BYU Seattle Boys Trip!

To support their "Men in Blue" nearly 10,000 BYU fans made the trek to Husky Stadium, Saturday September 6, 2008. Among those present were the most loyal of loyal fans, Ron Beach, Milt Moody, Travis, Treavor and Grandpa! We saw many other loyal fans there including Bubba and his wife Brittany, Todd Stout, and many, many others.
Our trip began Thursday, arriving in Seattle in the late afternoon just in time to do some "birding" near Husky Stadium. Milt is our resident expert and could identify every bird we saw! He is the Webmaster of the Utah Birding Organization! We ate at Ivar's Seafood that night which is a local seafood chain!

Friday was sightseeing day! We drove from our hotel in Belluvue to downtown Seattle where we were entertained for a couple of hours in an hilarious tour through the old part of Seattle referred to as the "underground"! We learned about the early days of Seattle including the seamstress industry and "Seattle Spirit"! You will have to ask one of us what that means later! Next we walked to the waterfront on Puget Sound, had lunch at Anthony's on the Sound then toured Pikes Market Place which is famous for throwing their fish orders from the display case to the cashier. We then went to the Seattle Space Needle which I had visited with my family 46 years earlier during the 1962 World's Fair. What is really funny is that Milt was at the same World's Fair with his family. Maybe we bumped into each other back then? After the Space Needle we drove to the Ballard Locks to observe the large yachts and ships be raised and lowered between Lake Union (fresh water) and the Puget Sound (sea water). Very fascinating! They also had a fish ladder there for the various types of salmon to return to spawn were they were born. To complete a near perfect weather day and touring day we had dinner at "Ray's Boathouse" on the Puget Sound. It is listed as one of the "1000 places to visit before you die"! One comment said to miss Ray's would be like going to Paris and not visiting the Eiffel Tower! The views and food were amazing!

Saturday was of course "game day"! The game was at noon but we were at the stadium a little after 9 AM. The BYU Alumni location had not even finished setting up near the Stadium before we got there. Notice how many tailgaters were already there for their Huskies. That was about one fifth of the total! They really make a day of it.
Before the game, we visited the Legand's Hall, the Boathouse, the BYU tailgate party and walked around the stadium. It really is one of the most beautiful settings in College Football. Almost as beautiful as Provo!

For those of you who watched the game, you know how exciting it was. We had terrible seats about one hundred yards behind the west goal posts but we didn't care. There were a lot of BYU fans there and the Washington fans were for the most part very cordial. They cheered hard for their Huskies but fell one point short on the last play. We listened to the post game comments from their radio station which was quite entertaining. Later we watched SportsCenter and they had several shots and many commentaries about the game and the unsportsmanlike penalty at the end.

Sunday, we attended Church at the Belluvue 6th Ward, drove by the Seattle Temple, went birding again at the Kent Ponds and then drove to the airport where we played a little Truco! An added benefit to the trip was that we followed the Dodger v. Dback series which the Dodgers swept three games to none so now the Dodgers are in first place in the National League West. We also introduced Ron and Milt to Brian Reagan! They thought he was hilarious. Fabulous trip - special thanks to Sara for letting Treavor come and not having a baby, to Kim for holding down the ship while Travis was gone and to Kathryn for her unending support of Grandpa's sports addictions. I am not sure who to thank for letting Ron and Milt come? We love you all!