Road Trip, Day 8 - Chihuly Gardens - Daytime

My appreciation of Chihuly began in 1996 when he had an installation at the St. Louis Art Museum. One part of that installation stuck with me - the Persian Ceiling. I walked into a room with a glass drop ceiling. Between the glass and the lights were oodles and oodles of beautiful Chihuly glass. I vowed right then and there, that I wanted a room like that... if I ever won the lottery.

Then, he came back to the St. Louis area to do an installation at one of my favorite places in the world, at Missouri Botanical Garden, in 2006. Again, my love for Chihuly was renewed. I wish we had been able to keep more of the beautiful work.

This amazingness opened in 2012, and I bookmarked it for when I would ever been in Seattle. Winner winner for me! One of the great things about Chihuly Garden and Glass is that they have a day/night pass - so you can see the gloriousness in the daytime and then lit perfectly at night. And it's both an indoor installation and an outdoor installation.

Warning: VERY image heavy post ahead!!

We went at noon and enjoyed the Glass Forest:

The Northwest Room with Baskets and the drawings:

Sea Life:

My favorite Persian ceiling:

Mille Fiori (Italian for "thousand flowers"):

Ikebana and Float Boat:

His famous Chandeliers:

and famous Macchia:

We wandered around the garden and marveled at its beauty:

There are only like a million more photos found in the Seattle set. I tried really hard to pare down, but I LOVE Chihuly... can you tell???

Nighttime coming soon!

Road Trip, Day 8: Seattle - Around Seattle

On the night of Day 7, we were only a 1/2 hour out of Seattle, proper, so we arrived early. We had plans to meet up with J & D for lunch and Chihuly Gardens, etc but we had time to kill while they drove up from Portland.

I had wanted to check out Gas Works Park - so we headed that way. Unfortunately, it was hosting some sort of Crossfit competition. Extremely fit people were doing extreme fitness things and getting cheered on by their family and friends. However, despite that, we did enjoy Gas Works park. Gas Works Park is the former site of the Seattle Gas Light Company.  It was the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the US. It operated from 1906 to 1956.

Despite the crowds, it was actually quite cool:

We also certainly enjoyed watching the noisy seaplanes take off and land from the water:

We also enjoyed this colorful row of houses:

And visited the Fremont Troll, who was constructed in 1990 under the Aurora Bridge.

I'll also include the Seattle Center (where the Space Needle, Chihuly Gardens and a host of other amazing institutions are housed). I didn't know this until the following day, but the Seattle Center is a relic from Seattle's World's Fair in 1962. I knew the Space Needle was a relic but I didn't really put two and two together. I certainly didn't know that their Science Center was located there, nor their EMP/Science Fiction museum, and host to a bunch of theatres including Seattle Rep and Seattle Opera. If I lived in Seattle, I'd be over here all the time, except for the fact that there might be a million tourists at times...

Tomorrow, or later today, I'll go over my favorite Seattle attraction!

Charleston, Day 3

Day 1 | Day 2

Day 3 came pretty early and C, K and I all headed back to Folly River to try our hand at Stand Up Paddleboarding. You're basically standing up on a surfboard (paddleboard) and you have a paddle which is operated in completely the OPPOSITE direction of a kayak or a canoe. I was DEAD certain that I was going to end up in the water in seconds flat. I'm notorious for my poor sense of balance (don't put me on a bike). It was actually quite fun except when I tired my arms out because Mother Nature decided to have some fun with us and kick up the wind. 

We joined S & S back at the house and cleaned up in order to head to the Charleston Tea Plantation - where Bigelow teas are from. We sampled and purchased some delicious teas as well as became educated on the tea harvesting procedure. We also enjoyed a tranquil moment on their porch in wooden rockers, looking out over acres of tea plants. 

All tea-d out, we headed back towards home, making a stop at the Angel Oak - the oldest live oak (type of oak). According to Wikipedia, it is supposed to be over 1500 years old, is 65 ft tall and 28 ft in circumference. All I know is that it is huge and majestic. While basking in the magnificence of the Angel Oak, I noticed a white creature across the way. As it turns out, it is a white squirrel. Not albino, like I originally thought. For more info try here 

Next up, Catch up on Photo Project 2012!