A Rainy Fall Day in Tacoma

It’s October in Tacoma, so it’s raining, and next weekend’s forecast looks the same. If you’ve already built the couch fort and made an aimless grocery run just to get out of the house, this is a day downtown that keeps you mostly indoors. Museum row sits on a few blocks of Pacific Avenue, so the dashes between doors are short.

The plan starts at the glass furnace, crosses the bridge to museum row, goes up the hill for lunch and books, and ends at the movies. If you’ve got kids along, the museum stop has an option just for them.

Pick the right day

Go Thursday through Sunday. Tacoma Art Museum is closed Monday through Wednesday, the Museum of Glass is closed Monday and Tuesday, and the Children’s Museum’s public hours are Friday through Sunday. Hours here were checked on October 11, 2026. Holidays and events can change them, and Tacoma Art Museum, for one, closes at 5pm on Friday, October 23.

On a Thursday you can do most of this for very little. See the Thursday version below. If the sun comes out, the sunny-day plan is ready.

1. Museum of Glass

Be there at 10, when it opens. The main galleries are closed for renovation, with the museum expecting them back around December, but the Hot Shop runs every day the museum is open. That’s the part people remember anyway: a team pulling glowing glass out of the furnace and shaping it before it sets. Sit down and watch one piece from start to finish. The first few minutes are mostly fire. The interesting part comes after.

If your kid gets hooked, the museum’s Kids Design Glass program takes drawings from children 12 and under, and the Hot Shop team makes some of the chosen ones in glass.

Admission is $18 for adults, $9 for ages 6–18 and free under 6, with last entry at 4:30pm. Construction has cut into the museum’s garage, so read its parking notes before you drive. Plan on about an hour.

2. Over the bridge to museum row

Walk across the Chihuly Bridge of Glass, 500 feet over I-705. Most of it is open to the rain. The covered stretch, the Seaform Pavilion, has 2,364 pieces of glass set into its ceiling, so look up while you shake off your umbrella.

Then pick one museum. Two is ambitious with kids, and three is how somebody ends up being carried back to the car.

• Kids 12 and under: the Children’s Museum of Tacoma is at 1501 Pacific Ave., Suite 202. Admission is pay-as-you-will, and public hours are Friday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm. It’s built for birth to age 12. Strollers stay in the lobby, food stays in the lobby café area, and lockers are free, which helps with wet coats. Mondays from 3 to 5pm are low-sensory hours.
• Art: Tacoma Art Museum is open Thursday and Friday 10am–8pm and weekends 10am–5pm. Tickets are $18 for adults and $10 for ages 6–18. Finding Home: The Chinese American West is up through September 5, 2027. It starts from TAM’s own admission that its Western art collection has no historic works by or depicting Chinese Americans.
• History, and trains: the Washington State History Museum is a short walk south at 1911 Pacific Ave. Fall listings put it at Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 5pm, and around $17–18 for adults and $11 for students 6–18. The listings disagree by a dollar, so check the museum’s site. There’s a model railroad that Preview Art Magazine calls the largest in the state, and ParentMap mentions a coat room for wet gear. Thirty Years and Counting, about how the museum building got made, runs through November 15.

Give it an hour to an hour and a half.

3. Lunch at Elks Temple

Head up the hill to McMenamins Elks Temple on Broadway. It’s about 15 minutes on foot, by our estimate. Or ride the T Line, which stops at Union Station and runs north through downtown toward the Stadium District; check fares. The building has seven floors of restaurants, bars, hotel rooms and event space. Check which ones are open, and what their age rules are, before you settle in. The Vault, the hidden bar, is 21 and over.

4. King’s Books

King’s Books in St. Helens is open every day from 11am to 7pm, with new and used books packed into about 4,500 square feet. The store lists two shop cats, Carmilla and Janie. They’ll show up if they feel like it.

5. The Grand Cinema

Finish at The Grand, the independent movie theater on Fawcett. Pick something from that day’s schedule; the doors open about 20 minutes before the first show. Adult tickets are $13, or $10 for matinees under the theater’s rules. The lot next door is free on weekends and after 4pm on weekdays.

The Thursday version

Tacoma Art Museum is free every Thursday from 5 to 8pm. On the third Thursday of the month (October 15, November 19 and December 17 this fall), the Museum of Glass is also free from 5 to 8pm, and the History Museum is free from 3 to 8pm. The Grand’s Thrifty Thursday ticket is $7.50, except on holidays, special events and advance screenings.

So on a third Thursday, flip the day around: books in the afternoon, the History Museum at 3, glass and art from 5, then a $7.50 movie.

More for a wet day

• Foss Waterway Seaport is a free maritime museum in an old wheat warehouse, up the waterway from the Museum of Glass. It’s open Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm, and closes at 3pm on October 24.
• Seymour Conservatory in Wright Park is a 1908 glasshouse full of tropical plants. It’s free, with a suggested $3 donation, and open Wednesday to Sunday, 10am to 3pm, from October through March.
• LeMay – America’s Car Museum in the Dome District is open Thursday to Monday, 10am to 5pm. Tickets are $24.50 for ages 13–64 and $17.50 for ages 5–12, with parking included. ParentMap lists free Family STEAM Days for kids 17 and under on third Saturdays, which would be October 17 and November 21. Confirm with the museum first.
• For October evenings, Blue Mouse Theatre in Proctor has Halloween screenings, and Foss Waterway Seaport runs a haunted tour on October 16.
• If you own real rain gear, the old forest at Point Defiance is a good place to be in a drizzle. Check trail notices first.
• In December, keep an eye out for Parks Tacoma’s Salmon Saturdays at Swan Creek. Last year’s ran December 6 and 13, rain or shine, with educators on hand while families looked for spawning salmon. 2026 dates aren’t posted yet.

Also this month

• Saturday, October 17, 1pm: artist Jason McDonald gives a closing talk at Tacoma Art Museum, free with admission.
• Sunday, October 18, 3–4pm: the Kareem Kandi World Orchestra plays a free hour of jazz at the Museum of Glass.