24. September 2002 - Hungover in Seattle

Ow. That was quite an evening. Over $60 in food and drink, mostly drink.

I have breakfast in Pike Place Market at a place called Lowell's. It's good food, and I find I'm order #37, which strangely enough I take as a good sign. The food helps with the hangover, and even though I'm not feeling 100% yet, there's hope.

Seattle Aquarium

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The Aurora and Fremont bridges

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About 10:15 the clouds start to break up and I think to myself that sleeping in a bit this morning was probably a pretty good choice. The parks here are filled with homeless people sleeping around, which makes for fewer places for us tourists to sit and rest our feet. That's a bit annoying, but I finally find a spot and write a couple postcards to friends.

Gasworks park

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Floating Houses

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I decide to go on the Locks Tour, which leaves at noon. It's about 11:30, so I head into Red Robin and have a yummy burger before climbing onto the boat.

Fishermen's Terminal

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A drydock

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The locks tour was what I needed. Not only does it keep me off my feet for a few hours, I get to see a side of Seattle I hadn't before, and find out things like the reason they have two side-by-side locks from the ship canal to the sound - one is big for barges and such, and the smaller one, which our ship just barely fits into, is used for smaller vessels. During the fall and winter, when there's not a lot of water flowing into the lakes (Washington and Union), the Corps of Engineers conserves water by using the smaller lock whenever possible. The tour's a little expensive at $30, but I figure it's worth it.

A pen for the sea lions

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Alki Point Lighthouse (link)

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After the tour, I return to my hotel for a little nap. I end up sleeping until 6pm, when it's time to walk over to SafeCo Field. I buy a ticket from a scalper, paying full face value, and wonder if I could've gotten it more cheaply. I probably could have, but it's a reasonably good seat. Inside the stadium, it's $6 for a Red Hook, so I don't think I'll be doing a lot of drinking during the game. The park really is nice, and I guess Seattle got their money's worth spending nearly half a billion dollars on it. The only real flaw I notice is that even though the radio broadcast is played in the rest rooms, the smoking areas have no way to keep track of the game. I guess Seattle is pretty hostile to smokers.

Seattle Skyline

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Seahawks Stadium and Safeco Field

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The game's not going so well. In the bottom of the 6th, the M's have the bases loaded with 1 out, and the only run they manage to score is the one Zito walks in. I begin to think that's why the M's won't be seeing any post-season. Then a wild pitch scores a run for Oakland, and you can feel the mood of the crowd plummet.

A panorama of Safeco Field

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But in the bottom of the 7th the Mariners score 2 runs. They follow those with some good pitching and defence and 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th. The crowd (or rather the 3/4 of the crowd that didn't head for the exits earlier) goes bananas and the Mariners still have some playoff hopes alive. Wow.

During the game there was a loud and funny Oakland fan a few rows back. In spite of him cheering against the M's, few got offended. And when the tables turned in the bottom of the 8th, he wasn't too happy about the outcome, but agreed that it was a great game. Oakland only needs one win to clinch a playoff spot, but it's not going to be tonight. As I leave, I tell him I'm from Minnesota, and we'll both have teams in the playoffs.

The game tonight was really two games. Zito clearly won the contest of the starters, but once things got into the bullpen, the A's started having more trouble. And it wasn't just the pitching. Oh well, it's a funny game sometimes, this baseball.

Copyright 2008, Dave Polaschek. Last updated on Wed, 31 Dec 2003 13:59:46.