the pastor and the librarian rock Seattle

I had the good fortune of being able to take my best friend Andy down to Seattle to see the Seahawks play the Washington Redskins (his favourite professional sports team ever and that's saying a lot considering he is sports obsessed) on November 23rd. We took the Clipper down on the Saturday night, stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights and then returned to Vic City on the Monday morning Clipper.

Going through Customs was a lot of fun as we have the two most seemingly innocuous professions out there: minister and librarian. We were waved through pretty quickly when we played those cards! The hotel we stayed in was pretty...classic. Hot water? Yeah, not really. TV that worked? Ditto. Huge strip club across the street with giant, piercingly bright neon signs that cut through the black drapes? You bet! When we saw the latter, we both burst out laughing and it didn't stop for awhile...

The day of the game was something I'll never forget. We walked down to Qwest Field a couple hours early and met up with Andy's friend Kevin in the tailgate parties:


I had never seen anything like this circus in my life. There were literally vehicles (such as an old ambulance) that had been converted into tailgate party vehicles. People were drinking beer, flipping burgers and dogs, and munching on a variety of different snacks. Music was pumping and I was lost in a sea of blue (Seahawks jerseys!). Thankfully, most people were very friendly and when Andy walked into the aformentioned sea, no one gave him anything more than some pointed glares. Here I am doing my best (and failing miserably) to look like a badass in my Seahawks hat:


I bought said hat (in Victoria) as a security measure: I was not keen to get my butt kicked for being with Number One Redskins Fan (see above pic) and I wanted security to be kind to me when/if N.O.R.F. was getting pounded by Seahawk rowdies. Andy is the "throw all caution to the wind" side of our friendship. I tend to be the "think of every possible scenario and do your best to make sure the worst doesn't happen while taking care of Andy and appearing to be completely relaxed" guy. Plus, I promised his wife (and my own) that I would take care of us because we all knew that he was going to be too delirious with excitement to display any kind of common sense at the game.

Check out this (very drunk) guy, from Surrey, who made a point of letting us know that he had marijuana stashed in his pillowcase:


Yeah, he was a special one.

Quest Field was absolutely amazing and the two of us were totally awed by the sheer scope of it. It was a bloody zoo too! When we got in there, the Redskins were were warming up so we had a look at our seats and then headed down to field level to take pics and video. Here are some shots I captured of the stadium, the warm-up, and, of course, Andy in all his glory:








And then the game began. To make a long story short, our original seats were pretty good ones in the 200s, but no one showed up to these two aisle seats in the seventh row at the 30-yard line behind the Redskins bench, so we had incredible seats for the entire thing!

Andy wasted no time shrieking and yelling for the 'Skins, including pulling out twin cowbells and shaking them like a drunken belly dancer. The cowbells were a no-no and security came to tell him to put them away. He was also accused of drunkenness (after 1/4 of a beer, the only one he had that day) and we're pretty sure that he was mistaken for the very drunk Redskins fan beside him, who could barely stand. All-in-all, Andy was spoken to twice by security and once by a sheriff--not bad for a day's work. I, happily, was not guilty by association and was not spoken to once, other than being patted on the back and high-fived a number of times by Seahawks fans that were trying to get under Andy's skin since they knew I was with him. Here are some photos of N.O.R.F. in full flight:





Much to Andy's delight, the Redskins won the game, 20-17, helped by an interception thrown my Seahawks quarterback Matt Hasselbeck right at the end of the game when he had a chance to get the Seahawks in a position to score. This sent the many Redskins fans in our section into fits of ecstasy, including Andy, as you can see in the picture directly above. An interesting side note: the man and his son that were sitting directly behind (see picture below) were the cousins of Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell, up from Oakland to catch their famous family member in action:


We had a great time in Seattle and it was nice for the two of us to be able to hang out together--the reality of marriages, families, and careers have made those times fewer and further between for N.O.R.F and I. I hope that we'll be able to make some kind of tradition! The following shots are one of the things I remember about the weekend: Andy eats/snacks constantly and these catch him at his best in that state of perpetual consumption:




Andy, I'm glad you had such a good weekend and enjoyed the game so much--it was probably the best birthday present I could have thought of and just seeing your face throughout that Sunday afternoon was worth every penny! Thanks to our lovely wives, Jennie-Lynne and Caitlin, for allowing their men to head off for a couple days and enjoy some memorable times and some exciting football!