I was able to do something on this trip to Seattle that I never thought I would have the opportunity to do - visit the Seattle Opera scene shop. My sister works at the opera office, so she offered to take me on a tour of the shop before it closes in its current location. I spent a number of years working in the scenery shop where I went to college, so this was very exciting indeed!

The shop is located in a building the size of an airplane hanger. If any of you reading this have been to see an opera at the Seattle Opera House, you can imagine they would need an airplane hanger to create the fabulous scenery that occupies that huge proscenium. The shop is between shows, so there is no scenery there during this visit.

 Can you see how tiny the 3 people in this photo are? That is how HUGE this part of the building is!

 This table alone has to be at least 10 feet wide by 30 feet long. I was trying to imagine the beautiful things that have been created on this surface in this space in the last 28 years.

Each craftsman has their own rolling tool cart with the assorted tools that match their craft.

Need a clamp? Any kind of clamp?

 There were three of these carts around the shop.

The painting section of the shop

I was really impressed with the painting shop. I did lots of scenery/scrim painting in my college theater days so this brought back some great memories.

The very important ventilation section of the paint shop.

Notice how the entire floor is covered in canvas with 1 foot square grid lines drawn across the surface. This is how they maintain the size requirements of what they are producing.

 Everywhere I looked there was something interesting to observe......

 .......scale models of things........

 ..........period figures of all sorts of characters........

..........bottle molds from every period of history........

 A welder/metal workers cart

 A blow up of the hysterical poster on the metal workers cart. I never realized a bible could be used as a unit of measure. HA!

  

The design shop where the plans are drawn

 The tools were all organized so beautifully. Everything in its place in special cabinets specially made to hold them. You can see how disciplined the craftspeople are.

Wow! Just, WOW! This whole thing is an artists/builders dream!

 We went into the coffee/break room and they has loads of photos of the work crews over the years. Here is one of them.

 You can tell how much the shop is a real family. All union jobs! :o)

 There were opera posters all around the shop. This was my favorite....'spit out your gum', that hand waiting for it. Hilarious!

What a real treat to be able to visit this creative space. It was all very inspirational.

Thanks Sis! :o)

The great outdoors

Rattlesnake Ledge

My nephew Jake decided he wanted to take us on a hike up in the Cascades just west of Snoqualmie Pass along highway 90 to a recreation area called Rattlesnake Ledge: http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/hikes/rattle-snake-ledge. The hike will take us up, up, up along a ridge and deliver us to the ledge at the top. Luckily we had a sunny day for this adventure.

One thing we can never get enough of are the breathtaking trees out west, so we were not disappointed on this hike. We walked through huge stands of Western Red Cedar and Douglass Fir.

We can't seem to avoid coming across things that seem alien on this trip :o) We saw a couple of things along the trail that would make one think we are not alone.

 We came upon this tree growing out of the side of a fallen tree. It appears a seed fell onto the rotting trunk of the fir tree and as it grew, its roots then wrap around the outside of the trunk and along the top. It reminded me of that creature in the Alien movies with its root like legs attaching itself to everything. Ahhhhhhh! It is amazing how life prevails.

OK........so this is obviously a boy tree. Look, but don't touch! :o)

These diagonal trees almost look like fingers reaching out of the mountain to get to the light. Like something right out of The Hobbit. 

The wind was really whipping as we walked up the mountain. The sound of it as it blew through the trees was exhilarating! I looked up and just had to take a video of the chaos.

The view as we approached the ledge

Me at the backside view

 Jake standing on the ledge

 Weeeeeeeeeee!

Panoramic video of our view atop the ledge. The wind up here was unbelievable! We had to really hold on to each other.

I was brave enough to hold my camera over the ledge to get a view of the trees below. You can see how high up we are by how tiny the trees are below. My serious thrill of the day.

Our 3 week stay in Seattle was better than ever. Such a variety of things to do with family and friends who are dear to us. The next stop on our journey will be Vancouver, B.C., but not before we take a side trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon, Washington.

You won't believe the beauty we found there! Stay tuned.