City of Destiny - I

Part I – in which your faithful scribe travels north through the fearsome Tacoma Narrows and down the Thea Foss waterway to Tacoma.

It’s popular among Seattlites of a certain age to poke fun at Tacoma. I don’t get it. What I see is a city that is trying to improve itself – and making good progress. I’ll spare you my opinions of Seattle’s government. Let’s just say that if they manage to redevelop the waterfront into a public space rather than turning most of it over to condo developers, I’ll be amazed.

We tied up at Dock Street marina and discovered that we had the place pretty much to ourselves. Apparently we’re the only ones who missed the memo that almost everything is closed. Nevertheless, the sun came out in the afternoon and we were able to walk along the waterway and over the Chihuly Bridge of Glass into town.

if you’re wondering “What’s the deal with all the glass?”, Tacoma is the home town of Dale Chihuly, the highly successful glass artist. He has helped the city create a kind of “glass district” near the waterway.