What is a Sounder?

What is a Sounder you may say?  Well from our vantage point in the stadium, they were little green men in shorts.  Our Saturday evening was spent wandering through sports bars in the Pioneer Square section of Seattle, looking for an opening large enough for two people to stand and enjoy a pre-game beer. We discovered the 88 Keys piano bar full of Sounders fans and good beer and enough railing space to lean up on. While other things in the US might be cheaper than at home a beer in a plastic cup is still about $5.00 in either currency. ($8.00 at the game). This was followed by some Cheap Hot Dogs on the street outside the stadium just before kick off. Since we never think anything through, we didn't contemplate sitting in an outside stadium for almost 2 hours  in a March evening. While the money for the new roof at BC Place stadium was very   expensive and the money should have been spent else where, we wished ( especially during the second half) that Seattle had spent the money for a roof on their stadium. It has been a while since I have seen my breath. Overall it was a good game, with Seattle defeating Toronto, 3-1. It was hard to cheer for Toronto because they are Toronto, and it was hard to cheer for Seattle since they compete directly with Vancouver. We were able to appreciate good plays for both teams, and enjoyed the entire experience. The best part was the short walk across the street to the hotel bar for a nightcap and to watch the Canucks defeat Columbus. (Where in the hell is Columbus anyways and why do they have a hockey team?)

Seattle 2012

For a city get-away from the Metro Vancouver area, we don't have a lot of choices without boarding a plane. So while Victoria is nice, but our friends are no longer there and Abbotsford lacks anything interesting to visit, so the only choice is Seattle. We had thought about Portland, but the few extra hours on the road was a bit much for a short weekend get away. This trip started off with something new. Usually we book into the Days Inn hotel near Seattle Centre, but it was not listed on their web site. It must be closed or operating under a different brand. So this gave us an opportunity to try something new. So onto Hot Wire.com we navigated. I have never liked the unknown prospect of booking a hotel without knowing the exact hotel, but the price was right. It is akin to the surprise in a Cracker Jack box.

Space Needle from Sculpture Garden

Our prize was the Silver Cloud Inn at the Stadiums. It turned out to be a little SODO (south of downtown) for us, but it is a very nice hotel. realizing we were to stay near the stadiums, I discovered that the Seattle Sounders opening night was on Saturday, so we booked 2 tickets to the game. On our Friday afternoon arrival, something was up at the stadium events centre, and it involved loud music and  young people. Now I know I am getting old. There was a major rave occurring right across the street, and many of the green glad ravers were also checking into our hotel. Some asked if we were attending the $70 rave recommending it as "the thing to do tonight", and we replied that we were about 30 years too late. Instead, our Friday night was a stroll through Pioneer Square and then up to the centre of the city. A late light dinner and beers at the Tap House was a nice way to end the day. We had spent some time earlier at the Seattle Premium Outlets picking up some bargains, so by the time we strolled the 30 minutes back to the hotel we were ready for a nightcap and bed. The ravers were well behaved and only a few times through the night could we hear them returning to their rooms.

S.A.M. before the snow

We awoke to typical Northwest weather on a spring Saturday morning, rain which soon turned into snow. After meeting the Pioneer Square 'locals' in a Starbucks, we proceeded uptown. The inclement weather lead us into S.A.M., Seattle Art Museum, for a Gauguin in Polynesia exhibit. The special exhibition and the permanent collection of the museum was a brilliant way to enjoy art and to stay warm and dry. After we had exhausted the galleries and the gallery shop, we were off to catch the St. Patrick's Day Parade, some shopping and an excellent Mexican lunch. Keeping with the art theme of the day, we next heading further uptown past Seattle Centre on the hunt for the Olympic Sculpture Garden. As if we had planned it, the sun came out and we found chairs in the garden to soak up the warmth and the art. The highlight was a metal sculpture by Richard Serra. It was like a smaller version of his amazing sculpture in Bilbao, Spain, that we visited last year.

Serra's sculpture

From the sculpture garden, which is located right along the waterfront, we headed south back towards the hotel. The sun brought out the tourists along the waterfront. As we neared the hotel and the stadium, the Sounders fans had begun to gather for tonight's opening game against Toronto. Our plan was a quick rest stop in the hotel, then head out for a quick Guinness and a meal in one of the plethora of bars, all decked out in green for St. Patrick's Day and it is also the team's colour.