“Here in the corner attic of America, two hours’ drive from a rain forest, a desert, a foreign country, an empty island, a hidden fjord, a raging river, a glacier, and a volcano is a place where the inhabitants sense they can do no better, nor do they want to.”
Timothy Egan, The Good Rain: Across Time & Terrain in the Pacific Northwest
Our trek up the coast to the next stop on The Great Baseball Ride continues. Our overnight in Grants Pass was fine. Another Super 8, and this time a proper king bed, although we had somehow, unknowingly, turned the heat on, so we were all roasting most of the night. The whole family in a king is typically an okay deal, but this night it wasn’t. I blame the heat mostly.
Today we had about a six hour drive in front of us, which typically would mean eight hours or more the way we travel. Oregon is incredibly beautiful. As we pulled closer to Portland we saw I giant, snow capped mountain to our right.
We continued our drive with a few stops for bathrooms as well as some rest stop batting practice, but we eventually made it through Portland and into Washington. The beauty continued in Washington, and the mountain seemed to be following us. I am not sure if it was one mountain we kept seeing, or two, and upon further google search I am guessing two, Mt. Hood, then Mt. St. Helens. Soren was particularly interested in potentially seeing a volcano, (non of us had ever seen a volcano before), although he was perplexed as to where the lava was. I think I was too honestly.
A picture of the sweet volcano/mountain(s) would be great at this point. We have four pictures. All unusable, so use your imagination.
We eventually made it to T Mobile Field, the home of the Mariners. Tonight’s game was the Athletics vs. the Mariners, and we were pumped to be in Seattle for the first time. Keke found us Section 193, row 1 tickets for $10 a piece and a parking pass for the ramp across from the stadium for $12 (all before fees).
We stopped at a plays called Henry’s across from the stadium for an appetizer (the pretzel was great) and a couple of drinks. This was a planned stop as I required a couple of drinks prior to stopping into the stadium. The reason for this was because of what I had designs on eating for my stadium food selection for the night. Seattle is known for serving grasshoppers. These are real actual grasshoppers, 8th plague of Egypt style, not the sweet, blended drink. They cook them and serve them in a chili-lime seasoning, and I was eager to be one of the bold.
Unfortunately, and I knew better, they sold out. I believe they sell out every game, as I heard they sold 18,000 grasshoppers over a three game stretch in 2017. Our game was on a Monday, and was so sparsely attended that I didn’t think there could be a chance that they would sell out; I was wrong.
I was able to get a good local beer as Elysian is Washington based. I had their Superfuzz Blood Orange and though I typically like neither blood, nor oranges in my beer, this seemed to work.
Like most teams, they had a section dedicated to Mariners greats. I was particularly interested in the Jay Buhner section (Buhner…Buhner…anyone?) as well as the Big Unit, and Ken Griffey, Jr (an all-time favorite of mine).
The stadium is very nice, and contains many fun areas and many good food and beer options. We particularly enjoyed the kids areas, specifically the playground as well as the mini field and the batting cage on the upper level overlooking the bay.
As I mentioned, the attendance was low, and the A’s broke out to a lead. I missed seeing Khris Davis in Oakland, and he was raking in Seattle this night as he hit two homers. The Mariners had the last laugh as they walked the A’s off in extra innings.
After the game it was time to move on, although I would love another chance to see a game (or games here) and to see more of the city. Keke booked our hotel for a half hour out of the city. She stayed within the Wyndham chain at a La Quinta. The hotel is very nice, way above its $122 charge. Tired, we all headed to bed, happy to be moving east towards home tomorrow after 30 days on the road.