Seattle-part 1

After 2 yrs of not having a family vacation, we finally got one! Yahoo!! Originally we were going to go to Washington DC in September so that we could see the sights and then go to the BSU vs. Virginia Tech football game. It would have been TONS of fun, but after all that I had been through this year with my health we decided that we couldn't afford the trip and that it would be hard (but not impossible) to travel with oxygen and all my other medical equipment clear across the country. A big factor in deciding where we were going to go was my oxygen equipment. Norco medical is in several states in the northwest, so we thought that it would be easier to go where their service area is since they are the company that works with us and has my medical history. As we were thinking about different cities to go to, Seattle was on the list because I had never been there before. Knowing that Curtis is a huge Cub fan, I asked him if the Cubs ever played in Seattle. He told me that they didn't normally play there, but when he looked up their schedule, he was excited to see that this year the Cubs and Mariners played each other. The final deciding factor for us going to Seattle was that the Cubs were playing the Mariners IN Seattle ON Curtis' birthday. So, Happy Birthday to Curtis....we were getting our long awaited vacation and we were going to a Cubs game on his 32nd birthday. :o)



Mon. June 21st: we packed up everything and drove to Seattle (about an 8 hr drive)

Here is all of the oxygen equipment we had to take. L-small oxygen concentrator to use in our hotel room. Middle-my normal portable tank that I fill up and carry around when I leave the house. R-the liquid oxygen tank that we took to fill up the "small" tank so that I could walk around the city and see the sights.

The "kids" all seat-belted into the car and ready to drive to Seattle.

Our really nice and spacious hotel room. It also had a closet, refrigerator and microwave.

Tues. June 22nd: We took a trip up to the top of the space needle. It was a very beautiful sight but boy did it mess with my balance problems. However I was prepared for this. Throughout our vacation Curtis carried my oxygen tank and I brought my cane along. I'm sure it was a funny/interesting sight, but it helped me to enjoy everything we saw/did and that is all that matters.

The famous Space Needle

Smile!

what a view!

After the Space Needle we had lunch and then we went to the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction museum (2 museum's in 1 building). We went to the Music part first. They had many displays on the history of music, recording rooms where you could go and have a jam session and then have it put on a CD (for a price of course), and many other music related things. Unfortunately while we were there we discovered that my oxygen tank was out of oxygen and I was starting to go down-hill, so we didn't get to see all of the music stuff and didn't get to go into the Science Fiction museum (it would have been cool though because they had stuff for Star Trek, Star Wars and other futuristic stuff). We realized after we left the museum and called Norco that my tank was not broken, we had just not filled it up all the way (a mistake we didn't make again the rest of the trip!!!)

This was a pretty cool display at the Experience Music Project Museum

Wed. June 23rd: Happy 32nd Birthday Curtis!!! We decided that since we were staying about 20 min. outside of Seattle, we didn't want to drive into the city twice in one day, so we stayed in Federal Way, WA and had a nice slow relaxing day before the "big game". We went to the Mall next to our hotel and did some window shopping. The mall also had a movie theater in it and we decided to watch Toy Story 3 (which is absolutely hilarious!!!) After the movie we had a small dinner and then got ready to go to the Cubs game! Curtis decided to spend a few extra dollars to get us accessible seating in the ball park, so we were on the bottom level at the top row. (this was mainly so that we could hop on the elevator up to our seats and I didn't have to go up, or down, any stairs; which also helped me to not have any balance/dizziness problems and I was able to enjoy the game) We were on the 3rd base side.

Watching the Cubs warm up for the game

getting the field ready

All ready for the game!

(this was my first MLB game and it was tons of fun!)

Apolo Anton Ono threw the first pitch of the game

Randy Wells was the starting pitcher for the Cubs

2nd inning: Tyler Colvin hits a Home Run for the Cubs!!!!

(fun side note: he played for the Boise Hawks a few years ago)

Unfortunately this was the only time that the Cubs were ahead during the game. The Mariners won 8-1. Despite Curtis' frustration during the game that his team wasn't doing so well, we were both able to enjoy the game. The pitcher for the Mariners that night is one of the top 5 pitchers in the nation. Just to give you an idea, he threw over 100 pitches for the night and about 80% of them were strikes! Every time Curtis has gone to watch a Cubs game they have lost and the very next day they win, and this time was no different...if Curtis goes to enough of their games, "statistically speaking, they should win at some point". (that is quoted directly from Curtis...)

Our view of the field!

I had a lot of fun at my first MLB game. The Cub fans were there in huge numbers and were just as crazy as Curtis described them, and it was a lot of fun to see and experience (especially when they were still shouting and cheering for their team clear until the end of the game, despite the score). I've never been a huge baseball fan, but it is TONS of fun to watch it in person! Maybe next time we can watch a Cubs game in Chicago!