Chihuly Garden & Glass

Friday, 15 June 2018
Gig Harbor RV Resort — Gig Harbor, Washington
Temps: 69F (21C) / 47F (8C)

Seattle welcomed us back from our Alaska cruise (post here) with ever-brightening light that led to blue skies, sunshine, and comfy temps … quite a bit different from our send off a week ago.  The nice weather confirmed our tentative plans to do a bit of sightseeing in Seattle before heading home to the Phaeton … patiently waiting for us in Gig Harbor.

Elliott Bay Marina from our veranda … it looks so much
better with bright light and the promise of blue skies.

Our destination — the Chihuly Garden & Glass Exhibit (CG&G) — was a short drive from the Smith Cove Cruise Terminal where we disembarked Celebrity Solstice.  Just one block away we found on-street parking for a far more reasonable price than we expected … $1/hour.  A short walk brought us to the base of the Space Needle and the nearby Chihuly exhibit in the Seattle Center.

The Space Needle, built for the 1962 World’s Fair,
is to Seattle what the Eiffel Tower is to Paris.

Visiting CG&G is not inexpensive.  Regular admission is $29pp + tax … we paid $25.20pp when Mui asked if they had a military discount.  The admission is well worth it IMHO.

Welcome to the Chihuly Garden & Glass!

This is not the first time we’ve seen Chihuly’s work … either as individual pieces or as an exhibit.  In fact, we went to the New York Botanic Garden to see his work when we docked in NYC on the RTW voyage last year (post here).  We expected that this exhibit would be particularly special since Chihuly hails from Tacoma … a local favorite son, if you will.  We were not disappointed.  The CG&G certainly lives up to its mission … stated on the website as: “Through the work of artist Dale Chihuly, we celebrate our region’s creative energy and inspire visitors to engage with our region’s cultural community.”

Northwest Room — influenced by the Native American culture, Chihuly experimented
with glass-thread drawings on glass vessels … inspiration from Navajo textile designs.

The CG&G consists of indoor galleries and garden installations.  The centerpiece is the Glasshouse … a greenhouse type structure that provides a transition between the indoor and outdoor areas.  The amazing installation that fills the top half of the building draws one’s eye up … I bet it is fantastic when it is lit up at night.  There’s also a theater where a short video about Chihuly’s creative process is screened … somehow we missed that.

The 15-foot Sealife Tower takes inspiration from the sea and Puget Sound.
A close examination reveals that the tower consists of glass forms of
starfish, octopus, conch shells, sea anemones, urchins and more.

With the Mille Fiori — thousand flowers in Italian — Chihuly assembles
gardens of glass … inspired by his mother's garden.

Ikebana and Float Boats — the two wooden rowboats are filled with
glass forms … one with Ikebana elements and the other with Niijima Floats.

Macchia Forest … a series Chihuly began in 1981 to use all 300 colors available to
him in the hotshop.  Each piece is speckled with color, which comes from rolling
molten glass in small shards of colored glass during the blowing process.

The Glasshouse is the centerpiece of CG&G … the sculpture is a 100-foot
long installation … one of his largest suspended sculptures.

One of the many installations tucked into the nooks and crannies of the garden.

CG&G is not just about glass art … there are beautiful flowers in the garden too.

We left the Chihuly exhibit shortly before noon … just as the crowds were picking up.  There was no traffic to speak of on the drive home.  With our days in Gig Harbor nearing an end, we wrapped up our day with a late lunch at Puerto Vallarta, a Mexican restaurant not far from the RV resort.  The place is always hopping, but not so much during the odd hour between lunch and dinner.  Despite the slight chill in the air, we enjoyed an al fresco meal on the patio.

We’ll be leaving the PacNW on the 18th for Utah … another state we lived in back in the ‘80s and early ‘90s.  Looking forward to plenty of reminiscing as we continue our search for where we will eventually settle.

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