In April, my husband Paul and I went to Seattle for 5 days. We started our trip off in Seattle by having a delicious lunch at Ivar's Salmon House on Lake Union. Afterwards I saw the recent exhibits at the Henry Art Gallery - one of which was Sean Scully.
We were staying in a hotel on Lake Union, later that evening we had a crab dinner at Duke's Chowder House Lake Union
The picture in the slide show with the yachts, palm trees and Space Needle in the distance was taken from our window at Duke's.
The next day we went to the new Chihuly Garden and Glass venue. This is located at Seattle Centre right below the Space Needle.
"Collections Restaurant" at Chihuly Garden and Glass with vintage accordions
First we had lunch in the Collections Cafe that is housed within the exhibition hall. In the cafe are many of Chihuly's personal collections from carnival chalkware, vintage accordions, radios, cameras, and shaving brushes to tin toys. As well there is a backlit drawing wall with 36 of Chihuly's drawings done on plexiglass. My favourite collection was dozens of accordions hanging from the ceiling. It was a wonderful room, I loved the atmosphere, look and feel of the space. The service was great and the food delicious. I would go there again.
Jill standing in front of drawing wall at "Chihuly Garden and Glass"
We enjoyed the glass exhibits with our favourite room being the Northwest room presenting Chihuly's earliest experiments with glass. This room showcases his collections of Northwest Coast Indian baskets and American Indian trade blankets.
Drawing is my favourite medium, so I enjoyed the drawing walls. Chihuly says that "drawing really helps me to think about things. I'm able to draw and work with a lot of colour and that inspires me" Chihuly draws with unconventional materials--liquid pigment squeezed from plastic bottles can suggest the ways that different colours of molten glass merge and mingle.
Other highlights of our time in Seattle included the Sandra Cinto Exhibition at the Olympic Sculpture Park PACCAR Pavilion and the Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Gainsborough Exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum (SAM)
Driving home to Canada we took a detour to see the Skagit tulip festival which was a wonderful sight to see. So many fields of colour, orange, red, pink, purple, yellow. Amazing. A must see for our annual spring trip to Seattle.
