With another eventful day behind us, we’re packing up and heading south this afternoon to Portland. Shouldn’t be too bad of a drive — about 175 miles. First though, we’re going to take Andrea out to brunch to thank her for a great stay here in Seattle.
After our bar-hopping adventure Friday night, we slept in yesterday, waking up to go to lunch at the famous Pike Place Market, along the water in downtown Seattle. Grabbed amazing blackened salmon sandwiches at a place called the Market Grill, before walking around the area. Didn’t see any fish fly, but did get some great shots near the water.
We drove around downtown a little bit, stopping off at a large sculpture garden by the Seattle Art Museum, on our way to the Space Needle, for a bus/boat tour called “Ride the Ducks.” Andrea and her friends had never done it before, so it was a first for everyone.
The “ducks” are these amphibious vehicles from WWII that can run on the roads and drive through the water. The 90-minute ride first wound through downtown, which we had already seen a lot of, but ended up over the Aurora Bridge, in through Fremont and into Lake Union — with great views of the surrounding area and of the skyline.
For all the bad weather we’ve had so far, it has been around 60 and sunny since we arrived — the perfect day for such a tour and a baseball game.
We got to Safeco Field about twenty minutes before the 7 o’clock start. Our seats were on the first baseline, high enough to give us a perfect view of the downtown skyline, sandwiched between the Space Needle and Qwest Field.
The Nationals scored one each in the 1st and 4th, before solo shots by Vidro and Beltre in the bottom of the 4th tied the game. But a two-run Flores home run in the 7th, and a Belliard RBI double in the the 9th, iced it for the Nationals, who won 5-2. Rauch, whom John spoke to the night before at Cowgirls, struck out the side in the bottom of the 9th for the save.
The loss broke our streak of home team wins, but was good to go to nonetheless. The park definitely ranks in my top 5 for now.
We got back to Andrea’s a little before 11, where she was with a few friends, drinking the Absolut Mango we had brought from the border. We were all going to go out around her neighborhood in Capitol Hill, but ended up just having some drinks and hanging out here all night, practicing our hula hooping and playing the surprisingly difficult Donkey Konga on GameCube.
We have about 800 miles to cover over the next three days, but it should be split up pretty evenly. Wednesday is our next game in San Francisco, where Chris will be flying in from New York to meet us and drive down the coast with us.
Hilarity will ensue.
The Phallic Road Trip 
I’m I supposed to be planning anything for this? I have a guidebook, but not the patience to read it.