We went to Seattle last weekend. While last our visit in January 2013 has a shopping as purpose (there are some serious shopping malls in Tulalip) this time we wanted to see more of what city can offer. Unfortunately, weekend is too short for thorough exploration so we focused on two things we wanted to visit since last time: Chihuly Garden and Glass gallery and Space Needle. One is right next to the other so we didn’t waste too much time trying to find them 😛 Besides, they are bot just few minutes by famous Seattle monorail from downtown.
People interested in art are probably familiar with a name of Dale Chihuly. Despite all of his injuries, he managed to stay with his art.
We expected to see something unusual but no one prepared us for this 😮
Sealife
Or this:
Ikebana and Float Boat
Quite amazing! The rest of the photographs I made you can find here.
Space Needle, an 184m (605ft) high observation tower is right near the Chihuly Glass and Garden museum.
It was built in 1962 and can withstand wind up to 85 m/s (200 mph) and earthquake up to 9.1 magnitude, which is, considering that Seattle is on the shaky west coast, significant characteristic. I mean, earthquake of magnitude 9 and above, if it lasts long enough, would destroy everything around anyway, being close to the ground won’t help THAT much 😛 But if we leave that by side, it was a nice view from the observation deck:
downtown Seattle with Mount Rainier on the right
EMP, museum of SF and monorail
The city itself seems to be in favor to different kinds of art – in a street where our hotel was, there are no less than 5 galleries and that was on one side of it only! The city itself, especially the part of downtown near the Farmers Market is kind of art by itself. Last year when we were there the rain was pouring; this time it was overcast but dry, even with some sun. I hope next time we will see some of the blue sky but, as it is case with Vancouver, you never know…
one way, for sure 😀
gdare 
Love the downspout! Makes me want to try something similar.
Nice shots.
Chihuly’s work always makes me think of Wyndham’s “The Kraken Wakes” (published here as “Out of the Deeps”), and the one labeled “Sea Life” seems to fit it perfectly. We have a couple of his (Chihuly’s) things here, I think … at least one in the Milwaukee Art Museum … they always make me kinda nervous. I don’t like to get too near them; they look so breakable.
When we entered the museum they warned us: we can make photographs but are not allowed to touch sculptures. Not that I wanted to touch them, but some people probably can’t resist the urge 😛
Yes … my mum was like that … very tactile person. I reckon that’s why weaving appealed to her.
man those are some amazing pics…
Thanks :cheers:
your pictures looks like something that came out of a traveling magazine. :up:
Thank you. I am trying my best and hopefully getting better at it. But these are maybe 5% of all photos I’ve made, the rest of them will probably be deleted. It is still mostly a try-and-miss kind of photography 😛
I always wanted to go west and visit Seattle. Pretty fascinating pictures! 😎
Thank you. How far away are you? It was easy for us, we live in Vancouver, that’s about 2 and a half hours on a good day, meaning no rain and going fast over the border 🙂
I’m on the USA east coast, the other side of the continent! 😀
Well, then better get yourself a good car and a lot of time 😀
Beautiful shots and thanks for the tour of the city. I’ve been through Seattle a couple of times but I’ve never really explored it.
It does seem to be place where nature is quite violent though – apart from the earthquakes and west coast rain, there’s the volcano hazard. Did you see Mt Rainier on the horizon? Apparently some towns south of the city are built on an ancient dried lahar, which doesn’t bode well if the mountain erupts again. (Anyway, in the here and now, it’s a spectacular volcano.)
Actually, I’ve made an error on that photo, it was Mt Rainier and not Mount St Helens. Mt Rainier with its 4392m (14.411 ft) is dominating the eastern side of the view; Mount St Helens is almost 2000 m lower and more to the south. Now I need to change some things here 😀
Whoa. Those glass pieces are something amazing. Really a treat for the eye 😀
Colours are more intense because of black background but can you imagine the trouble of assembling it
I’m so glad you got to see some Chihuly glass art in person. It really is amazing. Also glad you enjoyed Seattle. I was there a few times when my sister lived there for 25 years. During one trip, we took a couple of ferry boat rides to different islands. One was Tillicum where we had salmon (me for the first time) cooked by Native Americans (I’m sorry, I forget what tribe). It was cooked on sticks over a fire outside and we ate inside, in a Long House. Another ferry took us to Orca’s Island where I had more salmon at a wonderful restaurant called Christina’s (I don’t know if it is still there). We also took a walk through ‘Enchanted Forrest’ to a ceramic studio and store. All through the walk were pieces of colorful, broken pieces of ceramic embedded in the dirt and trees. Truly, a very enchanting place.
“During one trip, we took a couple of ferry boat rides to different islands.”
Now that sounds like a good idea for one of next visits! On a way to Seattle, we stopped in Everett. In a hotel, we asked for them to recommend some good sea food restaurant. They gave us a list and three most popular ones were, of course, on Pacific beach. And there were no single table available. Obviously, salmon, and probably other sea food is very popular there 😀 We ended up in some Cuban restaurant and food was equally perfect!!!
Seattle is popular destination among people from Vancouver Metro area, it is close and is a perfect weekend getaway for someone who wants to still stay in urban area 🙂
That glasswork is amazing! I’ve not come across Chihulu before, but that’s quite astounding. Interesting to read about his background as well. Looks like a good trip (I knew nothing about Seattle).
As I said to Pam, Seattle is popular among Vancouverites 😀 Not too big and on the ocean but more like in cove, if you know what I mean. Somewhat like a Vancouver but more artsy, as San likes to say 🙂
“The city itself seems to be in favor to different kinds of art” what kind of city where one can see beauty everywhere.very beautiful shots , thanks for sharing .
You are welcome! This is what blogging is all about, right? 🙂
Beautiful pictures Darko, especially of the glass art! 🙂
Thank you, Mira 🙂