Chihuly, Seattle, and Susan

Susan and me in the Persian Room

I took the Bolt Bus yesterday to Seattle, a pretty darn wonderful way to get there. The bus stops right at the Light Rail station, so I could simply hop on and in minutes arrive downtown at the hotel where Susan and her husband are staying. She and I decided first to have coffee and plan our day.

Hearts and flowers

Susan was my stepdaughter many, many moons ago, and although it had been more than a quarter of a century since we last saw each other, it was an emotional and very satisfying reunion. You know how some people might change a little by the passage of time but are still exactly who they were back then? That's the way it felt. Some catching up, some tears and laughter, but we picked up right where we left off.

Detail of the ceiling in the Persian Room

We headed off to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum, something we both wanted very much to see. One of my blogging friends, Linda Letters, has shown an incredible number of pictures of this glass museum, and I definitely had it on my list of places I simply had to visit in Seattle. There are several different rooms, along with an outdoor garden.

In the Milli Fiori Room

It's almost impossible to describe the magnificence of his work. The glass is, I know intellectually, not actually waving in the breeze and flowing anywhere at all,  but it sure feels like it is. There is incredible movement in his art, as you can see above. But my favorite room of all is the Sealife Room. Piece after piece captured my eye and my heart. This tiny little sea urchin in the midst of all this blue is just a little piece of an enormous sculpture.

One sea urchin among many

I loved the detail and the colors that kept catching my eye and making me gasp in astonishment. Another incredible room is the Chandelier Room. Although my pictures couldn't begin to capture the size and beauty of them, the bottom of this chandelier shows the delicacy of his work.

Glass droplets

It is not my intention to post all the pictures that I took, because although they are wonderful to look at, my intention is really to encourage anyone who has a chance to see Dale Chihuly's art to do so. After we left the museum and the garden, the rain had stopped, and we went up in the Space Needle, although there was not much to see through the fog. It was still a nice treat to be with Susan. After spending a few hours at the hotel with her and Greg, we went back to where the Bolt Bus was waiting to take me back to Bellingham.

Thanks for the great picture, Greg

They both came with me to the bus and, since we had a few minutes, we wandered over to Uwajimaya, which is a huge Asian market filled with amazing things. And then it was time to go, a delightful day having come to an end. It was wonderful and magical, and this beautiful woman is not only a part of my past, but of my future, too. I love you, Susan.
:-)