My co-workers, Tony & Cathlyn, have season tickets to the Seattle Sounders FC (soccer team). On Friday Tony asked me if I wanted his tickets for Saturday’s game against the San Jose Earthquakes. I took them with the idea of taking Sennet. He had never been to a major sports event (or college or high school, for that matter). Unless you count when Stacie was pregnant with Sennet, we went to the very first Sounders game in their inaugural year (2009). When I got home I asked Sennet if he wanted to go. At first he was very excited, but that was because he thought he was going to be playing soccer. When I explained to him that we would just be watching he was a bit less enthused. I convinced him it would be a fun time and that we would take the Light Rail train to the game and get some lunch downtown.

The game was at 1pm and the weather was great – mostly blue skies with wispy clouds and about 75°. We drove up to Beacon Hill and parked next to the Light Rail station and took it down to the stadium. Sennet was extremely excited to be riding the “choo-choo train.”

When we got to the SODO area (SOuth of DOwntown) where the football/soccer and baseball stadiums are, we walked over to the line of food vendors. Sennet said he wanted a hot dog, which was a bit surprising because I’ve never heard him ask for one of those before – perhaps he saw someone eating one. We got a kid’s Skimpy Dog for him and a Beer Braut with grilled onions for me. We sat on the curb under some trees outside the stadium and ate the dogs and watched the people walk past and into the game.

Tony’s tickets are in the “tifosi” section. That means the rowdy, loud, banner-waving, song-singing, standing up mostly, hard core fans that are probably as close to European football as we have in the states. We brought Sennet’s headphones in case it got too noisy, and he wore them for a while. After about half the first period, he was tired of wearing them and said it was still too noisy.

I asked him if he wanted to move up to one of the top sections where it was not so packed and much less noisy? He nodded. We spent the rest of the first half in the top deck looking down on the pitch, in the sun – a very pleasant time. The Sounders scored twice right before half time, and Sennet was very excited about the fireworks being shot off after the goals. He wanted them to keep scoring so he could see more smoke and stars.

As it was, he got a bit fidgety in the second half so we left the stadium and began walking to the Light Rail station. I wanted to use the International District/Chinatown Station because it wouldn’t be as crowded as the Stadium Station. When we got to Chinatown I asked Sennet if he wanted to get a cream puff in Uwajimaya, the awesome Asian market place. We went in and I got a cream puff and Sennet got a blueberry cake and we split a can of mango juice.

Then it was back on the Light Rail choo-choo train for the trip back up to the car. We both had a great time (and the Sounders ended up winning 4-0).