I was in Costco early December doing my normal shopping when I saw the kiosk for Marinier tickets. I instantly called Mom, would you be interested in Mariner tickets in the Terrace Club? She asked how much they were. I told her they come in a pair for $60. She said yes and to get two because it would be fun to take Doug (he was not having the best end of the year and needed something to look forward to) and I was going to bring Ben. The Mariners had just broken a 20-year playoff drought a few months back so we thought it might be fun to go.
I bought them and made sure everyone was going to pay me back. I went up to the register, paid for my stuff and they gave me a couple of sealed envelopes with instructions on how to redeem them online. I finished up my shopping and then went home. I made sure I didn't lose those envelopes and put them in a safe place until we redeemed them.
After Christmas, I asked Doug which game he wanted to go to and handed him the schedule of games we were allowed to go to. He looked for a few minutes and said, the May 6th game against the Astros. He didn't hesitate. He said he would love to go watch the Mariners beat the Astros. I told him okay, and asked Mom and Ben if they were okay with that game and they said yeah, that game sounded great. I got onto my computer and completed the voucher. I got a confirmation email and it stated that my tickets would be released for download closer to the game.
Meanwhile, we were invited to an event up in Mount Vernon on the same day. Ben's friends Michael and Elaine had been on high stress over the past year when their oldest son, Dominic, was diagnosed with cancer during the spring of 2022. There were many long nights, surgeries, tears, scares, traveling and fundraising and Dominic overcame it and was now cancer free. Michael and Elaine wanted friends and family to gather to celebrate his achievement and raise money for the donors who helped them along the way.
We found a way to do both, but it was going to be a really long day. I was hoping for decent weather.
During the spring, Doug started talking to a girl, named Sonja, who worked at one of the agency's he delivers and picks up mail from. He kept it quiet for a while and then slowly told us a little bit about her over the next few weeks. Then Mom called me and told me that Sonja could have her ticket to the game. She said it would be okay because she and her office would be going to a Mariner game in June. She told me and then she told Doug. Doug asked Sonja if she wanted to go, and she said yes. I would have to hammer out the details with them since we had to meet them there.
I also found out the game that we picked was also State Worker Night, so tickets were discounted if you were a state worker. I will have to remember that for next year.
The night before we made sure we had everything situated and gas in the Edge. I spoke to Doug about the plan to meet up before the game. He said to call or text with updates, and they will make their way to the stadium. We tried going to bed at a decent time that night, but it didn't happen. The alarm went off really early, we got ready, made sure we had everything, grabbed a quick bite and headed to I-5. Traffic wasn't that bad that early in the morning. We did hit a few slow spots here and there but overall, it was alright.
It was slow through Seattle, like it always was, no matter what time of the day. We were making pretty good time even with the couple of slowdowns along the way. We got up past Seattle and into Everett and I told Ben that we will probably get to their house before 11 a.m. We called Michael and asked if we could just go to the house, and he said yeah and that they planned on leaving to get to the venue around 11:00 and we could just follow them up to Sedro-Woolley.
We got to Mount Vernon earlier than we thought we would so I asked Ben if we could find a geocache. He said sure. I found one near the Safeway and Ben said since we are here, I need to use the restroom. We went into the Safeway for a few minutes and then we drove to the parking lot across the small street and found Another LPC (GC9QDNQ). It was a quick park and grab.
We got back on the highway and up the hill to Michael and Elaine's house and arrived around 10:45. We found a spot to park along the cul-de-sac, got out and was instantly bombarded by people. They had so many people inside that house! Children running in and out, leaving the door open, adults hastily trying to get ready for the event. I felt like we probably should have met them at the event because we were in the way. It was a zoo!
Michael told us to follow them to the event. Everyone loaded up children, boxes, some of the food and cases of water and we headed down the hill to Hwy 9. We drove north through the small community of Clear Lake and up to Sedro-Woolley. We got on the North Cascades Hwy (Highway 20) and drove east to the Eagle Haven Winery. We all parked and helped set up because we had all gotten there early.
The banners were put up, the food and water were unboxed, I helped Elaine set up the raffle baskets on the tables, the rock and puzzle coloring station, moved chairs and tables around inside of the building while some of the guys helped get the outdoor area all set up. I wanted to feel like we were being helpful. A group of people took care of the food arrangements, the music and the activities that were being held outside including a climbing wall. We donated $20 towards the raffle.
The event promptly started at noon and there were tons of kids running around. I spent some time wandering around with Ben talking to some of his friends he hasn't seen in a while. They were all married and had children, most of them were under 10 years old. We ate the food that was provided, it was geared more towards feeding children --sandwiches, fruit, macaroni salad, brownies, chips and Capris Suns. We ate at one of the outdoor tables and chatted with more of Ben's friends.
I got cold because the weather was not favorable, so I went inside and started painting rocks for Dominic. I thought I would make the kids look bad, haha. I did a set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, an Angry Bird one, a soccer ball and one with his name on it. The paint markers were pretty cool and easy to draw and color with. I sat with a little girl for a while who was having fun drawing on rocks as well. I did write a message for Dominic on a puzzle piece as well.
They had an announcement in the middle of the event to honor Dominic and the slaying of his cancer, they thanked all the foundations, donors and the countless people who helped them along the way. If it weren't for all of those people, it would have made it harder to deal with all of the hardship's cancer creates for a family. His party was to recognize his amazing achievement and a fundraiser to provide donation for the cancer foundations that helped Domnic and his family in their time of need. The money raised at the party was given to those foundations to continue to assist to other families having to battle cancer.
We made our rounds a few more times before we got ready to head back down to Seattle for the Mariner game. We thanked Michael and Elaine for inviting us and told them we were happy to see Dominic doing better than he was a few months prior. They thanked us for coming and told us to have fun at the Mariner game. We hopped into Ben's Edge and headed west towards I-5. I texted Doug an update of where we were.
I thought traffic would be worse heading back down towards Seattle, but it wasn't that bad. We did slow down over the bridge near UDumb and again going under the convention center area, but overall, not too bad. I told Ben we should park at the lot we parked in last time we came to an event together. He knew where I was talking about. I updated Doug once again, stating that we have arrived in Seattle and are getting ready to park. He said that they were at a bar and would be down soon...they were drinking up near Capitol Hill. I told him to hurry up because I have to check us all in since the ticket are on my phone. We sat in the parking lot for a few minutes while it rained. I really didn't want to stand out in it.
He called me letting me know that he and Sonja were in line. I told him we would be there in a few minutes because it was raining, we had to wait for the train and then walked all the way around the stadium to meet up with them because they were on the first base side of the stadium, near the Edgar statue. We eventually met up with them and I introduced myself to Sonja. I told her that I was Doug's oldest sister, and he has probably told her all kinda of horrible things about me. She said, nice to meet you and no, he hasn't said anything terrible about you. At least she was a good sport and had a sense of humor.
We waited in the line, and we eventually went through security, got our tickets scanned and we were given these "powerline" looking sunglasses. I told Doug to grab his pair so we could give them to Mom. He handed them to me to shove in my clear bag. We decided to walk up to our seat in the Terrace Club first and then walk around since we were there somewhat early. Doug and Sonja wandered around, brought back food and drinks. We sat and watched pregame stuff and decided to get some stuff later since we didn't eat too long ago in Sedro-Woolley.
The game was pretty boring until the top of the 4th inning. The Astros somehow got some people on and then with a couple of base hits, scored two runs. We did not match that during our part of the inning. It was the same during the 5th inning, they got people on base and scored on a base hit. We were down 3-0 after the 5th inning. We did manage to get some baserunners on, but we left them on base when the side was retired.
Doug got up a few more times throughout the game and brough back a Jarred Kelenic jersey. I thought to myself, how in the world can he afford a jersey and all of this beer and food? I sure hope this wasn't another bad spending pattern of his.
We were getting bored by the time we got to the 7th inning stretch. We wanted some action! We wanted our team to beat the Astros! We wanted some homeruns, some hits, some baserunners! At the bottom of the 8th inning, we got our wish.
It started off not looking like we were going to make up that three-run deficit but then chaos ball showed up. It started with a walk and was fueled by some clutch base hits, seven runs and ten batters later. We ended that 8th inning jumping up and down, high fiving strangers and up 7-3 with the momentum on our side. T-Mobile Park was lit!
We were hoping for a three up, three down top of the 9th inning but that didn't happen, and they scored two runs before we finally put an end to a game that I really didn't think would turn out the way it did. Either way we beat the Astros and gave them one more loss to their record...however the season ends for them. We celebrated for a few minutes while MARINERS WIN scrolls across the giant screen in the outfield and fireworks went off. It's always nice to go to a winning game. The last Mariners game I went to we lost.
We shuffled out of T-Mobile Park and back out to the car. Doug and Sonja took the train up so they hopped in with us so we could take them back to the car at the Angle Lake parking garage. We got onto I-5 and headed to Angle Lake. It didn't take us very long to get there. We dropped them off, Doug said he was spending the night at her house and would be back the next morning to take care of his chores and whatnot.
Ben and I got home just before midnight. I got in a shower and went to bed shortly after that. It was a long day of people and driving and we just needed some rest. It was nice to finally lay in bed.
Next Adventure: Fixing Caches: Spanaway to Centralia
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