Parade Day

What a day! Yesterday I joined over 700,000 people crammed into downtown Seattle to celebrate the Seahawks parade. It was madness, it was cold, it was crowded, but is a memory I'll have for a long time. I don't think I've done that much walking in a long time, however...

Click here for all the pictures - NOTE - Pics were tough on this day...I'm short, and well, er, uh, everyone else is tall(er). Oh well.


If you're curious about my day, keep reading...

David dropped me at the Mercer Island Park and Ride a little after 8:00 AM and I hopped the 550 and headed straight to King Street Station right by Clink Stadium. From there, here was the my day, roughly...

• Walked from King St to Clink to the Team Stores down there...(it was so crowded, you couldn't move at spots)
• Walked from Clink, North on 1st AVE (which was much less crowded). I was looking for a coffee or bkfst, but every place was so packed I didn't want to stand in line for 45 minutes...so I wandered.
• Walked Eventually went as far as Pike, then back, looking for a place to camp out - it was only about 9:30 AM but already the parade route on 4th AVE was wall to wall people.
• About 10:15 I found my spot on 4th AVE, between Seneca and Spring.
• Then we waited...and waited...and waited (and froze). The parade didn't get to us until about 12:45...and finished about 1:15 or so.

STOP - go outside, make sure the temp is about 25, draw a 2' x 2' square. Now stand in it and don't move for 3 hours. Make sure you're surrounded by people touching your shoulders, and add a light wind to make it feel even colder. We were FREEZING!!!

• After the parade passed I found the coolest irish pub that hadn't filled up yet, down on 1st AVE. Ate lunch and warmed up.
• Then I walked all the way past Clink, to Safeco, and got in thanks to someone who was leaving and gave me their ticket.
• After the program ended (I got to see about the last 20 minutes of it), I headed to King St. station to hop the bus home. MISTAKE - to say it was crowded doesn't even begin to describe how long the line was.
• So I wandered, and found Pioneer Station - same thing
• More walking, to Pike Station - same thing...I actually stood in line here for 30 minutes, then gave up.
• More walking, to Westlake Station - same thing...incredibly long lines
• Walked into Westlake Center, thought about just camping out somewhere but I wasn't hungry yet so headed back out...
• Went into Pacific Place...
• Went passed the Paramount, and saw yet another Bus station...headed down, and LUCKED OUT - looked down from above, NO LINES. And my 550 bus was sitting right there. I ran down, jumped on, and realized I'd found the starting point for that bus. Sure enough, we proceeded to drive through all those stations and the bus completely filled up with people soon enough.

To top it off, my cell phone battery was dead so I got dropped in Bellevue but had to walk to find a phone...(since the advent of cell-phones, pay phones are VERY hard to come by). Got picked up by my bro and thus ended my day.