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Spotlight on Tacoma

07.18.14

On a recent trip to the Pacific Northwest, we visited Tacoma which doesn’t get the same tourist love as its better known cousin, Seattle, but it’s loaded with beauty, charm, a great artsy boutique hotel and some world class museums worth checking out.

Whether you’re a car enthusiast or not, you shouldn’t miss the LeMay Museum, hands down one country's best auto museums, as well as the world largest, with up to 350 cars, trucks and motorcycles from private owners, corporations. It also houses the renowned LeMay private collection which achieved a Guinness Book of Word Records of more than 2,200 vehicles in 1997.

There’s also the fantastic Museum of Glass, a whopping 75,000-square-foot art museum dedicated to the medium of contemporary glass. It celebrates the studio glass movement like no other, by nurturing artists, offering education, and allowing creativity with a state of the art 7,000-square-foot hot shop amphitheater where you can watch the art of live glass blowing demonstrations.

With the Tacoma Art Museum's mission of connecting people through art you can find a variety of glass works from Tacoma native Dale Chihuly, Japanese woodblock prints, nineteenth-century European and twentieth-century American art, Native American Indian portraits and a vast collection Northwest art.

We were fortunate to stay at the luxury boutique Hotel Murano, which is right where you want to be in Tacoma. You can walk to the area’s best restaurants and museums; it’s only minutes from downtown Seattle and breathtaking areas like Mount Rainier and Snoqualmie Falls. The hotel is also close to Chambers Bay, the 2015 home of the U.S. Open.

And if you’re an art lover, you’ll appreciate the museum-worthy collection of glass displayed throughout the hotel. Each floor is dedicated to a particular glass artist, with fifty glass artists featured in all including Costas Varotsos and Murano artist Massimo Micheluzzi. The rooms are modern and chic, plus you can get ultra comfortable by choosing the exact pillow you prefer from their pillow menu. And with the choices in dining at the hotel, you can just dine in. We loved Bite, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Hotel Murano is currently offering three great specials to make your Tacoma stay even better.

Artsy Fartsy. Overnight accommodation, plus you can explore Tacoma’s booming arts scene with museum tickets for two to the Tacoma Art Museum, the Museum of Glass, and tickets to the Washington State History Museum. Museums are closed on Monday and Tuesday

Spa La La La. An art-filled getaway and spa escape? This includes overnight accommodations; two massages at and facials at Savi Day Spa; and lunch for two at the Spa. A 48-hour advance booking is required.

Hot Piece of Glass. you can immerse yourself in the art form that Tacoma is known for and try your hand at glassblowing, too. It includes overnight accommodations, two tickets to the Museum of Glass, hands on glassblowing lessons for two at Tacoma Glassblowing Studio – you keep the glass art you create; valet parking. A 48-hour advance booking required; Museum is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Hotel Murano is at 1320 Broadway in Tacoma. 253.238.8000.

Travel

Spotlight on Tacoma

07.18.14

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