That blows

Things are going well here in Tacoma. After sleeping in the Nature Center parking lot for a couple nights I met up with friends of Sarah's last night, Katherine and Tim, who will be giving me a place to live for the next couple weeks. So far we're getting along just dandy and I think it's going to be a fun time. Work is going well too and I had most of the day off today to explore downtown Tacoma a little.

It was raining and dreary when I woke up this morning and it continued as such until a little after lunch. But hey, this is the PNW so I just went with the flow. I put on my hat and rain jacket and took a stroll. I found an old camera shop downtown to poke around in for a while but managed not to spend any money there. I continued walking and checked out the Museum of Washington History as well as the Glass Museum. The Glass Museum was mostly dedicated to blown glass and it was an impressive site. They have a working shop in the museum that apparently goes about non stop. They have seating set up around it and have turned it into a spectator sport of sorts. It's amazing how easy they make it all look, though I'm sure it's incredibly difficult. I got to watch for about 20 minutes or so until they took their lunch break. Their was also a “Bridge of Glass” that had tons of blown glass art placed it in, both over head and set up on “shelves” behind glass. All arranged to they would be backlit by the sun (clouds in my case). I'll have to make it back there on a sunny day.

After succumbing to hunger I made my way back to the shop to make myself a turkey sandwich. I thought of eating out but I've already done that a little too much recently, but it's been good stuff so that makes it worth it. Next stop was the post office to send some stuff back home and now I'm sitting in a library catching up on some things. Sitting here in the library I don't know what's more annoying; hearing little kids who can't talk without yelling or the parents constantly 'Shhhing' them. I think it's the parents.

I've heard from back home that it's been a very hot and dry summer and that everyone was hoping for some rain. Well, the other day they got it with a strong thunderstorm that came through with 60-80 mph winds that flattened some of the surrounding corn fields. I don't think that's quite what everyone was hoping for. My mom sent me a picture she took as she walked out of work that evening just as the storm was approaching. I do love a good thunderstorm and that's one thing I'm missing about the midwest.







I've started a separate photo set on Flickr for my pictures from Tacoma. You can see them here. I'll be adding to it during my visit here.