Seattle, Pike's Place Market and a Sounder's Game

We had no plans for the weekend...but that changed real fast.

Earlier this week Ben and I got tagged in a Facebook post by my cousin Shari.  She grew up with this guy who lives in Shelton and had Sounders tickets.  He couldn't go to this particular game so he was trying to get is money back but didn't want the tickets to waste.  He wanted to sell them to actual fans who would appreciate going to the game.  Ben got on that as soon as he could and he sold them to him.  He got 3 tickets for $63.  He met him over by Shopko and the Regal Cinemas on Thursday to pick them up.  Our tickets were in section 117 near the players tunnel.  Of course Ben wanted to sit with the ECS group in the south end zone.

We really couldn't think of anyone else to go with us except Michael, Ben's friend.  He was a huge fan of the Sounders as well.  We gave him a call and asked him what he was doing this weekend.  He said he had no plans except some overtime at work on Saturday but would be done by noon.  We asked him if he wanted to go to a Sounders game.  He asked when the game was and it was an evening game which made it nice...we could take our time getting there.  He said yes and planned accordingly.  He asked if we wanted to spend the night at their house after the game and we agreed since we haven't seen Michael, Elaine or their son, Dom.

That Saturday we got up, ate breakfast and got ready to go.  Since we were only going to be gone a night, we packed pretty light.  Other than the game and visiting Ben's friends we really didn't have any plans or really knew what to pack.  I packed some extra pants, sweatshirts, socks, underpants and some shirts.  I wanted to bring my hiking shoes but totally forgot them.  We drove Ben's car because mine had already been up to Everett that week for Ben's testing.  We packed up everything and hit the road.  We stopped by both of our banks to get some parking money out and got gas for the trip up.  We were hoping to be there by 1:30 to intercept Michael, who was coming down from Mount Vernon.

Traffic wasn't that bad and we got to SoDo very quickly.  We let Michael know we were in Seattle and he told us where he parked so we could pick him up.  We met him by the Krispy Kreme and we headed out towards the waterfront and Pike's Place Market.  We needed to find something to do for a few hours before the game.  We found a parking garage and it turns out most of the parking we had to pay by card instead of all the extra cash we took out to pay for parking.  Lame.  At least we know better for next time. 

We walked towards Pike's Place Market and we actually got to watch fish being thrown.  It was awesome!!  We found out Michael has never been to the gum wall so guess where we went?  The gum wall!  The last time I was here there was so much more gum stuck to the wall.  About two years ago the city took steam cleaners to the wall and cleaned it to prevent further erosion of the bricks.  It was the first time it was cleaned in 20 years.  It took 130 hours to complete with over 2,350 lbs of gum removed and disposed of.  It didn't take that long for more gum to be added to the wall once it was finished.  There were a lot of people in Post Alley that afternoon.

We made our way down to the waterfront.  Again, last time I was here they were remodeling the waterfront.  It was nice to not see construction equipment and taped off areas everywhere.  The first place we went to was Fisherman's Landing on Pier 57.  That pier was home to the Great Wheel, the Crab Pot and our beloved Sport's Den.  The reason why we even went into the building was for the sports shop but sadly relocated to a different place.  So instead we just wandered around for a bit looking at random shops until we got hungry.  We all decided we wanted beer and the closest place was Pike's Brewing Company in Pike's Place Market.

I haven't been here in years.  I remember the last time was with Megan, her mom, Chaise and his parents many years ago when we went to a Mariner game.  We were seated right away and our waitress was very nice.  We ordered beers.  I had the Space Needle Golden IPA, Michael had the Pike's Monks Uncle and Ben had the Kilt Lifter.  Michael had eaten earlier so just Ben and I had food.  The chicken nachos sounded delicious and Ben got the crab chowder and a side pretzel.

We ate, visited, paid and headed out.  They used the restroom while I went upstairs to mom's Rocky Mountain Fudge Shoppe to get her a half a pound of fudge.  I figured why not since I was here.  I met Ben and Michael at the top of the stairs and we walked back to the parking garage to get the car and head towards the stadium.  The traffic was pretty dumb through Pioneer Square but we managed.  We tried to find the lot off of Jackson that we parked at last time we were here but it was closed.  We found another one near Safeco Field so we didn't have to walk as far when the game was over.  I saw the Ken Griffey statue and we NEEDED to stop and take some pictures.

Earlier we had driven by and wondered why there were a bunch of people walking in front of Safeco Field...maybe a Mariner game?  Then we noticed that no one was wearing Mariner gear.  Then it dawned on me that it was the Bacon, Eggs and Brew event and Nicole and Del were there.  Then we saw the signs.  Pigs have feelings too!  My pig had blue eyes!  Pork is murder!  We giggled, took our picture with the statue and moved on towards Century Link.

We decided to prefunk at The Temple off of Jackson.  The ECS 253 supporters met there as well.  On the way there, Michael had to use the restroom so he went on without us.  We saw an opportunity for a free Sounders scarf so we took the few minutes and got one.  We met up with Michael and the rest of the supporters upstairs of the bar.  We drank a few glasses of Mac N' Jacks and talked with some of the people that were going to try and get us into their section. 

It was getting closer to the march so we walked towards Occidental Park.  We hit the tail end of the rally at the stage.  We found the group we were going to walk with and ended up being in the front holding the banner.

We chanted about four different songs and we got closer and closer to Century Link.  There were tons of people watching us from the sidewalks, taking video and pictures and there were even a few news cameras documenting our movement.  It was pretty cool.  I've been in two others but this one we actually got to be in the front.  We marched all the way to the Safeco Field left field sign.  We stopped at the road, put the banner away and headed to a line.  Once we got into a line, Ben didn't realize he still had his firefighter pocket knife on him.  We tried to hide it in my clear bag (bag rules have been changed in Century Link) but it fell out of my hat and we had to toss it in the garbage can.  Ben was pretty devastated because he received it as a gift.  He knows he should have left it in the car.

We took our tickets out, they were scanned and we found the group of ECS.  Michael and Ben really wanted to sit in their section but we needed wrist bands.  Maybe Paul can get us in?  We followed Paul and he told the usher at the top of the section that we were helping him today and they allowed us to sit in the area.  Of course it started raining as soon as we walked into the stadium.  It was nice the whole day until game time.  Figures.

Ben and I haven't sat in this section since my very first Sounders game back in October 2013 when we met.  Since then we've been to five Sounders games total.  Out of those five games we've tied three of them and won twice.  We were hoping for another win tonight against New England.  The rain kept coming down, harder and harder.  I was getting cold because I decided to leave my NorthFace jacket in the car because I didn't think it would actually rain and get cold.  I did bring some Frog Toggs rain ponchos with me and they came in handy.  However, I was already wet.  I should have gotten it out sooner.  I regretted not bringing my jacket.

The first couple of minutes we played like absolute crap.  The defense had to work hard the entire game because our offense wasn't aggressive enough.  They kept passing it around the top of the box and wouldn't take the shot.  Several times they had wide open looks but passed it to the outside so they could get a horrible cross off and no one was open and their defense just kicked it away nonchalantly.  Anything and everything went wrong for the Sounders in the first half.  New England's first goal was scored off of a mistake by Stephen Frei and then about 10 minutes later we were scored on again by our defense not being in the right spot and having a header hit the back of the net.  We were all standing there like "what the eff was going on??!"  Were the Sounders abducted?  They went into halftime with a 0-2 hole.

Second half was about the same.  The crossbar was not our friend.  We could have had multiple goals in the first and second half if it weren't for the posts and crossbar.  Ugh it was getting so frustrating! Not even 10 minutes into the second half they scored again...making it 0-3.  The game was getting out of hand and it was raining harder.   I was even colder at this point and struggling to keep warm.  I ended up turtling inside my poncho to keep my face, arms and hands warm.

Then, we actually didn't know what was happening, with about 15 minutes left of the game we started showing signs of life.  We started a comeback literally in the 75th minute of the game because of Lodiero and Jones.  Jones had crossed it to Lodiero and he deflected it off of a NE player and into the goal.  The crowd went wild.  The second goal came shortly after in the 85th minute with a header by Bruin.  The crowd was heating up and the Sounders were on a hot streak.  Lodiero crossed the ball to Alonso with the header to tie it up 3-3 which sent the crowd into a frenzy!  It got so loud up in Century Link!  We were all hoping for a miracle goal in stoppage time but it did not happen unfortunately.  We did end up with a point after all that instead of none.

We got out of the rain and ended up in the concourse near the giant MLS cup replica.  We took a group photo with the 253 Defiance group.

We chatted a bit with everyone, Ben and I took our own picture with the trophy and we headed into the team store to look around.  I ended up with a Sounders pint glass and a couple of free posters with the schedule on it.  I kept on, gave one to my mom and gave the third one to Lindsay.

It was getting late so we walked the short distance to the car and dropped Michael off at his.  The traffic was horrible.  Once we got onto I-5 north it wasn't that bad.  Michael on the other hand got stuck behind several trains. 

Ben wanted a snack so we stopped in Marysville at the only thing besides a convenience store that was open; a Denny's.  I ate a salad and he had a turkey club sandwich and some fries. 

We were not the only Sounders fans that were in there.  There were several people that went to the game and needed some food for the drive home.  We used the restroom before we went and headed the extra 20 miles north to Mount Vernon, a place I haven't been to in at least three years.  I forgot how way up here it is.  We got to Michael and Elaine's house just before midnight.  We unloaded out stuff out of Ben's car and headed inside.  We chatted for a bit and then all decided to pass out for the night.  It was a long day.

Next Adventure:  Geocaching in Mount Vernon, Visiting Doug and Jenn in Mill Creek and Home