I’m already back in the central Seattle Metropolitan Area, and I switched up the ordering of publishing blog posts because I wanted to add a bit more va­ri­e­ty, but I still have one more post from my four-day stay in Tacoma, Washington—for my third and final tourist activity, I went to the Tacoma Art Mu­se­um, in quick and convenient walking distance across the street from my hotel.

The Tacoma Art Museum was probably one of the most traditional and straightforward museums that I’ve been to in a while.

The first gallery was “Animals: Wild and Captured in Bronze.”

Next was “On Native Land: Landscapes from the Haub Family Collection.”

Around the corner was “Native Portraiture: Power and Perception.”

The final area of the exhibits on Natives was called “Places to Call Home: Settlements in the West” and “Winter in the West.”

I’ve already seen a lot of Chihuly’s art because of his residency in the Seattle Metropolitan Area, including Chihuly Garden and Glass, the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, and the Museum of Glass. The Tacoma Art Museum also had its own small section of Chihuly’s art, as well as a little reading corner for books con­taining photographs and descriptions of Chihuly’s art.

The next gallery was “Painting Deconstructed: Selections from the Northwest Collection.”

Finally was my favorite gallery of the museum, “Metaphor Into Form: Art in the Era of the Pilchuck Glass School.”

“Nerve” was my favorite art piece. The word “nerve” was etched in cursive into the glass, and to the naked eye straight-on, it was nearly invisible. How­ever, with the light shining onto the glass, it created a very visible shadow onto the wall. I liked the messaging that, even though something might not be obvious, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t there.

I also enjoyed this piece of black jewelry mannequins in front of a bright white backdrop. Usually, jewelry mannequins simply serve the purpose of em­pha­sizing the actual jewelry pieces, so it was interesting seeing the otherwise-usually-neglected mannequins being used as the primary art com­po­si­tion.

The rest of this gallery had more modern art pieces, with many of them being unique creations of glass art.

Although the museum wasn’t bad, I don’t think the price-to-value ratio was quite right (even after having a discounted admission price due to a handful of galleries that were closed for renovations). If you don’t have access to too many other art museums, the Tacoma Art Museum could be fine, but oth­er­wise, it is extremely simple and frankly a little bit boring.

I unfortunately did not realize this when I visited, so I ended up paying full price, but as of right now, they offer free admission every Thursday evening. If you manage to visit during that weekly community event, then it could be a decent way to spend an hour or two.

For my second tourist activity of Tacoma, Washington, I went to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Compared to other zoos I’ve been to, it was fairly small and didn’t really have very many animals. This zoo also had a lot more children visiting that I remember from my other zoo visits, so it was a bit chaotic with children running around everywhere and screaming.

 
On the southern side of the zoo was the Asian Forest Sanctuary.

My favorite part of this zoo trip was seeing the elephant, though that was probably because there was a zoo employee there holding a talk and sharing more information about the particular elephant that visitors were able to see. Apparently, the elephant is over 50 years old, and she recognizes the zoo­keeper who has cared for her for the past 30 years. The elephant also apparently knows when her particular caretaker is on the premises and gets anx­iously excited in anticipation.

On the northern side of the zoo was a large area that had a few musk oxen.

Nearby was the Red Wolf Conservation Center and the Red Wolf Woods.

In the Rocky Shores area on the eastern side of the zoo, I saw some sea otters, seals, sea lions, puffins, and other birds and sea animals.

Further down the path near the Wild Wonders Outdoor Theater were some penguins.

Close to the penguins were the Discovery Hut and Budgie Buddies, which had some birds.

Unfortunately, the South Pacific Aquarium was closed for renovation, but luckily, the Pacific Seas Aquarium was still open.

After taking a thorough tour of the zoo and aquarium, I headed over to Point Defiance Park, a very short drive down Five Mile Drive, around the traffic circle, and up North Waterfront Drive. I stopped by the Point Defiance Botanical Garden and walked around the Point Defiance Rose Garden, Dahlia Trial Garden, and Herb Garden.

I continued my walk northbound and did a loop around the Japanese Garden across from the Point Defiance Pagoda.

After getting a little bit lost, I managed to find a path through the playground and down onto Promenade Lane, where I was able to take in some views of Commencement Bay from the Point Defiance Marina.

If you don’t have much accessibility to zoos, then the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium isn’t a bad place to visit, but if you have limited time or have the opportunity to go see other zoos instead, then I’d recommend bumping the zoo and aquarium down a bit lower in priority.

With that being said, Point Defiance Park and Marina were very pleasant, and considering that going to the park is free (as opposed to the zoo and a­quarium requiring an admission fee), I think it is definitely worth it to go for a walk at the park and get some exercise in while taking in the pretty sights.

The cold air from the bay was very refreshing when it hit my face for the first time after I had navigated my way there through the warm sun, and if you’re up for a longer walk, it appears like Promenade Lane has direct access to the beach.

After spending about two months within the main Seattle and Seattle suburb areas since coming back from Canada (excluding the one week when I flew to Las Vegas to take care of some errands and meet up with friends), I decided it was time to go venture out a little bit more. I still have another session of petsitting that I need to do again for Erin in October, so I can’t leave the Seattle Metropolitan Area entirely yet, but I still made my way down to Tacoma on the far southern edge of Puget Sound to do some more exploring in a new area.

For my first tourist activity, I decided to go to the Museum of Glass. In order to get there, I walked from where I was staying at the Marriott Tacoma Down­town across the Chihuly Bridge of Glass.

The first section of the bridge was the Seaform Pavilion, available for viewing on the ceiling.

Next were the Crystal Towers, two towers that resembled deep aqua blue chunks of opaque glass assembled together.

Finally, there was the Venetian Wall, a large collection of shelves and compartments holding a variety of different pieces of glass art. It was a bit tricky taking a photo of it because it was so large, but I could only step back so far due to the limitations of the width of the bridge.

Outside the museum was an exhibit installed directly into a small manmade pond called Water Forest. From what I remember reading from the sign ex­plaining the piece, the clear glass is supposed to represent water itself, and how it rises and falls.

Inside the museum were various glass sculptures and other objects made out of glass—something that you’d expect from a place named the Museum of Glass. I had previously been to Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, and the Museum of Glass reminded me a lot of that.

The first main section was the Viola A. Chihuly and North Galleries, and the exhibit on display was called “Boundless Curiosity: A Journey with Robert Minkoff.”

The next exhibit was called “What Are You Looking At? An Eccentric Chorus of Artists Working in Glass.”

Next up was my second favorite part of the museum, called “Out of the Vault: Soundtracks.” Unfortunately, this area was very dark and it was next to im­possible to get good photos here, but the displays here were interactive motion-sensing digital art pieces that would change depending on your pres­ence—you would place your hand or body in the line of sight of the sensor, and it would react to your movement.

The final section of the main exhibit hall was the Leonard and Norma Klorfine Foundation Gallery, featuring “Maestro Alfredo Barbini: Nature, Myth, and Magic” and “The David Huchthausen Collection.”

(As a disclaimer, I don’t fully recall which art pieces were exactly in which gallery; I posted them in chronological order along with their descriptions, and did my best to insert the captions in the proper place, but some art pieces might be listed off-by-one relative to the descriptions.)

My favorite part of the museum, and the part that sets it apart from the average museum, was the Hot Shop, in which they had a live glassblowing dem­onstration. I wasn’t aware that this was happening, but I had great fortune in my timing, as it started about an hour and a half after my arrival—the per­fect amount of time for me to browse through all the exhibits before making my way over to watch the show.

Not only was it cool to feel the heat of the furnaces from the audience seating area, but watching people working with molten glass put the entire mu­se­um into context and perspective. I thought the exhibits and galleries at the Museum of Glass were okay, but the integration of this live demonstration made it great.

If you’re visiting Tacoma as a tourist, I think the Museum of Glass could be one of the top places to visit as long as you are there for the live glassblowing demonstration (as opposed to seeing only the exhibits), and if you’re ok with paying a little extra, for the fusing workshops as well (which I did not do, as they only take place the second and forth weekends of each month, as of right now).