Back in April at the Whiskey and Words fundraiser, I ended up “winning” two tickets to a preseason NFL game in Seattle. I didn’t know the opposition at the time, but it ended up being the Minnesota Vikings. Could have been worse… Amazingly enough, summer has almost come and gone, and this past Thursday was the date for the game. Justine and I drove down to Seattle in the afternoon, hung out in Seattle a bit and watched some really mediocre football.
As much as we would have liked to make a weekend of it, we didn’t really have the time (or money) to do so, so we decided on it being a day trip for the game. With the damage to the truck, we didn’t really want to be driving it a lot, so we rented a cra for the day instead. Around lunch time, we hopped on the Skytrain and headed to the airport to pick up the car. It was a bit of a mess at the rental car place, and it took way longer than it should have, but eventually we were on our way.
Driving down to the border and getting through ended up being the easiest part of the trip. Once south of the border, it was smooth sailing for a bit, but then we hit traffic in Everett and were slowed to a crawl for a while. After getting through that mess, Justine was on the phone looking ahead. While it looked like we had smooth sailing until north Seattle, after that is was back to a standstill all the way through Seattle. We had time, but didn’t really feel like sitting in traffic, so we decide to stop at Northgate Mall at the very north end of the city and take the train downtown. Generally speaking, this ended up being a pretty good decision.
We managed to find a parking spot in the free above ground lot and headed over to the train. As it is the end of the line, there was a train waiting for us and in no time we were on our downtown. We got out near Pioneer Square, a short distance from the stadium. It was still early, so we had some time to explore, have a drink and find some dinner before the game.
We walked down and along the waterfront, before making our way back up and into downtown proper. We noticed a place called the Seattle Beer Company, which looked promising. We stopped in and had a tasingly flight each.
While we were enjoying our beer, there was a bit of a commotion, with these huge fire trucks cramming themselves down the narrow street outside the building. The paparazzi were out in full force…
After out beer, we walked up this huge flight of stairs just outside the bar that takes you up a couple of levels (Seattle is built on even steeper streets than Vancouver) to where Pike PLace Market is located. Sadly, it was 5:00 and the market was closing, so we couldn’t go in and check things out. It’s been a few years since we’ve been here, and it would have been fun to poke around. Next time…
As we didn’t really have a lot of time, we headed for dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Wild Ginger. It’s an asian fusion restaurant that we’ve been to a few times, and it has never disappointed. We were very early, and the place was pretty empty. The food was amazing (and there was way too much of it), but that meant we’d be good and avoid the bad and expense stadium food.
After dinner it was time to head to the stadium! I had no idea what kind of seats we had, other than knowing that we were in the upper bowl. In any case, we figured it would be a fun time. The last time we came to a game, getting in was a disaster and took forever. They’ve significantly improved that part of the process and we were able to whisk through in no time!
As it turned out, the seats we got were pretty reat. While we were in the upper level, we were pretty close to the bottom of it, in a corner with a pretty nice view of the field. The people in our section were all pretty friendly and having a good time. They all seemed like long time season ticket holders and knew each other pretty well.
As to the game itself, well there wasn’t much to tell. It’s NFL pre-season. They only play their second and third string players - none of the regulars start. So the game was pretty sloppy. It started poorly for the home team, with the Seahawks trailing early, but then coming back and cruising to a fairly easy win.
Pano of the stadium, as the sun started to set.
After the game, we headed out and over to the train station to catch a train back north. There was a huge crowd at the station, but we were fortunate to get on the train. It was jammed, and almost everyone was headed to the end of the line with us. Even so, taking the train was a good call. From there, it was a still a long drive home and we did not get in until about 2:00 a.m. While it was a long day, it was a fun one and worth the trip!
Galiano Sidebar
I thought I’d share a few pics from the summer on Galiano.
