It all started for me with a text message -
The day started just like any other day, my husband had worked an excessive amount of hours over the weekend so he took Tuesday off. We were in Bellingham running errands and going for a relaxing drive when I got a text message from my daughter Melissa. Would I want to go to the Seahawks Victory parade with her and her girls? How could I pass that up, being the huge Seahawks fan that I am. Of course I said "yes"!! We drove home and I hastily packed for my trip and drove to Snohomish. When I got to Melissa's house we formulated a plan for the next day. We needed to make sure that everyone stayed warm as we've been having a cold snap and the forecast was for temps in the high 20's.
We packed blankets, hats, scarves, gloves, enough food and Tp ;-) just in case the traffic to and from was epic. Our plan was to leave her house by 6 am, even though the parade was scheduled for 11 am. Since we were taking her girls we wanted to make sure we could get a front row seat.
We got up at 5 and grabbed a quick breakfast and got everyone in double layers and wala we were out of the house by 5:30. Yahoo!!
The traffic wasn't any worse than a typical rush hour flow, so we got in the carpool lane on the freeway and cruised on in to town. We were concerned about where to park since we didn't want the girls to have to walk too far, luckily we found the Pike Street Market parking garage was open. They have a $23 dollar all day fee. Things were definitely going our way!
We gathered up our armload of blankets and put the food etc. in the pack that I brought to wear and off we went. After stopping off at Starbucks to get the girls hot cocoa's and coffee's for us, we walked up to 4th avenue to find just the right spot on the parade route.
We were surprised to see that people had put out chairs and blankets the night before to save their places.
We finally found an empty spot on the curb, between Stewart and Virginia streets. At 6:30 am we staked out our spot, it even had a port a potty just across the street - bonus!
Melissa waving at me across the street!
I handed out the hand warmers that I had brought -
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| yay for the hand warmers, brrrr it was 18 degrees when we got there. |
Then we settled in to accomplish our mission: stay warm and enjoy our front row spots for the parade.
Luckily there were plenty of coffee shops nearby and a hardware store was open just across the street. So my daughter and I took turns walking with the girls to get their blood flowing again/to visit the port a potty and to go into the store for a bit of warmth while the other part of our group saved our spot on the curb.
My granddaughter working on staying warm.
Eventually the crowds started pouring in and pushing us forward. We started on the curb and ended up standing almost on the white lane line.
The parade had a one hour delay because some of the team members couldn't get to the parade start area. So we spent about 5 1/2 waiting for it to begin.
Here's some of my favorite pictures from our day -
The first vehicles that came by carried the players family and entourages.
Marshawn Lynch on the Duck tour vehicle that carried the Sea Gals. He was definitely enjoying himself.
Then the Seahawks fan band, enjoy my video -
Then coach Pete Carroll -
Russell Wilson -
Golden Tate -
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| Golden Tate is the one in the back with his left arm up |
and my favorite "Richard Sherman" looking right our way! -
We found out that my nephew from Olympia was heading up to watch the parade. He was leaving from Tacoma on the Sounder train. I texted him and told him we'd save a spot for him. He made it with plenty of time to spare (since the parade had been delayed).
Our happy group!
We found out when we got back to the parking garage we had arrived early enough to get the early bird fee of $6!
Our luck held for the drive home, since the rally was taking place after the parade in the Century Link stadium and overflow in the
Safeco stadium the traffic wasn't too bad.
Our luck held for the drive home, since the rally was taking place after the parade in the Century Link stadium and overflow in the
Safeco stadium the traffic wasn't too bad.
We got back to my daughter's house by 4pm, no traffic delays whatsoever!
I immensely enjoyed doing my part to represent the 12th man at the day's parade.
So to wrap it up I'll end with this video -
"What does the Hawk say? - Win, Win, Win, Win, Win, Win, Win"!
thanks for the text message Tuesday, Melissa!
"GO HAWKS"
