I've been friends with Alicia since I worked in Retro back in 2017. I got to know her pretty well over the course of the year I worked there. She was very pleasant to talk to, she was very enthusiastic about her job as a claims manager, her life and her family. I felt very comfortable around her. She is originally from Sunnyside and worked at the L&I office in Yakima until she moved to the west side to get away and to start a new experience. She has a very large family full of children and grandchildren. She has three chihuahuas named Bella, Prince and Bruno and they wear sweaters in the winter time. Once I was no longer a part of Retro, I still kept in contact with her through walks, passing in the hallways and random phone calls to ask how I was doing. Some of those phone calls would last an hour or so.
I helped her move to her new place when her landlord wanted to sell the complex she was living in, I have met some of her family members and friends and got to meet her newest significant other, Jerry. They've been dating for about a year or so when I met him and he seemed to be a pretty good guy. She got a new job within L&I but instead of HQ she now worked out of the Tacoma location. Then Covid hit and it ruined everything. We were now all working from home and had a bunch of stuff taken away from us including vacations, family members and sports. It was a terrible time in human history.
Once we all were vaccinated she spent many of her weekends driving back and forth to Sunnyside and asked if I could watch her dogs. I said sure, why not. She showed me what I needed to do and everything went well majority of the time. There was one time one of the dogs bit another dog in the ear and there was blood everywhere. I gave him a quick bath and everything was good again. I watched her dogs a few times since December through the summer.
One day this past spring, I got a phone call from her and she sounded very agitated and upset. I asked her how she was and she said not doing very well. She then explained to me that her nephew all of a sudden died and she needed to be in Sunnyside for at least four days and if I could watch her dogs. I told her I sure could. She thanked me and apologized for the short call but she had to go get ready to go. I spent the next four days watching her dogs for her while she took care of her family matters.
Later on that summer, she and her family thought it would be great to remember him by going to a Mariner game as a group. He loved baseball and they arranged for him to be honored on the big screen. I asked Alicia later how it went and she said it was amazing. She added because they did a group baseball game and Alicia was in charge, they gave her two free tickets for an upcoming home Mariner game of her choice. She knew I loved baseball and helped her out these past few months with the dogs she asked me to go with her. She just needed to know what home game I could go to.
The rest of my weekends were getting pretty busy with my upcoming Peru trip so the only day I had free was the last Saturday of August. She said that was fine with her and we planned on doing that. The Mariners were playing the Royals and at the time they were one of the worst teams in the AL. I also saw the free giveaway was a Mariner Moose Funko Pop figurine so you knew there were going to be a lot of people going to the game.
She sent me the link to chose the tickets we wanted but the instructions were not that clear so we had to have a ticket manager do it for us which is just as well. She asked if I would drive and that she would give me some gas money. I told her that sounded pretty good to me. I found out Doug and Jenn were going to the same game because of his friend Ross. Sadly, Ross couldn't go to the game because his mom was sick and couldn't risk getting Covid so he gave Doug the four tickets and told him to find other people to go with. Doug has some really good tickets...five rows up from the field between the left fielder and the third basemen. Doug couldn't get Erika and Zach to go, Dad isn't a big sports fan and Mom couldn't go because she had a quilt show in Yelm to go to.
The game was originally suppose to be a night game but it was changed to the day to accommodate the Seahawks preseason game next door at Lumen Field.
Alicia and I were sitting in section 142 row 35. We had a great view of the field as well according to the seat view I saw online. My friend Annette, who is an usher at the Mariner games, doesn't work on Saturdays so I wouldn't be able to see her until the TriCities geocoin challenge the next weekend. I made sure I could access the tickets on my phone so I screen shot them onto my gallery so it would be easy to scan them.
I had Alicia meet me at my house around 9:30 so we could get up there at a decent time and find parking near the stadium. We got onto I-5 north and it was smooth sailing. We chatted about various things as we drove. Then I got a phone call from Doug asking me where I was. I told him we just passed Federal Way. He said he and Jenn was about a mile or so behind us. He then proceeded into telling us that it would be in our best interest to get off the freeway at Angle Lake and take the train up since traffic would be awful and parking just as bad. Plus, the Seahawk game so there were more people than usual for a normal baseball game.
Alicia found the exit we needed and got off at Angle Lake and followed the road to the parking garage. We found a place to park and meandered our way to the ticket office. We each bought a $6 round-trip ticket to and from the stadiums and Doug and Jenn made it to the ticket kiosk as we got our tickets. They bought theirs and we walked up to the platform to wait for our train. I will probably do this from now on when I go to an event in Seattle...it is so much easier than trying to drive up there.
Our train came and we sat near each other on the train while we waited through all the stops. There were 10 stops from where we got on to where we were getting off and it typically takes about a half hour or so. We all hung out and talked while we waited for our stop. There were some people on the train who were wearing Mariner stuff. I haven't been to a Mariner game since April 2019. Wow, that was a long time ago. Covid sucks so bad!
We got off the train and walked towards the stadium. Doug and Jenn decided to go find some food outside of the stadium so I told them we would see them later. Alicia and I wanted to go see the new Edgar statue so we continued on around the stadium to where he was. We had to wait a few minutes before we had our turn with him without any people in our photos.
We decided to go into the stadium at home plate since it was right there. We got through security and got our tickets scanned. We received our Moose Funko Pop figurine and went up the stairs onto the concourse. I asked Alicia what she wanted to do first. We walked around for a bit and saw the different vantage points of the field.
We decided we wanted food so we walked over to Ivar's and I had to make a hard decision. I really wanted fish and chips but I am trying to stick to my low carb diet so I chose Caesar salad and water. Alicia got fish and chips and some chowder. She said I could help her with her French fries if I wanted to. I did take her up on that offer when we found our seats and sat there eating our food and taking in the ambiance.
I saw my brother and Jenn walk by. They were in the next section over to our left down almost to the field. He did call me to ask where I was and I stood up and waved at him. He said if we wanted to come down and sit with them we were more than welcome to. I told him we would consider it later on.
The game started and right off the bat (haha literally) the Royals hit a solo homerun in the first. We left a lot of people on base and then in the 5th inning the Royals hit a two-run homerun making the score 3-0. We finally answered back in the bottom half of the 5th when KC walked in a run for us. Yay! We were on the board finally! We got up to check out the team store for a little while and came back before the 7th inning stretch but instead of our seats we went to go sit with Doug and Jenn. They left to go get food, lots of garlic fries and beer. They really didn't need it but they got it anyway.
We spend the rest of the game watching us lose 4-2. At least we weren't shut out. We sat there for a few minutes while the people around us cleared out. We used the restroom and told Doug and Jenn that we would possibly see them at the train station. Alicia heard that there was some sort of Lottery thing also going on next door so we walked over to Lumen Field and tried to get into the pregame stuff inside the field house but they weren't letting people in without tickets. The rules must have changed because of Covid, Bummer.
We went into a few of the unofficial team stores and my brother texted me telling me that Jenn wasn't done and they got some cheap tickets from a scalper. I was jealous but I was ready to go home. We walked back to the train and only had to wait a few minutes.
About a half hour later we were at the Angle Lake train station once again. We found the Escape in the parking garage and headed back to I-5 but took a wrong turn so we had to get on the freeway further down the road.
On the way back home we chatted about a lot of stuff and we got to know each other a little bit more than before. It was nice to have a friend to talk about stuff with. We got stuck in traffic in Fife but it eventually cleared and we were on our way back home. When we got there, Alicia thanked me for the fun day and I thanked her back for choosing me to go with her. She told me to enjoy my upcoming vacation and that we would catch up soon.
Later on I heard that Doug didn't feel very good so they came home before halftime of the Seahawk game. I suspected he was dehydrated from all the sunshine and beer. They got home safe and sound and I told him to get cleaned up, drink water and rest. He said he felt better the next day.
Next Adventure: Mount Rainier Hiking to Carter Falls
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