Around the World – Pacific Northwest USA (part 23) – Portland, OR – Tacoma, WA

The final day of our road trip was spent in Tacoma, WA. This stop was mainly planned to only have a short drive to SeaTac Airport the next morning, but what we saw of the town was very nice.

During the 140-mile / 230-kilometer drive was pretty relaxed. Up to Olympia, there was not much change of scenery on this 6-lane wide stretch of the I-5. Southbound, there were many traffic jams with people to going to the “path of totality” that crossed the northern part of Oregon the next day.

Harmon Brewery, Tacoma
We had our final lunch at a brewpub (of course), Harmon Brewery and Eatery (1938 Pacific Ave) in Tacoma’s Downtown Museum District bordering the campus of Washington State University.

After 3 and half weeks in the US, we still made the rookie mistake to order Nachos as a starter. Man, their Mt. Rainier Nachos (cheddar jack cheese, black beans, pico de gallo, jalapeños, guacamole, sour cream, and green onions) were tasty but huge!

As the remainder of our order took quite a while to be served, we almost finished the entire plate of nachos. Therefore, our also well-portioned mains – Chicken Ceasar Salad, Mac’n Cheese, Cheeseburger and my Peanut Butter and Bacon Burger (peanut butter, bacon, and bacon jam) – were barely touched. Overall, the mains were pretty good, but not outstanding. Their beers were though: we sampled 4 out of their 5 own brews: Mt. Takhoma Blonde, Pinnacle Peak Pale Ale, Point Defiance IPA and Expedition Amber Ale.

Chihuly Bridge of Glass / The Museum of Glass, Tacoma
Across the street, you will find the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, with more amazing works from Tacoma based artist Dale Chihuly.

The Glass bridge leads to The Museum of Glass (1801 Dock St).

The installations were ranging from highly stylized to hyper-kitsch.

We missed the live glass blowing workshop as they were on lunch break, but still, you can easily spend a couple of hours here to admire the craftsmanship.

Silver Cloud Inn, Tacoma
Afterward, we headed back to our hotel, the Silver Cloud Inn (2317 North Ruston Way). as we couldn’t escape the inevitable: packing up… Despite our extra suitcase, we amassed quite a lot of stuff and couldn’t fit all the wines 😱🍷, so just had to enjoy some of them that afternoon and evening. But with the rooms’ amazing waterfront view of Puget Sound that was a very pleasant affair.

Elemental, Tacoma
For dinner, we took a taxi back to the Museum District to check out the wood fire pizzas at Elemental (1702 Pacific Avenue). Wisely, only starters were ordered and even those were too large to finish.