I had Ben meet me at the L&I building as soon as he could. I made sure I had all of my stuff packed in the car and that I went to the bathroom one more time just in case we were stuck in traffic. I had to remind him where to come get me and he showed up down the other road I've never been on. I guess there are three ways to get into the parking lot. Haha.
I grabbed the stuff I would need out of the Escape and hopped in his car with him. I saw the bag on the floor...he had gotten us sandwiches from Maconi's, just down the road. Plus it would be a lot cheaper eating along the way then inside Century Link. We have discussions about what way we should go because the effing Chinese president was in town to basically take jobs away from us and take them overseas. I said we should just stay on I-5, every road was going to be horrible stop and go traffic anyway. I thought we were late enough to where they had unblocked I-5...I guess I was wrong. We sat in traffic for about a half hour right by the Tacoma Dome. I was mad. We could have made it to our game before it started if we wouldn't have sat in effing Chinese president traffic!
Around 6:30 we started moving again and somewhere around Auburn we saw the police motorcade not even a quarter of a mile in front of us. There was no traffic and every on and off ramp were blocked by a Washington State Trooper. It took us only a half hour to get from Tacoma to our parking spot a block from Century Link. In a nut shell, we had a police escort all the way up I-5 into Seattle. I changed my work clothes in to Sounders clothes about 15 minutes before we got out of the car.
We found the easiest and cheapest parking spot, grabbed all of our stuff we might need and hustled as fast as we could. We knew we were going to be late but we were hoping it wasn't half time yet or we wouldn't be able to get our free scarves.
Here is some Marshawn Lynch street art we saw on the way to the field.
We walked/ran/jogged as fast as we could. Meanwhile, Lance and his friend Shannon was texting me asking if we were there yet and I just found out Nick and Nickey were also there. I tried to see where they were sitting and if they wanted to meet up at half time. I needed to go to the bathroom as soon as we found a place to go. We walked into the field house and found restrooms. I got our tickets out and they were scanned. We immediately rushed over to the North Plaza where our free scarves were being distributed. I just knew we needed to get there before halftime.
We arrived out of breath but just in time. There was only another 20 minutes left until half time. They highlighted our tickets and handed us some white scarves with green lettering...interesting color combo. I overheard some people talking about it later saying they gave these out because they were having a hard time selling them...which might have been true. Either way I was pretty happy with a free scarf.
Then, we hustled to our seats. I didn't realize they were going to be that high up in the Hawks Nest. I felt like we were climbing a mountain! Then again, my whole evening was rushed so I was pretty warm and frazzled anyways. It felt good to sit. We watched the Sounders score 2 goals before the half and believe me, it was much different sitting there than the ECS section. Ben felt left out as he saw the flags waving and the chants being yelled in on the other side of the field. I got a hold of Nickey and we were going to meet them outside their section in the concourse. Ben stood in line for beer, which we really didn't need but we felt like it anyway, while I looked for Nickey and Nick. I hadn't seen her in almost two years. It was fun to catch up with the little time we had. They met Ben and he exchanged a few brief words while he watched the beginning of the second half on the TV.
...and we scored another goal! We led the Whitecaps 3-0.
We said our goodbyes and we hiked back up to our seats. We watched the second half without any distractions. We did take a few GoPro pictures and they turned out pretty good. The view was great from up there but we missed out on all the action in the lower section chanting with the ECS and the 253 supporters.
We did get a picture with the group after the game. (Will post as soon as I get a copy.)
Ben knew some of the people so we stayed for a few minutes chatting. I did remember a couple of the people but it was so long ago the last time I saw them.
I wanted to stop by the team store and look. I finally found a Sounders beanie hat that I liked so I got one of those, the cold weather season is creeping up quickly and can never have too many hats, and I bought 3 Super Bowl XLVIII Champions Seahawk flags because they were $3 each! A screaming deal! They were probably originally $30 each at one point. I paid for my treasures and we walked back to his car.
He dropped me off at my car inside the L&I parking lot and then we drove our separate ways towards our homes. I got home after midnight. I was going to be tired the next day. I sure had fun with Ben!
Next Adventure: Lunar Eclipse
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