their first oil change...

I could show you a sampling of the photos I took of Beez, drooling over those cars, but I don't want to embarrass him. I had to turn away myself. The look on his face... well, some things are just best not described. 

Road Trip, Part 4: Richland, Washington to Tacoma, WA

View from "our" patio

As I have mentioned before, Beez did a wonderful job of planning this trip and finding great hotels along the way. When we pulled into the Red Lion Hanford House in Richland, Washington, we had just driven for another long day that ended with a smoke-filled highway and backed-up traffic. There were some wildfires getting underway and that highway was closed not long after we passed through. The hotel looked nice enough, but the road in front of it was filled with traffic, it was hot, and we were tired.

Our room, however, was around back and, seemingly, in a far more peaceful world. It faced the Columbia River, which was a surprise to me, although not to that clever Beez, who always does his research. We had a private little patio of our own, the hotel bar supplied glasses and a bottle of wine, and we had a lovely time unwinding and looking out at the river.

Sunset over the Columbia...

...and sunrise the next morning.

The next day we traveled through the Cascades and it rained! We were fascinated to see that our windshield wipers actually functioned, especially since we hardly ever have a reason to turn them on in the desert. Once we arrived in Tacoma, the furthest point of our trip, we settled into a great room at the Hotel Murano. This was a special treat! The hotel itself is like an art gallery filled with glass treasures, with a different artist's work featured on each floor.  Here is the view of Tacoma at night from our room...

... and during the day. That's the Tacoma Dome over on the right. From here you can also see the Bridge of Glass, the Museum of Glass, and America's Car Museum. More about those in future posts.

And beautiful Mount Rainier came out for a while and obligingly floated above the city. When we lived in Washington, long ago, we could see the mountain from our back porch--when it was "out" which, as any Washingtonian will tell you, isn't every day!