Ah, Chihuly

Who is Chihuly, you ask? Well, we were first introduced to Chihuly glass when the 2002 Winter Olympics were in Salt Lake. He lent Abrovanel Hall (the Utah Symphony's home) a beautiful piece for the Olympics. Someone bought it for the hall so it's still there.

Isn't this a cool picture? Found it online.

Chihuly is this kind of crazy guy who is from Washington and makes blown glass. He's getting quite old now and has a few scars from the years of working with glass - like no eye and a bad shoulder - so now he teaches people how to do what he does.

Anyway, I'm a fan. I love blowing glass. It's a fun thing to do. I wish you didn't need so much equipment to do it.

So, they are redoing some thing at the Seattle Center and one of the new things is this Chihuly Gardens and Glass. It just so happened to open the Monday Mom got here, so we were some of the first ones to go through it. It was so cool. I took a lot, I mean A LOT, of pictures. Just be warned. A...L-O-T of pictures. And these are even my favorites.

 

I think my favorite room was this one. With all the glass above you. It was so cool!

Every step you took was another cool picture.

Then on to the Mille Fiori – Italian for "a thousand flowers." I think this was my mom's favorite part.

Again, every step you took, there was something else to see and admire.

And then the floating boats...

A little too abstract for me, but I like all the colors. And I now know how you make those balls and I'm so impressed by how big they are! They must be super strong. Glass is heavy.

A room with hanging things...

A room with these giant bowls. Which I am again impressed by because I had a hard time with the little bowl I made.

And then, you go out into the Exhibit Hall which would be so cool for a party. And probably so expensive, but still cool.

Could you imagine if it had been a sunny day? Even more beautiful!

And then the gardens...ahh...the gardens. There's just something cool about glass art interspersed with natural art! I love it.

This is what the outside of the exhibit hall looks like.

We thought the black ones looked like huge slugs.

I can't wait to see the gardens in a few years when the plants have had more of a chance to get established. And can you imagine this place at night?

We got the coolest umbrellas though. On the outside, it's black and looks like a normal umbrella, but when you open it up, it's the glass ceiling. So cool!

I'm so so so glad we went. Thanks Mom for suggesting it!