Tacoma

We spent the whole day in Tacoma in the downtown area, still quiet as it was a Sunday. Tacoma is home to glass artist Dale Chihuly, and we came to see the Museum of Glass and the Tacoma Art Museum.



Outside the Museum of Glass

Chihuly is obviously a big influence in the city and just near the Museum of Glass there is a bridge called the Bridge of Glass. It has case upon case of Chihuly work and a section under which you walk and look up into sea themed glass art. In the middle of the bridge are two large, blue glass sculptures. The whole installation is fantastic.


On the Bridge of Glass

On the Bridge of Glass

Sea-themed ceiling on the bridge

The Museum of Glass is in an interesting building, with half devoted to the 'hot box' and the other half to gallery space. They have a nice children's program in which visiting children are invited to design an artwork, and each month they choose one to make.

Liam's design

After lunch we headed to the Tacoma Art Museum which is a fantastic gallery. They have an amazing range of Chihuly works including a great outdoor installation. We were lucky that when we were there, Chihuly's current exhibition of glass art and the native baskets that inspired them, were on display. There were huge planks of red cedar with the pieces on them. It was really beautiful.

Some Chihuly works in the TAM.

We had a walk down the main street before heading back to the hotel. The town itself is very pretty, with some very nice old buildings and wide streets.

Downtown Tacoma

We had a great supper that night at Red Lobster. We (and many of our guests) have enjoyed the ads for Red Lobster on TV in Kamloops, but they are not on this side of Canada. We were VERY excited to find one in Tacoma and we all had a great meal!!

The seafood platter.
Consensus is that the lobster was the best!!

On our way home the following day we stopped off at an amazing toy store on the main street of Tacoma where we spent quite some time. They really had everything there. Then we went to Macy's just to see what was there, and there was plenty!! We had a late start to our trip but finally made it home.

 

Some traffic lights that I liked.

Approaching the Canadian border at Abbotsford