Electrifying

THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN: Last night we spent a glorious evening at Safeco Field, for the home opener of the Seattle Mariners' 2014 season.

The weather wasn't glorious, unfortunately. It was raining buckets when we left home about 4 to catch a bus down to the stadium district. We had an umbrella but got pretty darn wet before boarding the bus, and then again walking to the stadium. But that was OK. Worth the chill and discomfort, for once inside, it was nothing but wonderful. 

We had a couple of hours to kill before the game. Amazing how easy that is to do. We watched the Angels take batting practice for awhile. 

We stood in line for 20 minutes so the kids could get their faces painted.

Annabelle opted for a Mariners' "S".  CJ went with a 'crown' design across his forehead of flames with a baseball in the center. Pretty fancy!

We eventually made our way to our seats, about halfway up the 300 level, in foul territory close to the left field foul pole. 

But before baseball went down, there was a celebration of football. Specifically Super Bowl Championship football thanks to the Seattle Seahawks.

A number of players showed up to celebrate with the baseball crowd, including QB Russell Wilson, Super Bowl MVP Malcolm Smith, and former UW Husky Jermaine Kearse. 

They brought some hardware with them. This marks the second time we've had a chance to see the Lombardi Trophy now.

Russell Wilson, who is also a good enough baseball player to have been drafted by the Texas Rangers, threw out the opening pitch, a strike, of course.

Then it was time for baseball! There were lots of pyrotechnics as the players were being introduced. Beforehand, I'd pointed out to the kids where the explosives had been staged.

It was a long, tense game, and most of the sell out crowd stayed until the final pitch. Fortunately, the Mariners were victorious, and the crowd was jubilant as we streamed out of the stadium.  What a night! We sure are glad it's baseball season again!

MAKING CONNECTIONS: The kids had class up in Shoreline today. They're working on an electronic unit in science.  Working together, the class made this big ol' circuit. 

CERTIFIED: The kids have freshly-printed certificates to add to their portfolios. Today, our "The Music of The Beatles" certs were posted. The kids were very proud they earned "with distinction" honors. 

According to an email from Dr. John Covach, our professor, 23,340 students participated at some point during the course. Our classmates lived in a total of 112 countries, including the U.S. There were 4,327 of us who completed the course, and 82 percent of those earned the 'with distinction' endorsement. 

We need to get on sending the professor a thank you note ... and a few pages of Annabelle's notes/doodlings!