Laura had to be in Seattle last weekend for registration at her new school, Seattle Pacific University.

So we all drove up together and spent a couple of days to have fun. While Laura was spending her day at the school, Deb and I went to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma.

This relatively new museum has a great display of the work of the best known glass artist, Dale Chihuly. Across a pedestrian bridge from the museum is a terrific display of Chihulys in the old Union Pacific station.

The museum also has a working glass blowing facility called the "hot shop", where we saw an artist in residence working. (The artist is on the right in this photo).

Then we zipped back up to downtown Seattle to check out the Rock and Roll Marathon expo. I was impressed with the size of the show, a lot bigger than the expo for the Seattle Marathon. I scored a couple of pairs of running sunglasses.

We also spent time (with Anne and Laura) at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. Coincidentally, this was the day after Michael Jackson died, so there was a tribute to Jackson playing in the "Sky Cathedral".

While we were downtown, we also made a Starbucks pilgrimage and to Pike Place Market.

 

And we were able to find some Cajun food at a restaurant near the market.

We didn’t do a lot of pre-planning, which is how we roll, baby. But we made two ad-hoc meet-ups with long time friends. We had dinner with Teresa and Eric Anderson, who were just passing through Seattle (literally) on their way to Canada for vacation. We have not seen these college buds for about a decade or so, it seems.

We also had brunch with Andy and Adele Parks, who were running / walking buddies from Portland Fit, and who now live in Kirkland.