July23

Seattle, Part Three: Trainspotting

Day three. Today I couldn't focus that well. I was excited that some of my family (Lisa and Chris, my cousin from Denver and her husband, and Garrett, my brother) was coming into town and for the fact that I was going to go see a Mariners game in the evening.

The conference itself was a bit too nerdy today. Yesterday was nerdy enough and I can only take so much of nerdy things... yes, some might argue that I, myself, am a nerd... but c'mon, I'm cool. Today's classes at the conference were focused on Photoshop techniques: how to use the blending features, tips n' tricks, etc. There was some really cool stuff that I learned today, but like the speakers said, "you'll probably only use this once, ever." Hmmm, so why did you spend 15 minutes telling me about it?

Yes, so, I couldn't focus. And then, to make things worse, I get a phone call an hour before the conference lunch break. It was Lisa, they had made it in and were heading downtown. Cool, no big deal. I'll just finish up the afternoon sessions... err, wait... uh... wait. I've got copies of all the conference notes, PLUS all of the sessions are being video taped... long story short, the nerds were without Seth this afternoon.

I met up with the gang (Lisa, Chris, Garrett, Nadine, Karen, and Cathy) at the Space Needle – fyi, the Monorail isn't working right now, there was caught fire in May and they're fixing it. Chris and I came to the conclusion that we need to build something like the space needle... at $13 a pop for people to go up to the observation deck, we'd make a fortune. [Quick Math Problem: If 4,000 people went up the Needle a day, that's $52k]

From there, we hiked down to Pike Place Market to wander around in the United State's longest running city market. Also down in the Pike Place area, we saw the famous flying fish place and the first ever Starbucks store. I know, exciting. We had happy-hour supper at Pike Place Bar & Grill and then I was off to the Mariners game.

Safeco Field is amazing. It took me roughly 15 minutes to walk to the stadium from Pike Place and it was only at the end of the walk when I was out of downtown. The Mariners themselves are in the same boat as the Royals, meaning, not good. So, with the Oakland A's in town, I wasn't expecting too much. [Side Note: Mariners won 4-2]

The game took a quick backseat to another event that happened right out of the stadium. You see, the stadium is built over, literally over, some train tracks (it's just the gigantic retractable roof, but still a part of the stadium). And throughout the game, you can hear trains go through, especially when they lay on the horn.

In the third inning, another train was coming through, but it wouldn't stop blowing its whistle. In fact, it kept getting louder and louder, and everyone where I was sitting were holding their ears (my seat was in deep center field). Keeping an eye on the game, I wasn't about to be distracted by a silly train, until there was no one sitting next to me two minutes later.

I got up to see what all the commotion was about, and on all of the balconies were about 200 fans overlooking the railroad tracks where a train had stopped. The train wasn't moving because a guy had walked out in front of it and was hit. I don't know much more than that... the paramedics, police, and fire department all rushed to the scene and carted the guy off. Still, pretty scary.

So, if you're walking around train tracks, listen for the whistle... or else.

+ original post date: July 23, 2004 01:04 AM
+ categories: Travel/Vacations