What a day. What an epic event. Victory is always sweet. Our day was fabulous from beginning to end. More to come from our dinner event after the championship game with our beloved friends!
I’m back home tonight basking in the comfort of our country bungalow reunited with Dear. I hope to catch up with your blogs soon.
On our trip to Southern California on October 15th the first leg was a short flight (under one hour) from Spokane to Seattle. It takes us about an hour and a half to get to the airport from Colville. This time our plane was a Bombardier. I took one photo as we left Spokane and when we got to Seattle I tried to get some photos without the propellers.
This is the first time I’ve seen Green Lake so clearly from a plane.
Green Lake is one of Seattle’s most beloved parks. Its expanse of water and green space in the center of a dense urban neighborhood draws thousands of people daily from all over the city. The park serves as a natural preserve for hundreds of species of trees and plants, as well as numerous birds and waterfowl. The 2.8-mile path around the lake provides a perfect recreational spot for runners, bikers, skaters and walkers. Many others use the athletic fields or visit the park for boating, picnics and swimming.
I think this is a view of Lake Union and the larger green area next to the water is Gas Works Park. You can see the Space Needle to the left. The larger bridge might be the Aurora Bridge.
I’ve spent many hours at this field watching the Seattle Sounders Soccer team. I’ve missed being able to go to games since we’ve moved. Tuesday night the Sounders play a game in Los Angeles for the Western Conference Title. If they win they’ll play in the final against the Eastern Conference Title winner for the MLS Cup.
We landed shortly after flying over these fields and made it to the gate to board a much larger plane to fly to Bubank, California. Hollywood Burbank Airport, legally and formerly marketed as Bob Hope Airport, is a public airport 3 miles northwest of downtown Burbank, in Los Angeles County, California, United States.
We are having very cold overnight temperatures the next several days. Monday and Tuesday’s predictions are lows of 15 and 17 degrees and then in the twenties the rest of the week. The highs range from 37 to 48 degrees F. Thankfully no precipitation is predicted because that would mean snow! Time to pull out our winter wear.
This past week I traveled to the nearby town of Woodinville for an appointment with our accountant. Woodinville has become a very popular tourist spot for wine tasting in our state. The last two names on this sign direct you to two of many wineries. The most popular winery in Woodinville is probably Ste Michelle Winery. Another larger winery in this town is Columbia Winery. You can probably find wines from Ste Michelle on your grocery shelves.
Last night I attended my first soccer game of the year in Seattle at Century Link Field. Our Seattle Sounders played Club America, a team from Mexico in the Concacaf Champions League. This was a quarterfinal game. We will play this same team again on March 2nd in Mexico to see who moves on in the tournament. Our home opening game for the MLS season is on March 6th. The season will be in full swing starting the 6th. I have season tickets with our son, daughter in law, and daughter. Yes, we are soccer fans.
I’m signing up with Lesley at signs, signs. Thanks Lesley!
I feel like I’ve had quite the workout today. After my walk since the weather was so nice I mowed the lawn for the first time this season. I also did some cleaning up of our drive. My body is telling this old gal to sit a spell and put my feet up! I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on visiting blogs.
This is my daughter-in-law and me in front of a sign at Century Link Field in Seattle. We are looking forward to some post season games to determine what Major League Soccer Team will win the MLS Cup this year. Go Sounders! We have season tickets and will attend all the playoff games in our city, too. On Monday night we will watch the Seattle Sounders play F.C. Dallas in the 2nd leg of the first round of play…
Joining in with Lesley for her weekly meme Signs Signs about the funny, ridiculous, interesting and unexplainable signs.
Click over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog to get the recipe for Gluten free Ranchero sauce for Huevos Rancheros and other Mexican dishes. We served this dish when my niece and her husband were visiting in June. My niece is Gluten and Lactose intolerant so I had to come up with a breakfast that would work for all of us. This recipe got the thumbs up from her and my son who is lactose intolerant and from the rest of us who don’t have to watch our gluten and lactose intake.
Last night my son, nephew and grand nephew attended the Seattle Sounders Soccer Game. My nephew got this photo of me with the few, the proud, the Marine Corp band. I enjoyed a fun back and forth with these Marines.
And here’s my son, nephew and grand nephew…
We had a good time in the sun even though our team lost.
Today at this old house the bath/shower tile surround is going in. Should be a full day of work here. Hope you all have a good Tuesday.
On Tuesday my son called me to say that his company had an extra ticket to the U.S.A. World Cup Qualifier Game against Panama at Century Link Field. He asked me if I’d like to meet up with him and go to the game. What do you think I said!? Yes, thank you. Off I went to a hotel in Bellevue to meet up with the rest of the group. Joshua’s company had reserved a party bus to take everyone across Lake Washington to the stadium. They also had booked a private suite for the game.
Josh was able to represent well with his USA warm-up. He and I were probably the most excited of the bunch to be going to the game. Soccer is a joy for me to watch and I understand that for many it would just make you yawn. We caught the “soccer bug” after going to World Cup games in the U.S.A. in 1994.
It was a beautiful day in Seattle and as we crossed Lake Washington it was fun to see all the sail boats out in force. What fun to just let someone else do the driving.
When we got into the stadium they were handing out complimentary scarves to everyone. We were very excited to receive these!
We headed to the elevators to go up to the Suite Level. I had never been on the Suite level before.
You have to have a ticket that shows a Suite # to be admitted onto this floor.
We looked down to our usual level when we come to a game. Our Club level is pretty sweet, too.
Here it is…Suite 16. We were very happy to see we were not far off from the 50 yard line! Woohoo!
Wow…this is going to be fun and comfortable!
Food and drinks included and 2 private restrooms.
We picked our seats and hung our flag and got ready to cheer the U.S.A. to victory!
The excitement was mounting and I sat ready to enjoy it all.
This is the Centennial year for soccer in the U.S.A. Our Seattle fans are the best and unfurled these banners to celebrate 100 years of history!
#6 Brad Evans and #18 Eddie Johnson are players from our own Sounders Football Club here in Seattle. Brad Evans scored the winning goal for the U.S.A. against Jamaica and Eddie Johnson scored a goal in this game against Panama. We’re proud of our Sounders!
At Half time we took the time to take some posed photos.
What a great group of people from all over the Western States that work for our son’s company. I met folks from Arizona, Utah, California, Idaho, Denver and Washington.
I was able to spot and zoom in on the Space Needle from our suite.
Great views all around. Scoring first made for a wonderful atmosphere in the stadium and the chants “We are going to Brazil” made for a lot of excitement. It’s not a given for a country as large as the U.S.A. to qualify for the World Cup. We won this game with a 2-0 result.
When the game was over we headed down to find The Party Ride bus to take us back to the East side of Lake Washington.
We spotted the Party Ride just where they let us off. There were a lot of people who wished they could hop on that bus with us.
What a great experience for this soccer lover to enjoy with my son. If you ever have a chance to enjoy a game in a suite I would highly recommend it.
The party bus was fun, too. I got home late and was happy to know I had nothing on my calendar until noon on Wednesday. It was nice to just relax the morning after all the fun I had on Tuesday night. Thank you dear son of mine for thinking of your soccer lovin mom! You are the best!
Today is Friday and if the weather is decent I’m headed to Edmonds for their annual Art Festival. I worked hard on Thursday clearing out the free standing cabinets in our kitchen to get ready for the new floors being installed in July. I cleared out our island cabinets as we will have to remove the island completely so the floor can be replaced under it. We have prep work to do before the flooring contractor can come in so I’ll be living with the bare necessities in my kitchen. I told Dear that if I’m too limited we might just have to eat out every night!
I’ve been so sad to see the news about the fires in Colorado. I do hope things come under control soon. Hope all is well where you live.
I’m joining in with The Tablescaper for her meme called “Oh the Places I’ve Been #9” since I’m home alone this week and have time to come and visit all the participants.
Although we didn’t win it was nice to get rolling again. It was especially nice to enjoy the game with 3 of our 5!
For those of you who aren’t major league soccer fans this was the Seattle Sounders opener against Toronto. It was nice that Katie could join us while she is in town.
We’ve gotten to be friends with the season ticket holders around us. It comes in handy when you want them to take a photo, too!
I love that we always begin with National anthems and that the military in our area is so well represented. I’m a little partial to the Marines!
Since we were playing a Canadian team, their flag was represented, too. We listened to a beautiful rendition of “O Canada” in English with some French thrown in. They could have been better guests, though, and let us win. Aye!
Another fun season of “raising our scarves”…and wearing our rave green!
Our Emerald City Supporters really go the extra mile. The other Major League Soccer clubs have learned a lot from our Seattle Sounders supporters. This next photo does not represent most of the fans.
I don’t know how they were able to fall asleep but I’m glad I was able to catch them in the act! Speaking of sleep, I’m going to be sleeping at our son’s home in Eastern Washington for the next couple of nights so you probably won’t be hearing from me.
Have a great week!
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 