30 October 2008

Seattle - Tacoma - Puyallup

First trip to the Pacific Northwest! We spent 3.5 beautiful days (with not a drop of rain - can you believe it?) visiting our friends. Ben and Jieun were gracious hosts and wonderful guides.

They introduced us to all the essentials ... especially the coffee. I had some of the best coffees of my life - doppios, a macchiato, and a half of a Café Nico, which is a divine little drink of very concentrated espresso, half and half, vanilla, orange, and spice. It is all the best things about sweetness and all the best things about bitterness pooled into one tiny cup, topped with foam, dusted with cinnamon, garnished with an orange peel. Indeed, divine.

We ventured to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and were mesmerized in the "Hot Shop" where we witnessed artists and artisans fashioning flaming molten glass into something else entirely.

The landscape was mesmerizing in a different way, a calming blue and green way. Wherever we went, Mount Rainier followed, sometimes bright and sometimes gray, sometimes standing in the background and sometimes impossible to ignore. Its looming presence was invigorating. Beneath the prominence of "The Mountain" ran the wide zigzag of the Cascade Range and beneath that, the serrated edge of the pine tree horizon persisted as far as the eye could see.

And some day, when I give up all my endeavors to take up ceramics or glass art and create a piece to commemorate this trip, it will be this notched and jagged skyline that will inspire the pattern for the piece, which I will give to Ben and Jieun to say thanks.

Or perhaps I shall learn to depict Mount Rainier in the foam of a tiny macchiato.


Ben & Jieun at Forza in Puyallup

Sergio flying a kite at Owen's Beach in Point Defiance Park, Tacoma

the view of The Mountain from The Sounder (commuter train) Click on this photo - it's more stunning in larger format.

Museum of Glass sculptures in the fall

cheers!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Emily. Happy to find your blog. Do you still collect the letter E?

Emily said...

Hi, Amber! Thanks for your comment. Nice to see your blog, too! I do still have a few Es here and there, though I'm not nearly as fervent about it as I used to be!

The Red Reverend said...

Emily! I'm so glad to see you blogging. I'll bookmark and visit regularly. Jieun and I had a great weekend playing tour guide. Next time let's plan a trip somewhere exotic; I'd love the Sergio tour of Mexico someday.

P.S. I'll be looking forward to that pottery.

P.P.S. The verification word I have to type to post this comment is "fautp"; does that seem faintly insulting to you too?

Emily said...

You guys were great tour guides, Ben! And yes - you'd love the Sergio tour of Mexico - that would be so fun!

We'll see about that pottery. I think I should finish my masters thesis first.

Hope your first week back to work after long vacation has gone okay!

Fautp!

e.