Thursday, September 12 - Thursday, September 19, 2019
A great American Football weekend and a fun wedding anniversary party for two of our dear friends was in the offing in the Pacific Northwest this past weekend.
We just had to make the trip!
The game was between the
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors (2-0)
and the
Washington Huskies (1-1)
Hawaii, though unranked, had beaten two PAC-12 teams to start their season. At home, they had defeated Arizona 45-38 and Oregon State 31-28.
As for the Dawgs, after beating Eastern Washington 47-14, the Huskies suffered a tough PAC-12 opening loss to California by a final tally of 20-19.
The Huskies needed to play a much more inspired game to get their season back on track.
On Friday morning we arrived
at Sea-Tac Airport
We were staying with our long time friends Mark and Susie Johnson who had also been hosting some friends of theirs named Joy and Bruce who are from the United Kingdom.
In the afternoon, while the ladies decided do do a little shopping, Mark, Bruce and I headed about 30 minutes north of Seattle to the Boeing plane factory that is housed in the world's largest building.
It was a fascinating tour but no photos were allowed in the building.
Dinner at Ray's Boathouse
FABULOUS!
GAME DAY!
The Johnson's home sits on the
Montlake Cut that unites Portage Bay
to Lake Washington
Up goes the Montlake Bridge
House Boat Culture
The Johnson's own several properties throughout the general Seattle area including a house boat.
Their friend Joe and his wife and his daughter currently reside in the Johnson house boat.
Since our game didn't kickoff until 4:30 p.m., we took Joe up on his offer to show us around Portage Bay and Lake Union in his boat in the morning.
Joe at the helm
Ivar's Salmon House
Good seafood here, but not today.
Multi-level boat parking lot
The Seattle skyline
The house boat used in the movie
Sleepless in Seattle
A hot tub boat,
GREAT IDEA!
A touch of Cuba in Seattle
Sea planes use
Lake Union quite often
Native American Fishing Rights
in action!
Joe did a great job as our tour guide, THANK YOU!
On to the game . . .
Tailgating is a HUGE part
of any college football game day
At Washington, we also have Sailgating
Lots of boaters take advantage of
Husky Stadium's lakefront location
Laurie and a random Sailgater
We all loved his jacket!
The view from our perch
The attendance was disappointing
Regardless of their 2-0 record, Hawaii just is not a big draw when they play on the mainland.
With Mark Johnson
Laurie and Susie Johnson
Joy and Bruce from the UK
Lake Washington behind Husky
Stadium's east end zone
Mark and Susie after having their
25th wedding anniversary announced
on the stadium's scoreboard
in the second quarter
With Dan Spriesterbach
I was a teammate of Dan's at both St. Francis H.S. and the University of Washington back in the day.
Dan was an excellent DB who went on to continue his love affair with the game, working as a PAC-12 referee for many years.
Other than a sluggish Third Quarter,
the Huskies dominated
QB Jacob Eason had a good day
Eason was 18 of 25 passing (72%) for 262 yards and three TDs.
After the game, Mark and I were joined by his daughter Mallory to celebrate the Husky win at . . .
. . . One of Seattle's top late night
dining experiences
We opted to share their famed
12 egg omelet with hash browns and
toast of course
We erred on the side of sanity and took about 40% of it home.
We weren't all that sane . . .
We'd never had a milkshake at Beth's until tonight.
As it turned out, they went GREAT with our omelet.
Who knew . . .
On Sunday,
Mark and Susie's
25th Wedding Anniversary Bash
On Sunday, we were invited to recreate the magic that we shared with Mark And Susie a quarter of a century ago when they got married during a Husky bye week of course.
Susie and her bridesmaids
who were able to make it
Dallas and I were part of Mark's
Groomsmen all those years ago
The Johnson Family
Mallory, Mark, Susie and Sophie
The day's gala took place on the same island ferry which was converted into a party venue, the Skansonia. It was where the Johnson's held their reception in 1994.
With Jon Kadletz
Jon was a fine LB for the Huskies more than a few years ago and was also one of my college roommates.
GREAT GUY!
The evening view of downtown Seattle
from the bow of the Skansonia
Everyone had a great time celebrating the Johnson's specials day.
Monday in Seattle
Of course we went to the
Pike Place Market
We were tourists after all.
What a show!
Mark and his salmon
Old meets new in downtown Seattle
More seafood
Colorful carrots
More colorful veggies
What Laurie does best
Red flowers were everywhere . . .
. . . including the art
Beautiful Blackberries
Sunset in Seattle after a busy day
During the day we journeyed to Camano Island to eat lunch and take a peek at the Johnson's new, fixer-upper cabin.
Great fun but I didn't taker any pictures for some unknown reason.
After a delicious dinner
at the Johnson home
This group was fun over the weekend and . . .
. . . at times a bit crazy too!
We flew home Tuesday morning to Burbank and stopped in Simi Valley for lunch.
We dined at this spot that our friend
Martha Jimenez-Ito once recommended
Laurie was happy with their excellent
soft street tacos
No rest for me as I needed to get over to St. Bonaventure H.S. to interview their Head Coach Tony Henney in preparation for Friday night's Game-of-the-Week podcast for the Ventura County Star.
On Wednesday, I was at Hart H.S.
interviewing Head Coach Mike Herrington
for the same reason
On Thursday,
School Started
Christie was a student at Westlake H.S.
when I taught their in the 1970s and 1980s
Her father, Lance Erie, was our Athletic Director at WHS too.
Good people!
Christie and I are both enrolled in the Conejo Valley Adult School's Italian Conversation class that started today.
Today's 90 minute class was dedicated to using our varying levels of Italian competence to discuss various topics that would introduce us to each other.
One question dealt with telling each other about a dream that we had that we hoped to someday come true.
The first three ladies responded with the same dream, someday living in a home in Italy, one near Genoa, one near Sienna and one on the island of Sicily.
When it got to be my turn, all I could think to say was that Laurie and I are living their dreams.
Back on the EuroBall Scene
The Skorpions have begun their
preparations for the 2020 season
A week after returning from our U18
game in Vienna, we take off for
Mexico City for our first ever
WOMEN'S Europe Warriors game!
Still enjoying the moments that EuroBall provides!
