Dale Chihuly

One of the most magical man-made places I have been that is outdoors is the Bridge of Glass in Tacoma, Washington. It is an open outdoor walk over the highway from the Museum of Glass on one side to the Tacoma Art Museum and the train station on the other lined with Dale Chihuly's work. Even on a cloudy day, of which there appear to be many, this is a magical place. The first time I was here was about 5 years ago, and I was on a mission to see the places in the Northwest that I had missed on numerous previous trips. My husband was at a meeting where he got up before dawn and could barely squeeze in a late evening dinner before collapsing exhausted at the end of the day.

I rented a car and the day I drove into the outskirts of Tacoma I was unexpectedly stunned. In an industrial part of town sit two museums, a train station, and a bridge between them that are all spectacular. There are numerous Dale Chihuly's work on display in this small improbable spot (40 in the Tacoma Art Museum, 6 in the train station, and dozens on the bridge), but my favorite is the overhead seascape of glass. I watch this, sometimes lying on the ground, looking at the dozens and dozens of undersea creatures rendered in colorful glass, and marvel.

I love this place on many levels. The thing I like best is that someone could see the sea and transfix that myriad of delicate texture, color, and movement into something so different and yet so remeniscent of the place it came from. I spend my professional time immersed in dirty work. I am fiercely practical. I do not sit still all that well. I don't have many magical bones in my body. But for me, this is it. A temple of glass. A place to dream. To think big thoughts. And to feel that man can do marvelous things.