It was a beautiful day and rather than watch the Big Game on TV, we decided to go downtown and try and catch some of the excitement around the stadium.
And it was a beautiful day with some great light. Clouds were all around and making their presence felt. They gave the day another dimension . . . you'll see.
Walking up Renton Avenue, we came to the Golden Sands Apartments. You can see the clouds giving the whole scene a more dramatic effect.
The light upon the clouds today gave them definition, depth and a dignity they don't normally have.
While we were at the Link Station waiting for the train downtown, I caught this picture of a crow framed by the building clouds.
Hahahaha, I know. Getting a bit dramatic with the ol' language thingie, aren't you, Jackie!?!
Here comes the Southbound train. Wrong way, y'all.
Sure enough, approximately five minutes later here comes the Northbound...headin' down the line. This one is a Subway Sandwich.
OK, so I'm playing around, again.
I like the idea of a window being a frame for the world going by and so I tried, for a second time, to get something going with a series of pictures of the passing countryside through the window of the Link Train I was on.
It's interesting how the light inside the train changed. We were pretty much on the same angle to the sun as the link travels almost due north from Othello to Mount Baker.
But we made it. We've learned that it's better to get off at the Chinatown/International Station rather than the Stadium Station when going to a game. You're a lot closer.
Getting off at Chinatown you cross over 4th Avenue and then you're in the parking lot for CenturyLink...at the north end.
Here's the super long escalator going on up to the little park they have there at the station. And, when this is broken, as the escalators often are, we head for the elevator. And when that's out and there's just the stairs left to get up to street level...we turn around and go home.
Hahahaha, we're lazy...and old, not stupid!!
In a nod towards the small amount of rain Seattle gets, they've covered all the entrances and exits at most of the link stations.
Love the Great American Pacific Northwest, but let's be realistic, it does rain here on occasion. Be prepared, right!?!
I still maintain these over-priced pieces of art(?) look like the electric generators in Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory.
"It's Alive!! Alive!!"
Hahaha, as we prepared to cross 4th Avenue we got this view of Century-Link Stadium. When we arrived, it was the 3rd Quarter and the crowd was LOUD!!
From the same position on the landing, I was able to look to my right and get this shot of The Emerald City . . . with a plane flying overhead.
Planes and Starbucks!! Washington icons . . . oh!! and Microsoft, too!!
And the parking was reasonable!!!
What a bunch of bandits.
There's the Weller Street Bridge over to the (real) train station and the parking lot. Oh, and the big glass box building.
Annnnnnd, here it is, the Weller Street Bridge.
Don't ask me why, I looked on Google (where I verify and get all the street names that I use in the blog) and it just named the bridge but I couldn't find any Weller Street near it. But it's there and it spans the trains lines below that feed into the Seattle King Street Station for AmTrak. And it's awfully handy for those riding the Link to the games at Century-Link.
Because, once you clear the covered walkway, this is the view you get.
Boy, imagine how much it costs to park your car there right in front of the stadium!!
$$$$$$
And there were plenty of people at the game today!!
We've never been to a game, but, evidently, when the SeaHawks score, they shoot off a very loud cannon. We heard it several times as we were making our way towards the stadium. And we heard the crowds. Oh, Boy Howdy, did we ever hear the crowds.
They wuz loud!!
Seriously, it must be painful to the ears to be there, inside Century-Link, for a game.
We can't afford to go in, so we go around the stadium. It was odd, being there while the game was going on. Normally we go for the pre-game atmosphere, the excitement and energy of the crowds as they filter into the stadium.
And it's busy, bustling and full of activity.
Not today. All the folks, well, most of them, were inside already and the scene outside was one of calm anticipation. So the following shots are of the area around the stadium during the lull between the pre-game roar and the post-game din.
Another street shot. Hahaha, you might not be but I am sure enjoying 'seeing' streets with my photographic eye. And I just noticed, for the very first time, that there is a horse, yes, that's right, a full-grown and fully articulated horse above the street light on the left.
I have to investigate.
I will get back to you on this.
The Campanile for the King Street Train Station reflected in the windows of the...I don't know Building.
Hahaha, I just went Google to see if I could find a name on the building. The 'street level' picture that Google has for that area was taken in 2008 and ... it shows a huge parking lot. No building!!
Hahaha, that building isn't that old, evidently.
But it's got a lot of glass!! Yessiree, Bob!! It's got a lot of glass.
And it's fun playing with the different angles.
Carol calls it the 'Box Building' and that's gonna be what I'll refer to it as.
You can see why, can't you!?!
If you love football, baseball, The Emerald City AND you're rich . . . this is the place for you!!
Artsy-Fartsy Alert!!
I couldn't help it. I also (another among my many, many weaknesses vis-a-vis photography), have a penchant for shooting things reflected in standing pools of water gathered up on the ground.
Hey!! It's Art, Man!! Art!!
'How loud was it?'
They loves themselves some noise there and they've even got a machine to register the noise level for the crowd and show them how they're doing.
We are a simple folk. Yes we are.
I took several shots showing them reaching for the red and, although you can't really see it here, they hit it.
They hit it hard.
I was taken aback at how LOUD it was . . . and I was OUTSIDE the stadium.
Same sign but now it's showing a little Hometown Pride for the 'Hawks.
Another view of the inside of the stadium taken from the north end. It's an outdoor arena but they do give a nod to the weather and have some cover for the fans on both sides of the stadium.
It was full.
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| SRO!!! |
Behind the Box Building, again at the north end is this building and, as you can see, it has a viewing platform for those who want to get a feel for and a view of the game in the stadium.
Great idea for a Football Party, right!?!
Food and eats on the inside and, when you want, come on out to the rooftop and catch a glimpse of the goings-on in the stadium.
Ahhhh, the idle rich.
Color me green.
While the area outside the stadium was uncharacteristically empty, there were still a few folks out and about.
Most of them were the guys that work the venue and make the whole thing possible, but there were a couple of others like us . . . just out to soak in the vibes and be a very small participant in the whole drama.
Like this boy, out walking his dog; his dog who is obviously, a SeaHawk Fan!!
Don't worry, his Mom was over to our left watching them as Rover was exploring an attractive lawn area and seeing who among his buddies may have been there recently.
From this angle, it looks like a lazy afternoon on a non-game day.
But, honestly, you could feel the energy even outside the stadium and the noise!! Oh, you could almost feel that as well as hear it. These SeaHawk fans can make themselves some noise. I imagine that they'll be making another attempt at getting the Noisiest Stadium Title back soon.
OK, getting a little Artsy-Fartsy. Carol commented on the 'fingers' of clouds coming out of the South and so I caught this shot of the setting sun and the late afternoon light and the stadium.
So were amblin' along down the street heading towards SafeCo Field and I'm snappin' pictures left and right and we hear this woman yelling at us.
'Take my picture!!'
She's inside the stadium on an upper tier and she's yelling at us to take her picture.
Of course I'll take her picture!! I just wish I had gotten her e-mail address so I could have forwarded it to her.
Hahaha, she helped make the day fun!!
Nice attitude and a fun interlude.
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| #makemyday |
So we continued our amblin' down Occidental Avenue and seeing the sights of the food stands and trucks as they idle along after the first rush and wait for the second rush to begin as the game draws down.
It's colorful, right!?!
And they're OK for the Stadium!!
There's a certain, urban beauty to this scene. And a sense of the entrepreneurship of people. If there is a dollar to be made, then someone will find a way to make it.
There were few people out and about at this time.
Hahaha, even the vendor was inside, probably watching the game.
The sidewalk along the west side of Century-Link. Normally, there'd be lines and crowds of people moving along.
Can you see the lame excuses for decorations (?) and artwork (?) up there on the columns? I think they were faces, heads, I think. Neither of us were sure.
Like us, these folks probably came to see the circus. And get them some Cheap Dogs, too.
Look up to the right . . . see the art pieces on the columns?
Don't ask.
I don't know.
I do know that is SafeCo Field in the distance.
One of the original industrial buildings still left around Century-Link. I'm sure there is someone, somewhere, trying to figure out how to convert this old building into trendy lofts for the hoi polloi.
When I looked at this shot after I got home, I was struck by how much it reminded me of a shot taken during the Great Depression of the 30s.
It has a feel, a look that, to me, suggests the common man's attempt to make some money to feed his family in those desperate times. And of the shabby tents and lean-tos that people built for their shelter as they tried to survive.
It's the impression I got.
See what I mean . . . a 30s Depression scene.
No Great Depression here. The SoDo Grill is ready for the after-game rush.
Have you ever wondered what in the heck 'SoDo' means? What's it stand for? I mean, who names an area SoDo?
OK, here's the backstory . . . SoDo was originally named for being located South of the (King)Dome, but since the stadium's demolition in 2000, the name has been taken to mean South of Downtown.
Ahhh, those crazy, pot-smoking, aging Hippies in The Emerald City.
It's Seattle and so there are always puddles. Always.
And sometimes they present picture possibilities . . . like this one.
Artsy-Fartsy Alert!!
On Occidental Avenue, I got another view of the skyline of Seattle.
One of our favorite buildings is this flat-iron industrial building. It's also the future home of some Tres expensive and ever-so-nifty Condos. The plan is to build lofts on top of the existing building. They'd look, at least as far as the poster they put on the side of the building shows, a lot like the Glass Box Building.
Again, what a great place to live if you love yourself some football, baseball and Emerald City.
There were a lot and I mean an awful lot of those three-wheel bike cabs outside waiting for some business. And they weren't shy about hustling up some business while they waited. We were asked, cajoled and a wee bit of badgered to see if we wanted a ride to . . . anywhere.
From Cheap Dogs, we moved onto Grilled Gourmet Dogs!!
Would You Look At the SIZE of This ONE!!
Hahahaha, and portable ATMs, too!!
It is Autumn, after all, and some of the trees still had their leaves on. These were brilliant reminders of the season.
We'd walked down Occidental and were heading out. I decided to go ahead and walk up to Pioneer Square and catch the Link there. By now it was the Fourth Quarter and pretty soon the crowds would be hustling to get back home and I wanted to be a little bit ahead of the post-game rush.
So we began amblin' on up toward Pioneer Square.
Everybody loves them some SeaHawk Fans!!
OK, the vehicle on the left is like an emergency vehicle but I don't think it really is and the one in the center, beyond the police car, is a guy's camper. There are some really die-hard SeaHawks Fans out there, folks.
#WTH
And as we left, I turned around and got this shot of the crowd. I reached out with my zoom to get in and get an idea of just how many people are there.
Then I backed the lens out a bit for more of a environment picture. This is the north end of Century-Link. And the brilliant trees.
And the noise, even from this distance, was still significant.
But we're leaving and as we walked up Occidental towards Pioneer Square, I grabbed this shot of S. Jackson Street as it heads east uphill. Seattle is built on a lot of hills and sometimes it does, at least for us, give pause as you hoof it around the burg.
I didn't see it until I got home and downloaded the picture but I think it's sorta cool. See the lamppost there on the right? I like the seagull sitting up on top of the center light.
Small things, folks, makes life tasty.
And this. Hahaha, I would like to know the story of why these five kids are lounging outside a bar in Seattle all wearing identical jackets and at least one of them is carrying a color-coordinated umbrella!!
And why is the one lone male inside the bar talking on his cell!?!
What's the deal? Why? Who? What?
Carol suggested they are Cardinal fans. That would help to explain the downcast, forlorn look they all have.
Hahahaha, it gives you pause for thought, n'es pas?
Sticking with our current Bird Phase, I caught these guys in one of the art store window fronts. I get the owl and the hawk on the right but the guy on the left?
Carol thinks crow. I don't know.
What do you think?
As we walked, we were able to catch some of the Fourth Quarter action. I know you won't be surprised but I admit, I was mildly surprised to see that the bars around the stadium were pretty much full of fans, too!!
I'm wondering, do people actually travel downtown just to watch the game on TV near the stadium? OK, on the surface, I'm gonna have to say, Yeah, they do.
Cause most of the bars we ambled by were pretty much full.
Now, look just below and slightly to the right of the BIG TV SCREENS. Can you see a source of wounded civic pride and sports fans outrage?
A real sore point in Seattle Sports is . . .
. . . This continuing, festering, ulcerous and still painful sore!!
The loss of the Seattle Super-Sonics!!
Hahahaha, Seattle is still pissed about that!!
#getoverit
Crossing Main St going into Occidental Park, we saw evidence of Seattle's future...Big Bertha, the Amazing Dollar-Eating, Time-Consuming and Traffic-Impediment Boondoggle!!
Hahaha, Big Bertha is the Ginormous Boring Machine that broke down shortly after it got started and then had to halt because they found some sea shells that the indigenous folks may have once touched and then they found out it was only some white guys so it was OK and they started again. Until the next Foo-Fer-Rah at least.
Hahaha, it will be finished!!
#notinmylifetime
(You can all thank my daughter, Michelle, for my obnoxious abuse of the hash-tags thingie. #thanksmichelle)
Afternoon light on some old brick buildings. When Carol and I amble, we both look like we just came in from the North Forty because our heads are always swiveling around, looking up at the buildings and pointing a lot at this and that.
Typical Tourists!!
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| Look it there, Mabel!! |
Sports Bar Reflected Window Selfie!!
Yet another bar, full of folks, all watching the game.
And us, too.
And here they are, our Seattle Seahawks!!
Kickin' some Cardinal Butt!!
Amblin' Along Selfie!!
The old building kitty-korner from Pioneer Square.
That rough faced rock exterior? That's called a Rusticated Wall because the unfinished rock is left exposed.
Architecture for Dummies!!
You betcha!!
Although rustication was first used in Roman architecture, the method first became popular during the Renaissance, when the stone work of lower floors and sometime entire facades of buildings were finished in this manner.
During the 18th century, following the Palladian revival, rustication was widely used on the ground floors of large buildings, as its contrived appearance of simplicity and solidity contrasted well to the carved ornamental stonework and columns of the floors above.
Rustication is often used to give visual weight to the ground floor in contrast to the smooth ashlar above it.
(Ashlar is finely dressed, (cut, worked) masonry, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared or the masonry built of such stone. It is the finest stone masonry unit, generally cuboid or, less frequently, trapezoidal.)
By now, I was getting a bit thirsty and so we stopped into Seattle's Oldest Restaurant, the Merchants Cafe for a refreshing Adult Beverage.
At least for me. Carol got a Coke.
Fun Trivia Fact: The bar made the trip around the Horn way back when!!
And the chandeliers are really Tiffany Lamps.
Oh, and the ceiling . . . the original pattern.
Totally cool!!
And the beer, a PBR, was cold and tasty!!
Coming out of the Merchants Cafe, I took a moment crossing Yeller Way to grab this shot of the Puget Sound and the Alaskan Way Viaduct.
This street has some history . . . it was created to serve Henry Yesler's sawmill on Elliott Bay, and was originally called Mill Street. Legend has it that logs were once dragged down it form First Hill, giving it the nickname "Skid Road." Early in Seattle's history, Yesler Way became a moral divide separating a southern vice district of saloons and brothels from 'respectable' areas on the north. The Rev. Mark Matthews, a crusading reformer and prohibitionist, popularized the phrase Skid Row in the 20s to dramatize the sinful ways and traps south of Yesler.
Yesler Way also divided the pioneer claims of Arthur Denny and Carson Boren on the north and David 'Doc' Maynard (his wife introduced dandelions to the Great American Pacific Northwest) on the south. When Denny and Maynard sat down to draw up the first plats for Seattle in May, 1853, they could not agree on the orientation of the street grid. Denny later grumbled that Maynard, 'stimulated with liquor,' had decided he was 'not only monarch of all he surveyed, but of what Boren and I surveyed, too.' Their spat survives in the tangled intersections along Yesler Way today.
The light was right. The building detail and the old ads painted on the buildings. Cool.
And, finally, back to the Link Station at Pioneer Square.
OK, the game is over and we were already seeing some of the fans heading uptown. So we got on the Link at Pioneer Square and it looked like this.
Next stop was Chinatown/International and it were getting crowded!!!
By the time we left Stadium Station, it was packed!!
Funny story, see the blonde woman in the foreground? She was involved in an animated conversation with her friends and for some reason unknown to me suddenly and urgently needed to know the name of a 'long musical instrument!! The one Mitch Miller played!!'
Me: 'Saxaphone!!'
Her: 'NO!!'
Me: 'Trombone!!'
Her: 'NO!! You know, the wooden one!!'
Me, getting frustrated: 'Oh, how about an Oboe!?!'
Her: 'Yeah!! That's it!! An Oboe!!'
Hahaha, Link Trivia!! Nailed it!!
#triviawizard
Pensive Carol.
And the evening sky with the setting sun as we ambled on home after a fun day rooting for the Seahawks who, by the way, won their game, 19-3.
#suckitcardinals
You make your fun as you go along and the amount of fun you have is equal to the amount of effort you put into it. The day could have gone so many different ways and, truth, even the trip down to the game could have been quite different but, bottom line, you put in some small work and you make some great times and even greater memories.
Life is good.
Hooah!!
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