Well we mentioned in our last post that we might like to see a baseball game in Seattle preferably against the Yankees but as it turns out they play away in New York for those matches so we drove across the border, Saturday 18 Aug, for a little adventure and to see the Seattle Mariners play the Chicago White Sox. I had just finished the graveyard shift at the hospital so I made a little nest in the backseat of our 4x4 while Aidan drove. Befuddled by our excitement we did not compute travel time factoring in the hordes of other crazy-driving holiday makers eager to cross the border.
We waited for almost 3 hours at the border crossing – that is Aidan waited I slept - and once at the gate we had to disembark to fill out the green I-94 form (ours had expired) and then we were back on the road after an hour or so and made it to Seattle by the afternoon. Giddy with excitement we headed towards the Space Needle, using the familiar landmark to navigate through the city. Lining up to get on the elevator we were given a glimpse of the souvenirs available for purchase at the end of the tour. I could see Aidan calculating the odds, estimating the drop, judging the distance of security guards, gauging the wind… it was all I could do to stop him vaulting the railing and freefalling to the lower level to the trinkets that looked to his highly trained eye to be of the highest quality. Moving on we did the usual thing up on the observation deck and had a bite to eat at the Skycity restaurant and let Aidan have a quick closely supervised stop in the shop before heading to the baseball stadium.Distracted by the stalls of merchandise we missed the opening pitch but we did purchase a lovely baseball cap and foam finger that would enable us to rally behind our chosen team. We had pretty fabulous seats and we were ready to be enthralled by the diamond field. When I was in Japan as a teen there was a super famous & handsome baseball player, whose devoted and millions strong screaming female fans would gleefully terrorise, just to get a blissful glimpse. He now plays for the Seattle Mariners and is the league MVP who's just signed a massive $90 million five year deal. It was an exciting game - many the rule had to be explained to Aidan who it seems has never played any kind of sport or paid attention to any of his PE lessons. At one point we got caught up in a Mexican wave that was slow to start but I think we all realised too late almost impossible to end. Being in a circular stadium no section wanted to be the ones so lacking in team spirit as to be responsible for the demise of the wave. We were caught wanting to watch the game and nervously watching the arrival of the wave. At last one of the Mariners hit an amazing line drive that released us from the grip of this wave and we all stood as one to cheer as much for the beautifully timed hit as to be free from this up and down motion threatening to make us all seasick. It was the first and only wave of the night. Meanwhile the mojo was rising, Aidan cheered for our team, while I snapped photos of Ichiro Suzuki, the famous Japanese baseball star and giggled like a schoolgirl. We were down 3-0 in the fourth innings but won 7-5. The mighty Mariners had beaten the White Sox on Friday 5-4 and continued their winning streak 11-5 on Sunday. We might go down for another game before the season is out. The Seahawks - their gridiron Team - will kick off shortly too and by all accounts that is an awesome spectacle not to be missed.
So my parents have just visited us on their whirlwind tour of the Americas. We expected to find them at the airport brow beaten by security and jet lagged from their trip to Hawaii but they were in good spirits at 5.30 in the morning, Saturday morning I might add. We had nothing planned for their 7 day stay in Vancouver but a quick discussion had their minds made up about what to do and where to go. Lucky for me I’m only a casual at the hospital so I was able to join them. We took them to Whistler on Sunday and had a look around the village. Our ignorance for Canadian weather was displayed to our disappointment; we didn’t bring any warm clothes and expected to go to the top of Whistler Mountain on the gondola. It was ZERO degrees at the top!! While Aidan worked away, we traveled to Victoria and Sidney on Vancouver Island. We went on a tour through a castle (I’d never been in one before) and we ate the most luxurious breakfast at the very nice Fairmont Empress. We also planned a crazy three day road trip to Canmore and back near Banff, because Mum and Dad wanted to see the Rockies. It was my second trip to Alberta but the landscape was totally different in Summer. We went to Lake Louise (which had thawed) it was a beautiful crystal aqua colour - just amazing. I thought Banff was a picturesque town but Canmore is even more beautiful. It is a small town but is surrounded by rockies which have a great shape to them. One of the mountain ranges is actually called the three sisters. We had a few arguments on the road mostly due to driving issues. I was well used to driving on the right side of the road sitting in the left side of the car and Dad wanted to ‘practice’ because they would be driving from New York to Mexico. I really didn’t have the nerves for this sort of thing but he had to get used to driving I suppose. Let’s just say I’m very happy to have made it home… in one piece.
