Hot glass and cold water

It has been another beautiful spring day in Seattle (not that we want to jinx it or anything!).  People who have never been here may think we are a bit weird to be so surprised.  Let me put it in context – one of the most common t-shirts we saw at the market on Friday read “Seattle Rain Festival – Jan 1^st to Dec 31^st”.  Clearly it doesn’t include April 6, 7 or 8 though (and we are pretty hopeful about April 9 too).  We drove into the city again in order to have a more leisurely stroll around the Seattle Centre, as we did not get time to look at the Bowl Fountain up close yesterday.  Not only did we find it, some people were actually sitting close enough to risk getting wet.  We don’t think it’s that’s warm here yet; maybe they were locals who are missing the rain.

While having a bite of brunch, I checked my Facebook messages to find one from my brother saying that if we still had time, we should check out Snoqualmie Falls.  The falls and the Lodge there were used as a location for Twin Peaks, so we were glad to get that message early.  We had already planned to go to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, so we headed back to the car.

En route to the Museum of Glass, we took a detour to drive past the house where Christian, Yvonne, Edwin and Millie lived while they were here.  It is in a lovely area, not that far from town but very rural.  We did wish they were still there to visit, but we can’t have everything!  At least their temporary home city has turned on some lovely weather for us.

The Museum of Glass was fantastic.  It was founded by Dale Chihuly, who is the artist responsible for the glass flowers we so admired in the lobby of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.  While he does not do his work there, there was plenty of his art on display, particularly in the Bridge of Glass which is one of the thoroughfares to the museum.  We actually spent most of our time there in the Hot Room, where MoG artists work glass while tourists like ourselves watch.  Today they were working on a Kids Design Glass piece.  This is a program the museum runs.  They get children up to the age of 12 to submit designs, and once a month they choose one or two to make.  Today’s one was called “Snakes in a Pot”, designed by a wee girl of about 5 years old.  She and her family were there to watch the creation of her design.  We were mesmerised – the artists go to so much trouble to make the piece as close to the drawing as possible so we just had to stay and see the final creation.  We only saw it briefly as it had to be quickly put into an annealing oven to cool down from its 540° C temperature over about 48 hours so it does not crack.  The thing that we really loved is how much of a team effort hot glass work is; there were four artists at work together on this piece.

 The galleries were interesting too, although I think we both preferred the paperweights from the 1970’s and 80’s to the current exhibits.  After a walk over the Bridge of Glass to admire Dale Chihuly’s creations once more, it was back to the car to head out to the Falls.  I must take a moment here to say that while Seattle is easily the most beautiful of the cities we have seen here, it is an absolute pig to drive around.  There are so many interlocking freeways, and getting from one to another seems to be an exercise in thrill-seeking – something neither of us is particularly good at.

Despite this we got safely to Snoqualmie Falls, and they are beautiful.  The thing that impressed us most is that while there is a hydro-electricity station just above the falls, the company that owns it has a contract with the state of Washington to keep the area beautiful and to maintain trails, viewpoints and parks around the Falls.  We hadn’t expected anything so nicely developed and maintained – or so busy!  And I felt very under-dressed in my jeans and jumper as many of the women there seemed to be out in their Easter best!  Oops.

Tomorrow we give up our car – while it has been wonderful to have the independence and freedom of a vehicle, I have a feeling using the trains tomorrow will keep us a lot calmer.