Sunday, April 5, found us en route to Seattle, WA by way of Tacoma, WA where we stopped to see the Museum of Glass, visited the exhibits and the Hot Shop to watch glass blowers ply their art (live demonstrations can be viewed here when the Hot Shop is open), wandered across the Glass Bridge (featuring marvelous Chilhuly glass creations along the bridge walkway) and generally had a wonderful time.
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| Glassblower at work | Chilhuly glass art |
On arrival in Seattle, Lauren (my niece) put us to work in the kitchen assisting with dinner preparations. (she did allow me a short get-acquainted visit with her fiancé Justus before assigning us all tasks) Dinner was a wonderful group effort featuring tacos, rice, black beans, guacamole, sauteed peppers and onions (my task) and beverages of choice with the meal. Seems we were all having too much fun to take photos that evening... but here are a couple from the next morning.
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| Early morning sunlight on downtown Seattle | Distant mountains from Pike Place Market |
Since it was Monday morning, everyone in the group house was off to work so we went off to have breakfast at the Pike Place Market and do a bit of shopping and looking at the many shops there. It's quite a place to visit and I'm sure I'd be shopping there for fresh fish if I lived in Seattle. The flower vendors and vegetable vendors are pretty fabulous too...
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Our visit to the Weyerhaueser Bonsai Garden (planned stop for our return to Portland) didn't pan out. (Weyerhaueser has closed the garden for lack of funding to maintain it.) So what else could we do but stop at McMenamin's on the Columbia River for a micro brew and a bite to eat. The views below were taken from our table while seated outdoors to take advantage of the balmy spring weather. The grackle was dining on a french fry tossed up on top of one of the umbrellas sometime earlier in the day. The folks sitting underneath the umbrella when I snapped this had NO IDEA why I was taking the photo.
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