From Mount Ranier we headed north to Tacoma.
Tacoma really likes art glass. They have a glass museum and large glass sculptures downtown.
This is their old Union Station building. It's no longer a train station but is now being used as a courthouse.
This is a pedestrian walkway that has outdoor glass exhibits. There must have been hundreds of glass objects in this ceiling. Quite beautiful.
These large vases were incredible.
One of our favorites.
Large glass chunks turned into sculpture.
It was Angie's birthday so we splurged on some Thai food in an actual restaurant!
Camped in a damp state park campground then onto Seattle! Rains quite a bit up here, wish we could send some home to Texas. We splurged on a motel the first night and then planned to "urban camp" the next night. More on that later.
The Seattle Aquarium was fantastic. This is a huge tank with lots of sea animals from the Puget Sound area, including a diver!
The diver wore a dry suit and had a special helmet so that she could communicate with the visitors. The glass is actually acryllic and is a foot thick!
All the water circulating thru the exhibits is pumped from the Puget Sound. Here Angie is looking at starfish, anemonies, and other tide pool animals. Visitors are allowed to gently touch the creatures.
This is a ring of jellyfish!
Some of the aquariums were like funhouse mirrors.
More aquarium fun!
Sea otters! These guys were fun and seemed to enjoy all the attention and mugging for the camera.
Meanwhile, the river otters were a bit more reserved.
Post Alley
Angie needed a raincoat so we visited the REI mothership. It was huge!
This gentleman is at the intersection of Aurora and Broad if anyone is interested...
Space Needle! Built for the 1961 World's Fair. Seattle must make a lot of money with this attraction, it's $18 each to ride to the top.
But, of course, we did it! The view is worth it. If you look at the upper right corner you can just barely see Mount Ranier.
Seattle sunset at a park by the Pike Street Public Market. It was Monday but the weather was perfect so there was a large crowd enjoying the outdoors. We spent about an hour just people watching. The crowd seemed to be about a third locals, a third tourists, and the rest comprised of bums, hustlers, and other assorted waterfront ne'er-do-wells. LeTigre is parked nearby in a pay parking lot where we were debating doing an "urban camp" for the night but as the sun disappeared we started rethinking this...
Hey, we know that guy! Corey was in town on business and we met him out at a restaurant for pizza and beer. He was kind of enough to treat us to wrap up Angie's birthday celebrations.
Thanks Corey!
I can't recall how this tradition started but this wall, outside the restaurant on Post Alley, is covered in gum??? You can read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gum_Wall
The birthday girl! By the time this was taken the night zombies were really out and we had abandoned any notion of "urban camping". We drove out of Seattle to find a place for the night. I think from now on we'll stay in the wilderness and make day forays into the big city.
So long Seattle! Thanks!
Aaawww Looks like you two, err three are having a great time! Looks like you had a pretty awesome birthday Angie! Have fun you guys and can't wait to see ya on the Florida end!!! Love, Michelle Curry (Hillard)
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