A Seattle Weekend
This weekend, Andrew and I bundled up and flew to the Pacific Northwest for a Seattle exploration. First stop: the Museum of Glass, not in Seattle but in Tacoma, an easy bus ride from the airport. Tacoma is Dale Chihuly’s birthplace, and the Museum of Glass is connected to the downtown area by the Bridge of Glass—not a bridge made out of glass, as Andrew and I mistakenly believed, but an otherwise ordinary bridge made less ordinary by the presence of several Chihuly glass artworks. Two teal-colored rock-candy-like sculptures flank the entrance to the bridge; on the bridge itself is a glass-walled series of shelves holding Chihuly vessels, and an overhead sea of glass creatures and shapes.
The focal point of the museum itself is the Hot Shop, a working glass studio with stadium seating, where guest artists give glassmaking demonstrations. We were lucky to be there during Lino Tagliapietra’s residency—a glass artist from Venice—and we could have watched him all day. We watched him create a beautiful banana-shaped piece—and wondered if we should check the museum’s dumpsters for cast-off “demos.”
We headed into Seattle later that afternoon and had just enough time to visit the city’s amazing glass-walled public library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, and stroll around Pioneer Square and a great bookstore, the Elliot Bay Book Company. Soon it was dinnertime. We’d lucked into Valentine’s Day reservations—apparently someone had just cancelled when we booked through OpenTable—for Café Campagne, a charming French restaurant near the famous Pike Place Market. We had a delicious meal: calamari, duck confit salad, cassoulet served in an individual Le Creuset pot, and steak frites. Fabulous.
Sunday, we headed to the Seattle Art Museum to see an Edward Hopper exhibition—ten paintings of “Hopper’s women,” soulful, solitary creatures in cafes and restaurants. It was a great collection, and the whole museum had wonderful explanatory texts—so often museum texts are exercises in meaningless artspeak, but these were very informative and interesting.
Our main activity on Sunday was a guided walking tour of Pike Place Market—a “Savor Seattle” tour. Along with about sixteen other people, we followed the guide through the sprawling market—it was easy to hear him among all the chaos because we had unobtrusive headsets, very Japanese-tour-group—as he told us about some of the vendors and the market’s history. The real point of the tour, however, was getting to taste many of the market’s offerings; among our selections were delicious cheddar made in-house, piroshkies (a savory Russian pastry), clam chowder, smoked salmon, tiny cinnamon donuts, fresh apples and pears, and coconut cream pie. Later, Andrew and I returned to the market for fried clams from Ivar’s Acres of Clams.
We met our friends Joel and Lauren for dinner at a steakhouse Sunday night. Monday, we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island for brunch; the views from the water were wonderful. Then we walked around the International District and browsed in Uwajimaya, a Japanese department store--it was amazing, full of Japanese foods and knick knacks. I added to my collection of kawaii: a small panda that came inside a chocolate egg. Finally, we returned to the market yet again for more piroshkies and steamed pork buns. Cold and tired, we parked ourselves by the fireplace in our hotel’s lobby until it was time to leave for our flight.
What a great city—much more big-city-like than I expected, though it did in some ways match the rugged Seattle of my imagination. I saw more than a few people who looked like they’d been living in the wilderness for twenty years and had only recently—though successfully!—reentered society; and we saw several men wearing Utilikilts, which are exactly what they sound like—a combination of utility belt and kilt. Rugged kilts. Our market tour guide was wearing one. But alongside all that were Gucci and Louis Vuitton, interesting architecture and wonderful museums. A fun exploration.
The focal point of the museum itself is the Hot Shop, a working glass studio with stadium seating, where guest artists give glassmaking demonstrations. We were lucky to be there during Lino Tagliapietra’s residency—a glass artist from Venice—and we could have watched him all day. We watched him create a beautiful banana-shaped piece—and wondered if we should check the museum’s dumpsters for cast-off “demos.”
We headed into Seattle later that afternoon and had just enough time to visit the city’s amazing glass-walled public library, designed by Rem Koolhaas, and stroll around Pioneer Square and a great bookstore, the Elliot Bay Book Company. Soon it was dinnertime. We’d lucked into Valentine’s Day reservations—apparently someone had just cancelled when we booked through OpenTable—for Café Campagne, a charming French restaurant near the famous Pike Place Market. We had a delicious meal: calamari, duck confit salad, cassoulet served in an individual Le Creuset pot, and steak frites. Fabulous.
Sunday, we headed to the Seattle Art Museum to see an Edward Hopper exhibition—ten paintings of “Hopper’s women,” soulful, solitary creatures in cafes and restaurants. It was a great collection, and the whole museum had wonderful explanatory texts—so often museum texts are exercises in meaningless artspeak, but these were very informative and interesting.
Our main activity on Sunday was a guided walking tour of Pike Place Market—a “Savor Seattle” tour. Along with about sixteen other people, we followed the guide through the sprawling market—it was easy to hear him among all the chaos because we had unobtrusive headsets, very Japanese-tour-group—as he told us about some of the vendors and the market’s history. The real point of the tour, however, was getting to taste many of the market’s offerings; among our selections were delicious cheddar made in-house, piroshkies (a savory Russian pastry), clam chowder, smoked salmon, tiny cinnamon donuts, fresh apples and pears, and coconut cream pie. Later, Andrew and I returned to the market for fried clams from Ivar’s Acres of Clams.
We met our friends Joel and Lauren for dinner at a steakhouse Sunday night. Monday, we took a ferry to Bainbridge Island for brunch; the views from the water were wonderful. Then we walked around the International District and browsed in Uwajimaya, a Japanese department store--it was amazing, full of Japanese foods and knick knacks. I added to my collection of kawaii: a small panda that came inside a chocolate egg. Finally, we returned to the market yet again for more piroshkies and steamed pork buns. Cold and tired, we parked ourselves by the fireplace in our hotel’s lobby until it was time to leave for our flight.
What a great city—much more big-city-like than I expected, though it did in some ways match the rugged Seattle of my imagination. I saw more than a few people who looked like they’d been living in the wilderness for twenty years and had only recently—though successfully!—reentered society; and we saw several men wearing Utilikilts, which are exactly what they sound like—a combination of utility belt and kilt. Rugged kilts. Our market tour guide was wearing one. But alongside all that were Gucci and Louis Vuitton, interesting architecture and wonderful museums. A fun exploration.
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