Camille picked up Emilie at the Seattle/Tacoma airport on Monday morning, July 13, 2015. Dave and I and the Flindts met Camille and her children at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, while Jonny, Jenny, Michael, and Sam spent the day on the Oregon coast.
Glass-blowing has been a home-town craft in Washington State ever since Dale Chihuly brought glass-blowers from Murano Island, near Venice, to teach him their elegant art. Lisa's children make glass jewelry for their mothers in the Sammamish schools. The Museum of Glass includes a production floor where glass objects were made while we watched. Many of them were sold in the gift store. Guest artists teach at the museum and then donate some of their work to the museum as exhibit pieces.
The children in our group relaxed in the craft lab, making a bit of art themselves.
The museum gallery was filled with many styles of glass art.
One artist was a breast cancer survivor. This piece was her response to breast cancer. She also had an installation using glass forms from the torsos of real women with their arms raised, who had taken mammograms.
The Museum of Glass building is striking.
We passed a group of older women who belong to a club inspired by the poem, "When I Grow Old, I Shall Wear Purple." If SLC has a chapter, I may join that group some day!
We walked onto the bridge over the Tacoma freeway, with its wall of Chihuly glass pieces. I remembered coming here with Lisa and her children soon after they moved to Seattle in 2005.
Even the Tacoma courthouse has large pieces of Chihuly glass, which we could see through its windows.
Kids on the bridge.
We paused for a picnic in the park, and found our "dog of the day."
Next stop was Gig Harbor, a picturesque fishing town on the Kitsap Peninsula.
We paused for ice cream cones in local flavors like huckleberry (and, of course, bubble gum for Mia).
The harbor was picture perfect.
Grant texted a friend from Gig Harbor whom he met at a Washington State leadership conference, and she showed us around town.
We spotted a jelly fish from the side of the pier.
A friendly man told us about his sailboat.
Kayakers slid through the glassy water near the larger boats.
Grant and his friend.
A kayaking club raced, as we walked back from the pier.
A statue on the pier reminded us of the town's fishing heritage.
Two of the contestants for today's "dog of the day."
We had great picnic lunches and crock pot dinners at the reunion. This evening, Camille fixed her mac'n'cheese buffet.
We held the family auction, with Dave in his traditional tie-dyed t-shirt and Norwegian horned hat as auctioneer. Dave and I had lots of fun assembling the presents. I shopped at Gygi's for kitchen items and donated a few pieces of my jewelry. Dave stopped at All-a-Dollar for treats for the kids.
As we browsed through an antique store in Yakima, we found the piece de resistance, an alligator head. Sophia was the winner of that choice item.
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