Sometimes it is fun to just be a tourist…and a fan. I have loved the Seattle Seahawks since my pre-teen self fell in unrequited crush over a bleach blond linebacker named Brian Bosworth. I did not have good taste then, and he didn't last long, but stuck with "my" team through thick and thin (mostly thin).
But I had never seen the team play IN Seattle. I'd been harrassed by 49er fans in San Francisco, and yelled at televisions every Sunday, but I wanted to see them live. Plus, Seattle is a cool place to visit!
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| view from the ferry |
So I dragged the SO on a very fun vacation. We were tourists, and did all the tourist stuff. Because know what? Often the tourist stuff is fun and/or cool, especially because most of us can't take weeks of vacation go see the tiny little haunts the locals love (though we did some of that too).
We walked everywhere: Seattle is an amazingly walkable city with lots of food and beer (and coffee) options on every corner. Between sight seeing, we just wandered: old parks, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, historic buildings, waterfront locales. And I have a million photos, but I'll stick with the mostly tourist stuff, because it is highly photogenic!
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| Calder sculpture and Seattle icon |
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| this totally reminds me of TARS from the movie "Interstellar" |
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| Chihuly's (a glass artist) amazing garden |
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| ceiling in Chihuly museum |
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| because who can resist crazy yellow glass art and the Space Needle?! |
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| Frank Gehry designed EMP museum |
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| Anyone name this cool character from the science fiction exhibit? Look in your historical documents… |
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| heard of this? the disgustingly awesome gum wall. I left a piece there on my first visit in about 1985… |
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| touristy, too crowded, smelled like fish… |
We did take some time to take the road less traveled, literally, out to
Discovery Park, where on a beautiful weekday we saw a total of about
five people. It was odd to be on Puget Sound, so far inland from what I've always thought of as ocean, without the big waves, though the delicious smell of ocean still hung in the air.
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| beautiful hiking trails |
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| lunch in the sand, by a lighthouse, on the Sound.… |
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| a view from the Space Needle at night |
Oh, and the game…oh so awesome to be surrounded by 69,000 screaming fans of your team! (There might have been a few opposing team fans, I didn't notice). The highs, the lows, the yelling and despair (they lost, but it was still awesome), I wanted to immediately find more tickets and go again! It'll have to wait for another year, but I'll be back…
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| the biggest crowd yet at Century Link Field |
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| Quarterback Wilson at practice |
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| a goal-line drive |
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| the Seattle Seahawk's fan motto |
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| sunset over distant peaks |
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| see you again Seattle, in any weather… |
Glad you liked my town! PNW is great!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great trip! I want to go see them play in Arizona some winter weekend.
ReplyDeleteArizona is a good plan, but be prepared, like the 49ers, that is division rivalry, expect badly behaved fans to yell at you!
DeleteI just read that for the first time in 20 years they are going to scrub that wall free of gum, but then allow people to start again. It seems to have gotten bigger over the years, and smells worse than ever.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason suddenly everyone is a football fan in Seattle (ok I know why but it's weird to observe it from afar). Literally every member of my family is a fan now, and watching football is something they do regularly - every game. It's strange to visit and see the signs of the fans everywhere. Perhaps the strangest thing of all was last year when our local German newspaper had the Seahawks stadium photo on its front page, because apparently one of the players is from this area. The name Boswell rings a bell. I'm glad you got to see a game, sorry they lost: (
Ever since I was a little girl Discovery Park was my favorite park, and in my 20s we'd spend the night in there secretly. The Seattle Police used to keep their horses there until environmentalists complained. I went traipsing around where the paddock was and found one piece of baling twine. :( Everytime we visit home, we go to Discovery Park because geocaching is allowed there again.
Love your Space Needle shots. Where'd you go on a ferry?
The gum wall just smelled of sweet gum, but that is probably a good idea to clean it. People are sticking up business cards, writing in strings of gum, it is fascinatingly gross.
DeleteMy friend who I met up with in Seattle also mentioned everyone being a fan. I thought it was great to see 12th Man flags, waitresses wearing jerseys, etc. Maybe the city just really wanted a winner, hopefully they are not fair weather fans who abandon the team when they play badly.
That is funny about the police horses at Discovery Park. There is a waste treatment plant and it used to just military land! Still a neat place to have so close to the city, I imagine it is a treasure trove for geocaching!
We took the ferry on our last, short day. We just went over to Bainbridge Island and had lunch and looked at the historical museum. So many things to explore and do, it'll have to wait for our next trip!
What a super post! Love the photos & so happy that you enjoyed your visit!
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