Ben asked me a while back if I was interested in going to a Sounders game. Of course I am always interested in going to sporting events. The Sounders were doing well this year especially in the second half of the season...right when it counts. Ben called Michael and told him to get tickets to the game so we could hang out with him and Elaine. We were all going to sit with the Emerald City Supporters (ECS) in the south end zone. The Sounders were going to be playing the New York Red Bulls. We called Ben's mom and told her we were coming over for the weekend and she said sounds good. Ben had to work late on Friday night at Lowes so we decided to leave on Saturday evening because he had a kid's fireman event also at Lowes that he said he would participate in.
I spent part of the day finishing up my travel bug hotel that I had to redo after we moved. I mostly had to wait until I had the tools to put it up and fasten it to the post. It was finally finished now I had to see if I could use the same geocaching page. It turns out I had to make a new one because it wouldn't get published since it was too far away from the old house. It took me a while to make the new one and move all the trackables from the old cache to the new cache. It wasn't going to publish until probably October because of the errors I made. Ugh...
Ben came home, changed into his normal clothes, told me about his day and showed me some pictures. We packed up an over night bag and added all of our Sounders gear. I made sure to pack some warm clothes because you never know what the weather will be like in September next to the Sound in Seattle. We told Erika we were going to be gone until Sunday evening and to make sure to feed Calvin. She said okay and we hit the road towards Bonney Lake.
Since it was September, we got onto I-5 and then opted to go the back way to avoid Puyallup Fair traffic on 512. I asked Ben if we could find a few caches along the back roads of South Hill and he said sure. I pulled up the app and saw a few we could grab on our way towards Orting. We grabbed four of the South Hill's Historic Corridor series, we got 2 (GC7T8PG), 3 (GC7T8PM), 4 (GC7T7KR) and 5 (GC7T8PV). All were located at brown historical markers that talked about the history of the area. All were easy to find.
We drove down the hill into the valley and decided to go to the Orting Safeway to grab garlic bread, since Trish was making lasagna for dinner, we got drinks and a few breakfast items for tomorrow morning. We drove up the hill to his mom's house, headed to Tehaleh to grab an even 5 caches for the day. We parked in the lot and walked the short distance to Tehaleh - Pickle Park (GC69F1T). The building nearby must have had a wedding or something because it looked like a giant reception party but you can only be there if you live in the community.
We got back in the car and headed to his mom's house. When we got there we unloaded our stuff into the bedroom downstairs. We saw that Ed was going to have dinner with us. Shortly after, the lasagna was done, we cooked the bread and made ourselves some salad. We took our meals to the table and visited as we ate food. We cleaned off the table and played some board games as we watched college football in the background. Ed had to have around 9 to get ready for his paper route. He picked up a paper route a while back to supplement his income to pay off some bills faster. He only had a few months left until he didn't have to do it anymore.
We continued watching football as we played around on our computers. Around midnight I headed to bed because I was tired. Ben soon followed. Yay, uncomfortable bed!
The next morning we got up around 9ish and got ready. We went upstairs and made French toast and bacon. It was delicious and hit the spot. We gathered our stuff and hit the road around 11. We are suppose to meet Michael and Elaine at Temple around noon so hopefully we can get there at a decent time. We got onto 167 and up the hill from Kent to get onto I-5.
There was no traffic anywhere so we made really good time as we entered Seattle. We texted Michael to let him know we were in Seattle and now we were looking for a parking spot. We had a hard time finding a spot without having to pay a buttload of money.
We finally found a spot a few blocks away and paid $15 for the rest of the day. We walked to Temple to meet up with Michael and Elaine. The game started at 3, so we had plenty of time. Along the way we found two geocaches, Seattle BLVD (GC6BNPQ) and King Street Elevator Again (GC2KCAD) which were right where we were going anyway.
The first one was a quick find and the second one took us a few minutes to locate. We signed our names, got a picture and finished walking to Temple. It's been a while since I've been there.
I dug out my ID because I know they were going to ask for it at the door. We flashed our ID's and headed in. There were quite a few people gathered around the pool tables drinking beer and watching the rest of the Seahawk-Steeler game. We saw that Michael and Elaine were upstairs so we met up with them. We ordered two pitchers of beer, sat around chatting and watching the game as we waited for it to be closer to march time.
As we were almost done with our pitchers, the Seahawk game got intense (like it has been so far this year) and we needed a stop. We didn't get the stop but luckily we had a big enough lead but we still won by 2. We got the win in Pittsburgh and Ben Rothelisberger was probably done for the season. We were hoping he didn't come back to play football ever again. We finished our beer and headed out to Occidental Park for the march. Ben and Michael found the ECS group and we ended up being in front holding the banner. We waited until it was time to chant and march.
We spent the next half hour marching and chanting various songs towards Century Link. There were a lot of people marching this time compared to the last time Ben and I did this. There were also a lot of fans who weren't in the march filming and taking pictures of us. It was quite the gathering of soccer fans. We had to have sang the same three songs over and over and over again. I guess the more you sing them the more you'll remember them and you won't need the song card. "Born in 1974...Sounders...Sounders!!"
We went in and found some seats near the front of the ECS section. We were near Paul, one of Ben and Michael's friends. He led some of the chants during the game as a capo. For those of you who don't know what a capo is, it is someone who leads a section or section of fans in cheers, synchronized movement, scarf waving, banner lifting and so on. The capo stands facing away from the field for the majority of the game, instead facing the fans they lead. We got all situated and throughout the first half, we danced, we cheered, we chanted and we pogo'd.
Ben got up and bought some chicken strips, fries and a drink. He shared with all of us. I think I had a chicken strip and a handful of fries. At the half we were up 2-1. It was the third time in four games that the Sounders had built a 2-0 lead only to see it be chipped away in the second half. Luckily, they've won all those games even though they don't make it easy on themselves.
During halftime, an ECS capo was ejected after waving the Iron Front flag for much of the first half and throughout halftime. Much of the ECS sections walked out in solidarity. I honestly come to watch soccer and to cheer on our hometown team. I could care less about politics or using the sports platform to let people know what I think. It is about going to a soccer game with friends and enjoying yourself. It is about the experience of being there and wanting your team to do well. So yeah, we went to a memorable game but not in the way we wanted it to be.
The second half was like sitting in a normal section. There was no energy, it was awkward and it made the second half seem really long because we were just sitting there. We sat here for the ECS experience, the energy, the craziness. I was just glad we kept the Red Bulls to two goals while we added two more to our first two. We won the game 4-2.
We thanked Michael and Elaine for coming down from Mount Vernon to come to the soccer game with us. We parked in opposite directions of each other so they went one way and we went the other. We had a small hike ahead of us but it wasn't too bad. We got back to Ben's car and headed south. I remembered that Trish picked up her brother and sister in law from the airport and was visiting for a few days. We called Trish and told her the game was over and if we could stop by for a bit to visit. She said she didn't make enough dinner because she wasn't sure if we were going to come over or not. We told her that we would pick something up on the way there.
We got into Bonney Lake and got sandwiches from Jersey Mike's and took them to go. We ate them when we got to his mom's house. We visited with Ben's aunt and uncle for a while. I've met his uncle but I have not met his aunt before. She reminded me of my friend Annette and she really liked to visit. We talked about a bunch of things and at one point we were invited to come stay with them in New Mexico at some point in the near future. She suggested the fall because it's not too hot and there are a lot of activities going on to to experience. I started planning it in my head as we talked.
I knew Ben and I had to head home so we could get cleaned up and ready for our work week. I told her it was nice meeting her and that we would keep in touch. She told me likewise. Ben and I headed back to Lacey, got home around 8ish, got cleaned up and ready for Monday.
GO SOUNDERS!
Next Adventure: Dad's Birthday
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