Today, we are staying local after the long drive of yesterday. We are going to visit Seattle's underground and the Dale Chihuly Glass Museum which I have heard good things about.
Seattle had a fire in 1889 which burned over 25 blocks due to the houses being made of wood. The fire started in a paint and woodwork shop and left little standing in its wake. To rebuild the city, the streets were raised 22 feet and buildings made of stone. This raising of the street level 22 feet left the remaining buildings with "basements" below street level. The guided tour took us underground to see the now buried subterranean structures. The fire reputedly did not kill anyone but it did rid the city of its many rats and vermin. It also brought in a new fire department due to the volunteer fire department of pre fire era all resigning. New hydrants were also built to increase water pressure as there was hardly any good water pressure at the time of the fire.

The above photo shows Seattle before the fire and the one below after the fire.

The above photo shows a photo taken underground showing the bottoms of buildings buried 22 feet helping to level the hilly city. By the way, when Gary said we were going to tour the underground part of Seattle I thought it would be like Atlanta, Georgia where there are shops and restaurants. Oh goody, I can get some souvenirs. But no, all it was was a pile of long buried rubble and not a shop in sight. So, this was a cheap tourist attraction for Gary!!!!
 The fire started in the Pioneer Square district of Seattle which today is a popular tourist attraction.

Seattle is still a hilly city as shown in the next photograph-

It also has lots of lovely hanging baskets around the city which I just had to take a photo of.

I am envious as it is very difficult with Maryland climate to grow baskets like this. I bet all my baskets have burned up by now from the heat and lack of water.
Our next stop was to the Dale Chihuly Glass Museum which was within a block of the famous Seattle Space Needle. We had been up the space needle many years ago so did not bother to go up again this time around.

You can see the lift car on its way up in the top photograph and then in the lower photo being "sucked" into the inside of the Space Needle.
The visit to the Dale Chihuly Glass Museum was very interesting. Dale Chihuly is an American Pioneer Glass Blower and he created lots of beautiful glass sculptures some of which are on display at this museum. The museum has displays of his artwork both inside and outside in the gardens.
I took lots of photos. Here are some of the best, I think.

 The above photo was actually blown glass displayed in the ceiling.

The next two photographs show you the same piece of work. One has the light shining on it from the inside, the other has a flash light shining on it on the outside. Can you guess which is which?

Yes, the bottom one has the flash light illuminating it. The colours that came out when lit were really amazing.
The gardens outside although crowded still allowed you to take reasonable photographs. Plants were colour coordinated with the glass displays.

In next photo I tried to get a reflection of the Space Needle in a glass globe.

The ceiling of the cafe "accordion" to me, was a place of music as shown by the ceiling display.

The final photo of the day is a reflection - no not of water but the Space Needle.

So, on reflection we had a nice day. Thank-you Mr Chihuly.