SEATTLE

Doug & I went to Seattle for the Nebraska v. Washington football game in September. Doug's brother lives in Seattle and Doug's parents arranged to go (as well as Doug's Aunt Jodi - Eric's mom) and see him and we tagged along (even though we were on different flights on different days). My mom watched the kids back in Nebraska. The kids had a blast with Grandma, while we had fun on our trip! Doug & I flew out of Omaha with Doug's cousin Eric on Friday morning at 5:00am. We arrived in Seattle at about 10am (PST). We were able to find our way through the airport and onto the train that headed downtown to our hotel. After dropping off our luggage, we walked down to Pike's Market to meet Greg, Jim, Sandy & Jodi. We walked around the market before meeting up with them and saw all kinds of fish, flowers, and fruit! The fish were huge and it was fun to see the workers throw the fish to each other to be packaged when they were purchased! The flowers were SO beautiful - and SO cheap! And the fruit was DELICIOUS!

We ate lunch in a place in the market that was really good. And then Doug, Eric, & I walked with Greg to his Zip Car (Greg doesn't have a car out in Seattle because the buses are so good - but he can get a Zip Car - kind of like a rental car - for a day). We drove to the Ballard Lockes to see the boats go from the Puget Sound to Lake Washington. They raise the water in the "locke" to be at the same level as the lakes and then the boat is able to go in the water of the lake. The fish ladders were also down in this area. We didn't get to see any fish jump the ladders, as it seemed they were too tired that late in the day. :) We drove to Greg's condo and met Nick. We got a tour of the roof which has an amazing view! The huge planters on the roof actually came from Pender, NE! (Small World!!) Then we drove downtown to pick up Jim, Sandy, & Jodi. Nick drove one Zip Car & Greg drove another one. We all headed out to the suburbs to meet up with Jim & Sandy's high school classmates Rick & Lori. They cooked a wonderful supper for all of us Nebraska fans and a few of their friends that were Washington fans. We even got to meet Jon Brockman of the Milwaukee Bucks (NBA team) that graduated from Washington and his parents are neighbors to Rick & Lori!

Saturday we got up early and walked to Starbucks for some hot chocolate! And then got on a bus to head towards campus! We tried to have a drink at a bar down in the University district, but there were too may Husker fans and not enough waiters. So, we decided to walk to the stadium early and get in line for our seats! We got our picture taken by the big Husker Semitruck! We were on of the first people in line for our general admission seats! And because of that, we got GREAT seats!! We had the back row and we could see the water from our seats! The game was a lot of fun!! We sat by a fun group of guys and one played quarterback for the football team at Missouri Valley College! I even saw a few "Humboldt" Husker fans (2 guys that went to my high school)! The best part was that we won the game 56 - 21!

After the game we got back on a bus and headed downtown. We ate at "Vonns" - a restaurant with the walls covered in beer taps and we met our whole party there. Greg had a few Seattle Husker fans with him, and Rick & Lori also met us there. After supper, we all went back to the hotel and Jim, Sandy, & Jodi got ready to leave for the airport (they had a 12:50am flight back to Omaha). Doug, Eric, & I met up with our friend Joel - who was also in town for the game. We had a few drinks and then Joel had to head back to his hotel to get some sleep because he flew out at 6:00am the next morning. Doug, Eric, & I walked around and found another bar to have a drink at, and then we called it a night.

On Sunday, Doug & I got up and went to the Space Needle. It was raining pretty hard while we were up at the top, but we still had a good view even if we got a wet! We picked up a few souvenirs for the kids and then headed back to the downtown area for lunch. We found a sports bar where we could watch NFL football until we needed to check out of our hotel at 1:00pm. We walked back to the hotel and checked out and Eric joined us as we walked around most of downtown Seattle. We're pretty sure we walked at least 7 or 8 miles that day! We walked down to the water front and then all the way to Safeco Field (where the Seattle Mariners (MLB) play and Quest Field (where the Seattle Seahawks (NFL) and Seattle Sounders (Major League Soccer - MLS) play. Then we walked back through China Town and finally found our way back our hotel area. We then walked back down to the water front so I could try to find something else for the kids. We didn't find anything, but we decided to eat at Hard Rock Cafe for supper. Then we walked back to that sports bar and watched football until we needed to leave for the airport. Our flight left at 12:50am that night. We spent about 3-4 hours in the airport because we didn't have anything else to do. Lots of other Husker fans did the same thing. For some reason I couldn't sleep on the plane, but Eric & Doug could. So, was the most restless. We flew to Minneapolis first and then went on to Omaha. We got to Omaha at 8:30am and then when we got to our car - it didn't start! The battery was dead! We got a jump from the airport maintenance man and headed home! It was a fun trip, but we were both very sleep deprived!