While we celebrated Amy's birthday at Applebee's in June, we talked about the possibility of taking David to his first Mariner's game. He doesn't get out very often. Ben asked him which teams he would like to see, and we managed to find a date in August (after the wedding chaos) that corresponded with the New York Mets. We looked into tickets and decided to go with the ones at Costco. They had no hidden fees like Ticketmaster does.
Ben and I talked about how we wanted the day to go and planned it with Trish, Amy and David. It was going to be a busy day in Seattle.
The entire weekend has been busy for me, but I was looking forward to going to a Mariner game since I haven't been to one since last season with Alicia. I always have fun at the ballpark. Ben was also looking forward for some fun up in Seattle as well.
Ben and I got up around 8:30, got ready and left our house by 9:15. It was Ben's turn to drive up to Bonney Lake and it roughly took us about an hour. We pulled up to the house around 10-10:15ish. Both Amy and David were ready to go when we arrived which was nice. Everyone used the restroom one more time and piled into Ben's Edge. We left around 10:45. We decided to park at the Angle Lake station and ride the train up to the Westlake Center before the game. We wanted to take them to Pike's Place Pub for some food. Luckily, we didn't hit any traffic, so getting to the station was pretty smooth and uneventful.
We found a place to park, and we walked over to the kiosk to purchase a round-trip ticket to Westlake Center. We had to help Amy and David get their tickets, so it took a few minutes. I like that we can ride the train for $6 and not have to worry about traffic or where to park your car for a lot of money. I am so glad Doug told me about this option a few years ago. It has saved me a bunch of money and times that I was not stuck in traffic.
We went up to the platform and waited for the next train northbound. I was glad we didn't have to wait that long. We found a place to sit comfortably and endured the 40-minute ride to Seattle with the 13 stops along the way. I checked my phone a couple times to see if there were any caches or Adventure Labs, I didn't have yet in the area we were going to.
We got to Westlake Center and walked up to the street level. I got turned around trying to head down to Pike's Place Market so we could have lunch. We had to rest a few times because David was not used to walking that much with the hills. We wandered around the front of the market and took some pictures. I asked everyone if they were hungry, and they said yes. We went into Pike's Place Pub, and we were seated right away. We apparently picked a good time to eat.
The waiter came around and told us that we order food and drink from their app. Oh man, this was going to be confusing for Amy and David. Ben had excused himself to the restroom. I got the app downloaded and ordered my drink and my food since I had no idea how long it was going to take, and we were on a somewhat strict schedule. Ben came back, ordered his food and drink and then helped Amy and David order their food. This was our first experience ordering food at a restaurant where we had to do it on our phones.
The food and drinks actually came at a decent time. I ordered the Ol' Crimson Lager - straight from the source - and a burger and fries because I like to keep it simple and classy.
Ben had the bacon burger and Amy and David had salads. We spent maybe about an hour hanging out. We all used the restrooms one more time, walked back up the hill to Westlake Center. We had to take a couple breaks on the way up.
We got to the train platform and waited for the next train heading south. It arrived pretty quickly and a bunch of Mariner fans, including us, boarded. When we got on, it was standing room only. I found a place to hold on to. We endured the four stops to the Stadium picking up more Mariner fans along the way. When we reached the stadium the entire train car, we were in emptied out. We made the short trek over to T-Mobile Park. We didn't rush because I wanted David to experience the ambiance of being there for the first time.
We walked around the stadium to the front where the statues of Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez were placed. This was my first time seeing Edgar's statue. Mom and I had gone to Cooperstown, in 2019, the year he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was an awesome experience. Ben, Amy, David and I took several pictures before going through security and scanning our tickets. We went inside and made our way to our seats, in the upper deck. The hike up there took a little bit because we had to rest for David.
We got up to our seats and the view was actually pretty good. We were on the third base side and was hoping to snag a foul ball. Amy and David wandered around before the game started. Ben and I sat in the seats and enjoyed the nice afternoon. I heard that this was the first aired Sunday night game by ESPN since 2004 in Seattle. That was 20 years ago! This was a crazy game stat! I don't think I've been to a NY Met's game either, so it was nice to see a different team, plus they are from the NL which made this an interleague team. The Mets would have to use a designated hitter in their lineup instead of their pitcher.
We stood for the National Anthem and then the first pitch was underway. I sure hoped for a good game full of homeruns and winning! This was Julio's first game back after missing three weeks with a sprained ankle and he did nothing at the plate for us that afternoon.
The first inning was a little slow and both teams ended up with goose eggs. The second inning got a little exciting when Jorge Polanco hit a solo homerun in the bottom of the inning. I was happy to see us break open the game with the first run scored. Not much happened in the 3rd or 4th innings. The fifth inning was exciting for us, Raleigh put us up 4-0 with a two-run homer. That crush got everyone to their feet.
We got to see the famous hotdogs from heaven that first launched back in April. The marketing team took a gamble by dropping free hotdogs with parachutes from heaven the crowd absolutely went bonkers. During those 90 seconds, Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle booms from the sound system, you can feel the energy of the crowd, especially when the Mariners are playing well.
At the top of the 6th, our pitcher gave up a solo homerun to Jeff McNeil, which was their only run in the entire three game series with the Mariners. Raleigh broke it open even more with a three-run bomb in the bottom of the inning to make it 10-1. T-Mobile Park was lit! It was so exciting to see homeruns! We sang Take Me Out to the Ball game with roughly 35,460 fans.
In the bottom of the 7th, Raleigh had a chance to hit a grand slam but popped out to left field. We did manage to add on 2 more runs before we retired the side. The Mets could not come back from that deficit and struggled all series long. We destroyed them 12-1 and I enjoyed being part of a sweep. Our starting pitcher struck out 9 batters and we left 7 runners on base. We need more games like this to propel us into the playoffs. We always seem to be one game short.
We gathered up all of our belongings and inched our way out of the stadium. We made the short walk back to the train and managed to get on the first one heading south back towards Angle Lake. It took us about 40 minutes to get back to the parking garage.
We asked Amy and David if they had fun, and they did! It's always nice to go to a winning game especially if this was your first Mariner's game. Ben got us out of the parking garage and onto the freeway.
The traffic wasn't that bad which surprised me after a baseball game. We got to Bonney Lake just before 9ish. We visited for a little bit while Amy took David home and then Ben and I made our way towards home. It was a long day, and I was ready to relax before the new work week.
Next Adventure: Tumwater Artesian Brewfest with Nicole and Del
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