Usually the first thing I do after checking into my hotel room is take off all my clothes and run around the room screaming. It's a great tension-breaker after a day of travel (not to mention good exercise). Luckily this time I totally resisted the urge to get naked, because a family of three unlocked the door and walked right in. There was a father, a mother, and a little girl. "Uhhh... Hello?" I said. "What are you doing in our room?" they replied. "Sorry, but this is my room... see, it says so on my keycard" I explained.
Turned out the guy at the front desk gave me the wrong room. Good thing that I wasn't out for dinner, or all my stuff could have been stolen. Don't let the little girl fool you, these people could have easily been hard-core criminals.
Anyway, I am once again on the other side of the state having driven back to Tacoma today...
In order to avoid traffic, I left pretty early. This allowed me to do two things: 1) Eat at the Auburn SuperMall Johnny Rockets, so I can now claim to have eaten at all five Johnny Rockets restaurants in the state. 2) Continue my Chihuly Glass Walking Tour here in Tacoma...
If you haven't read the first part of my tour when I visited The Museum of Glass and Union Station, you might want to go take a look at that entry first. Otherwise, I've documented the final half of the tour in an extended entry (with photos!) for anybody who finds this kind of stuff interesting...
Alrighty then. Picking up from a month ago, I again cross the Bridge of Glass and marvel at Chihuly's beautiful glass ceiling...
Once I'm to the other side, I continue up the street until I reach The Tacoma Art Museum which has a number of Chihuly pieces on display, including a really cool vase with amazing color in it...
The centerpiece of the museum is an enclosed courtyard with a nifty sloping floor. Chihuly has installed a number of assorted glass globes here that look like giant marbles, some reaching about two feet across...
Leaving the museum, I head to the University of Washington at Tacoma Library where Chihuly has a gigantic red glass chandelier. I don't know why, but it looks kind of evil to me...
Along the way I find some sidewalk drawings (which I've put in a separate entry) and head north to The Swiss Pub. For reasons I can't even guess, they have eight Chihuly Venetians displayed above the bar. The pieces undoubtedly total tens of thousands of dollars, so either Chihuly was in a generous mood, or somebody is very wealthy...
As a reward for finishing up, I decide to have a glass of Dead Guy Ale, which has a really cool tap handle...
And there you have it. It may have taken a month, but I've finally managed to finish the Chihuly Glass Walking Tour of Tacoma!
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I’m absolutely gaping at how beautiful these photos are. Stunning pieces all. I really need to take a trip to the northwest. There’s glass and sidewalk art and dead man beer. Hey, wanna hit the pub?
Those handles are totally cool. I want one, even though I don’t drink beer of any brand. It would look cool as the stick shift of my car.
And I agree, that chandelier looks like something you’d find in a Borg cube on ST. Eeeeee-vil. Looking at it again, it kinda looks alive in a sci-fi sort of way. Thanks for sharing the pictures.
Hey Karl… dont forget TequilaCon, coming to the glorious Pacific NorthWest next Spring!
Mooselet… I want the entire bar, INCLUDING the tap handle, in my living room! 🙂
the red thing looks like the giant spaghetti monster. you know… the one that created us all.
ALL HAIL HIS NOODLY APPENDAGE!
wow! stunning!! gosh imagine the mess if there was an earthquake.. hehe 🙂
I would kill for even one of those vases!
As for hotel rooms, the first thing I do is look under the bed. Not for monsters, but there are a ton of people who like to hide things there and generally what I find is good for a laugh.
Get naked and screaming…
Ii reminds the movie “A Fish Called Wanda”
Somehow Chihuly’s red chandelier looks like Medusa.
What is there to eat at Johnny Rocket’s if you’re a vegeterian?
Okay, this may be a stupid question, but what is w00t? I’ve noticed it a couple times on your maps, but I haven’t a clue what it is? Thanks!
david
PS. Love your site.
Jodi’s right.
Spaghetti Monster.
Which makes me think of……
PIRATES!! 🙂
I was walked in on at 3 a.m. one time in my hotel room. Scared the living crap out of me!
WAAAAAY cool pictures!
For some stupid reason all I can think of when I see that red chandelier is that thing must be a BITCH to transport!
i love the photos. i definitely need to go on over there and check it out in person. with all my out of town guests coming in, i should put that on our list of must sees.
Always beautiful !!!
The red glass chandelier makes me think of Jacques Tardi. (One of my favorites comic strip artists). I really like this piece of art.
If you don’t know Jacques Tardi…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Tardi
If you want to see drawings’ Jacques Tardi…
1/ http://data.magicsquare.be/ouvrages/2203/305/220330507x_0g.jpg
2/ http://www.casterman.com/fonds/adele/4_1024.jpg
3/ http://www.casterman.com/fonds/adele/2_1024.jpg
4/ http://www.casterman.com/fonds/adele/1_1024.jpg
I don’t know how frequently you, er, frequent Vegas, but the lobby of the Bellagio has a fair amount of glass that looks like the picture in this post.
I don’t know if it’s specifically the same kind, but it looks pretty similar.
Could’ve been worse. You could have been watching one of those “special” in-room movies…
Bryan, it’s definitely the same artist:
http://www.bellagio.com/pages/frameset_flash.asp
I saw a documentary about Dale Chihuly on PBS many years ago, and have been a fan of his work ever since. I actually love these “squiggly” sculptures of his even more than the “pretty” ones. Have you ever seen “The Sun”?
The red sculpture is very HP Lovecraft… A Chihuly “Cthulhu?”
Have you been up to Sleeping Lady to the outdoor Chihuly? They also have a lot of Chihuly books in the lobby area to peruse…
I love the one in the lobby of the Bellagio… the couches are designed so you can gaze upwards & not get a sore neck…I didn’t see any of the other ones though.
I really enjoyed those photos… Thanks, Dave! 🙂
Wow. They are really beautiful. I’ve had Rogue beer before but I don’t think I had the dead guy ale yet…
i think there r ok….. but some r UGLY!!!!!!!!!!!!