Did ya???

Seriously, did "ya" miss us?  Yeah yeah yeah - who knew we were without our lifeline - aka laptop!  A few nights back I was sitting in this very chair with said laptop on this very table of mine ... and I just knew that the King himself, (who was laying in bed watching the tele) ... was playing a game with me with that gosh darned cordless mouse that I really just can't get used to and trying to drive me crazy ... I asked and of course himself denied it so I proceeded to get particularly paranoid (visions of a certain neighbor on Crescent St., oh what a funny funny revelation that was Maryellen, so disappointed I didn't have the opportunity to demand admission from Captain (??) Dennis himself for those acts!)  Alright, alright so you didn't miss me/us, but the laptop has been in the Mac Book Pro hospital in Portland (UGH travel to and from Portland is only 30-40 miles, of course depending on your Portland destination, but for some reason it is just an AWFUL trip and we've done four round trips this week, which is at least three too many).  But alas, said lifeline is back in the coach where it belongs!

Okay, so before the lifeline decided to have an issue with its "trackpad" I had loaded some photos of our last adventure in Washington State.  For those that have been following this blog, this last adventure was a very very calm and peaceful adventure with no psychotic outbursts from those around us .... 

When we were with our friends Chris and Larry a couple weeks ago (they'd lived in the Seattle area for several years, Chris made us a list of several "to do" things while visiting the Seattle area - the ferry to Bremerton (did that) Pikes Place (did that), Space Needle (sort of did that) and the Tacoma Museum of Glass (sort of did that).  So mid afternoon on about our last day in the area we headed into Tacoma. It seems wherever you went from Puyallup, where we were staying,  it took at least 30 minutes to get out of town and headed to your destination.  I think this has to do with our mindset of late ~ Rick and I have discussed this as we've traveled through (although trying to avoid as much as possible) urban areas, how stressful it is for us.  Heck, we used to deal with it five days a week and it truly never bothered us, but now - well not so much!!  I truly truly can relate now to how stressed either of my sisters would be when they traveled to our home south of Boston, or just a few months ago when they traveled into Boston for my youngest son's wedding - it really really is stressful if you aren't used to it on a daily/weekly or even monthly basis.  Sorry I never "got it" Candy and Kimmerly, but I sure do now).

So how was that for digressing!  Anyway, off we went to the Museum.  Our plan when we first arrived in the area was that I'd do this "field trip" one afternoon and Rick would do a tour of the Boeing plant and an Air Museum in the area on a different day ... well we all know about plans!  

From the bit of research I'd done, and from what Chris had told me, there was a large display of Dale Chihuly works at the Museum, since he is a Tacoma native I guess it would make sense huh!  Well for whatever reason that I couldn't possibly explain I just love love love his work so I really "had" to go to the Museum.  I'd seen his work at the Bellagio in Las Vegas (I think I may have posted photos from there about a million years ago) and seen a documentary or two on PBS and each just intrigued me more.

So we get off the elevator from the parking garage to the museum entrance level and there is this really neat display ~ first photo then the shot directly above of another exhibit with the water flowing from atop each of these glass spires - of course this particular day it was cold (60 ish) and windy and the water is blowing towards us, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending!) Sir wasn't with us, hmmm I wonder how he'd have reacted to it ~ usually water play is a good thing for him, but I'm not sure how it would have been in this situation.

Well I pretty much knew that I wasn't going into the Museum ~ Rick clearly had no interest in it and all I really wanted to see was the Chihuly exhibit(s) and I knew there was something about a bridge but not exactly sure (as well as remember my last post about not going up in the space needle because I've become a bit "thrifty" in some aspects, well the  Museum of Glass is another case in point ...) so after we'd seen the outside exhibits in the photos above I was ready to just scrap it and figure I'd have to go inside if I wanted to see the Chihuly works - Oh well, but it did really seem a shame not to just walk the stairway to the top of the outside area ... so off we climbed and in the distance saw the spires (seems to be a popular word in this post huh!) in the photos below.  Keep in mind all these "works" are blown glass ... yup it DOES intrigue me..... hmmm maybe I should "take a class" some day, wonder if there are any available for "transients" such as us!?"

Well gosh darn there was the "bridge"  How the heck lucky was I?  The "ceiling" of the bridge (which is an over pass of a busy roadway below, I'm not sure what the streets on either side are or what the "bridge" connects, but it sure was gorgeous) was what I'd been hoping to see - the Chihuly works ... I don't really have a clue what the length and width of this bridge is - perhaps 100 feet long by 15 feet wide .... the ceiling area are these beautiful pieces (shown below as one section, then close ups) in areas of perhaps 2 feet by 2 feet .... many many many so gorgeous, and we were there on a fairly cloudy day ..

I think my point in posting the two photos above was to show how the "sections" are separated then the photos below that can hopefully be enlarged ....

The whole thing just "blew me away" .... there are all these different pieces ... if I knew how to work this photo program perhaps I could define it better but sadly I can't ... but the photo above probably has 70 individual pieces in it ...  It was a bit distressing to be "oooohing and aaaaaahing and taking these photos and look over at Rick and I thought I heard him say something and when I asked him if I heard what I thought I did and yup - he confirmed that I did in fact him declaring oh so quietly "I don't get it" .... to each his own I guess ... but I sure as hell enjoyed it, that one person created this with his own hands and ability ~ sure wish I had that talent ... 

Yes, I do realize the series of photos above are certainly not the best - far too many reflections, and Chad I really did try to take the photos from an angle (as you had instructed me to reduce glare and reflection), but in this case it just didn't work well.  Along the side wall of one of the two sections of the "bridge" there were these outstanding works ~ I would guess about 200 perhaps and I believe each had tiny lights on them in the night, only a guess but if you look each piece seems to have two tiny things above it that I assume (shame on me) are halogen lights ...  As I mentioned it was fairly cloudy that late afternoon but I can only imagine how wonderful the overhead display would have been on a beautiful sunny day, as we were driving away I did see in the rear view mirror how fabulous the pieces in the "shadow boxes" above looked with the daylight behind them ~ I could only imagine how spectacular they'd have looked at night from 1/2 block away, not to mention up close and personal!

So, the photo below was taken from the top of the steps leading to the bridge area of the Museum.  This was overlooking the Tacoma Dome (right side of the photo) and a bridge that looks like a miniature version of the Zakim Bridge in Boston - we wondered which came first the Zakim or the Tacoma Bridge?  My vote is for the Zakim

We've been outside Portland Oregon for a week, done a bit of sight seeing, Sir got to play in the Pacific Ocean, and hopefully a big sight seeing trip tomorrow (then again, I've been hoping to do that trip for five days now as well as another or two ....) and we'll be heading east on Sunday or perhaps delaying it (seriously) until Monday ..

In any case I am so glad to be able to be back on line and posting etc. again!