Baseball and Ice Cream

Day 0 OK, first thing. Warm clothes take up much more space. Somehow we have more luggage for this cruise than we did for the 2 week Hawaii cruise. Fortunately we made good use of luggage carts and bellmen, and got all 5 bags (plus 2 carryons) safely from home to hotel. Once we got to the hotel it was pretty much time to head out to Safeco field. Dave had discovered last night that the Dodgers were in town for interleague play, and we went on line and found affordable seats that looked like they’d be pretty good. We took cab to the park from our hotel (didn’t know you could hit 50 mph in downtown Seattle, but apparently you can) and our seats were only a couple sections from the entrance. And they were amazing seats – usually when we go to a game I feel like we’d see it better at home on the TV, but these seats were practically on top of the Dodger’s dugout. And Clayton Kershaw was pitching for the Dodgers. It was a good game too, with a couple home runs, 3 double plays, and even a double steal. Dodgers win 8-3. Also instead of the loud drunk people we always end up sitting in front of, we had a row or two of older gentlemen and their sons who were both knowledgeable and very funny – better than many professional commentators. All in all probably the most fun game I’ve ever been to. Then we took a cab to Elliot’s on the waterfront, where even though we were a half hour early for our reservation and even though they were jammed, we got seated almost immediately. The food was very well prepared and very tasty, although no really outstanding flavor combinations. We started with a dozen oysters. Dave had the Copper River sockeye salmon, and I had crabcakes and a smoked salmon spinach salad. The crabcakes were perfectly seared. What was outstanding was the dessert – an espresso icecream with espresso bean-chocolate flakes. Absolutely irresistible. Dave also had some PX, which made him happy. I still think you might as well have a glass of Nyquil. Meanwhile outside our window a large sightseeing boat was loading up with what seemed like about 200 kids for prom. It was great theater watching them walk down the gangplank, then stop and have their pictures taken. The two slim young Asian women sitting at the table below us by the window, who ordered and consumed an extraordinary amount of food, also got sucked into watching it. It was really addictive. We finished the evening with a nice 7 block walk up (and I do mean up) to our hotel, including one block which was stairs. Dave stapled our luggage tags onto our bags and we did some reorganizing, and now it’s off to bed so that tomorrow will come more quickly.