Indoor Saturday Adventure: Tacoma Museum of Glass Review

Do you ever feel like you have the DESIRE to get out and do something, but when push comes to shove it's easier to stay in? I've been feeling like that a lot lately. It could be because of this pregnancy and the fact that I have had some SERIOUS gastro-intestinal issues specifically the last few weeks. Planning outings means bringing several snacks/meals that I'm not sure if I'll even be able to eat or will have the desire to eat when the time comes. Also, when I'm out, my choices are much more limited on what I can eat as opposed to if I stay in and have the option of cooking something.

Well, in spite of my GI pains, Evan and I decided to go to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma last Saturday. This was definitely not our typical Saturday adventure full of hiking, rock climbing, or snow! Evan had the idea that we could get out and go to a museum that one of us had never been to before. Hindsight showed we should have prepared ahead of time, because we could have gotten passes from our local library for free. (We tried getting them, but they weren't available.) Nice to know we can go again for free if we want!

I actually love downtown Tacoma. I love the museum district: the architecture of the buildings in the area, the quaint cafes, the fun vintage thrift shops. If it weren't raining so hard, we would have actually taken some really cool pictures. But alas, we ran laughing the 1/2 mile or so downhill from our car down to the museum. We were still soaked by the time we got there and weren't brave enough to want to ruin our fancy camera trying to get sweet pictures. Maybe that will be our next Saturday adventure! :)

I had been to the Museum of Glass (MOG) only one time previously. Honestly, the collections they had when I was there 2 years ago were much better than the collections they currently have right now. The museum realistically is not large. There are two large rooms that house roughly one MAIN collection in each room. The collection in the first room was of large goblets in various colors and "styles." I use the term style loosely because to the untrained eye (Evan and me), the goblets looked almost identical in shape and form, although the color or themes were different. 

In the main room was the favorite work of art I saw there. It was a glass forest. Photography in the collections' rooms was not allowed, so this photo is from the MOG website. It does not do the artwork justice, but gives you an rough idea of the piece:

I did like the small area dedicated to GIGANTIC glass punctuation. The English teacher in me couldn't help but enjoy this part. :)

The next collection room housed a wide of array of what I'd call paperweights. The detail in them was amazing. The glass bees actually looked so much like real bees that I had to make sure that the real things had not been added into the glass work. They were lovely and well-done, but got kind of old after a while. Looking at hundreds of almost identical pieces of artwork didn't keep our interest for very long!

The two areas of the museum Evan and I liked best were the kids' drawings turned into works of glass and the HOT SHOP where the glass blowing magic happens. Evan and I watched in the hot shop for probably 1.5 hours so enthralled by what they were doing. This part of the museum made the entrance fee worth it! Here are some of our own pictures:

The melted glass