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LIVING LEGEND: Most of our daylight hours on Saturday were dedicated to celebrating the career of Ken Griffey Junior. The top vote-getter ever for Major League Baseball's storied Hall of Fame, Junior is certainly the player of his generation, and arguably the best ever. 

Saturday evening the Mariners were retiring Griffey's jersey. Gametime was 6:10, the ceremony was at 5:30 p.m. 

Hoping to get the super special gameday giveaway (for the first 20,000 fans), a replica of Griffey's Hall of Fame plaque. We were going to head to the stadium at around 1:30 p.m.  By 11 a.m. I was getting antsy and rallied the troops to head there earlier. We were on a bus a few minutes after noon.

And then the wait began on the concrete sidewalk outside the Center Field entrance. ... 

The gates opened at 3:40 p.m. We happily got our plaques and then relaxed until ceremony time. While waiting, we watched the field be prepared.

 Come 5:30, the first out onto the infield were the front office folks.

After Griffey's family was seated, "The Kid" made his way to his seat. He had to come from centerfield, of course. Junior owns centerfield in Seattle. :)

 He was greeted by the evening's emcee, Mariners' announcer Rick Rizzs. 

After Junior took his seat, a number of special guests were announced. None were more special to him than his best friend, former Mariners teammate Jay Buhner. 

 Below, the BFFs hug it out. 

Who would fill the other seats? The Mariners organization had some surprises in store. For instance, how about Seattle sports legends like National Football League Hall of Famers Steve Largent and Cortez Kennedy?

Not to be forgotten were Seattle Super Sonics (RIP) superstars Spencer Haywood and Gary Payton. 

And other Hall of Famers who wore #24 were there for the festivities, including Ken Griffey Sr.'s former teammate Tony Perez, and good ol' Rickey Henderson. He was so much fun to watch playing the game!

 Junior and Rickey share a moment, below.

Everyone took a look at the big screen to see special messages from a few VIPs. One was from the amazing Willie Mays, another #24 for the ages. Mays said he'd tried to call Junior on the day of Griffey's HoF induction and encouraged Jr. to "pick up the phone, cal me.

 Junior didn't waste any time and did just that!

Eventually, it was time for Griffey's speech. 

 It was touching and heartfelt, and the crowd hung on to his every word.

Afterward, the current Mariners players joined Griffey on the field. 

 Their caps were backward, an homage to Junior's famous look.

Once the game finally started, the Angels' Mike Trout took his place in centerfield. Perhaps someday he'll be a first ballot Hall of Famer. 

Before the game, we made sure to take the time to stop by the Dave Niehaus statue in right center. Dave loved Junior so much, and would have been so proud of him and his Hall of Fame induction and jersey retirement. 

 We also had time to hang out at our favorite 'secret' table tucked away in an odd spot in the outfield.

Here are the front and back of the coveted boxes we got on Saturday. 

 Look at that beautiful plastic! :) 

Here are CJ's thoughts on the day ... 

For more than 20 years, Ken Griffey Junior has been an iconic player for the Seattle Mariners. This year, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. According to Wikipedia, on January 6, 2016, Ken Griffey Junior was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, receiving 99.32 percent of the vote, breaking the record previously held by Tom Seaver's 98.84 percent in 1992. A flag bearing Griffey's number 24 was flown from the Space Needle following the announcement. On July 24, Ken was officially inducted into the Hall of fame, and we watched in in our house.

The Mariners game of August 6, which we visited, was preceded by the formal ceremony for the retirement of Ken's jersey number, 24. In one particular section of the stadium, there was a large sign labeled "ROBINSON 42", because the Mariners retired Jackie Robinson's number, 42, along with every other team in MLB. Next to that sign, there was a large veil, which, while I noticed, I didn't think much of right then. During the ceremony, Other people in the world of sports with the number 24 appeared on the giant MarinersVision screen, congratulating Griffey on his success. Near the end of the ceremony, the large veil was pulled back, revealing the new sign, "GRIFFEY 24", next to the "ROBINSON 42" sign. The GRIFFEY 24 sign is here to stay, and it looks nice next to the ROBINSON 42 sign.

Ken Griffey Jr.’s number retirement ceremony at Safeco Field was a huge moment in Mariners' history. From this day forth, no Mariner other than Ken Griffey Jr. will wear the number 42. The ceremony started with his family coming onto the field and taking seats. Then they introduced other Mariners Hall of Famers and other sports legends who wore the number 24. Other friends of Griffey who couldn’t make it to the stadium greeted him via the big screen. It was very sweet and they even revealed a sign with Griffey’s number over the ‘Pen, to sit beside Jackie Robinson’s number plate. They also gave him a Bronze Glove because he was as great of a defensive player as he was an offensive player. I thought it was wonderful and worth waiting in line. And to top it off, the Mariners won!

     Gary Payton, a.k.a. "The Glove" presents Griffey with a bronze glove. 

FESTIVAL FUN:  Sunday afternoon, we headed to 'town,' also known as "the Village." It's Magnolia proper, the (rather tiny, few blocks/almost all single story business district.

This weekend, the area was part of Seattle's city-wide party, Seafair. Magnolia's version had lots of artisan booths, a number of food trucks, some carnival-type attractions and lots of live music. A couple weeks back, I signed CJ and Annabelle up for the youth talent show. Fortunately, they were OK with that. 

Following, CJ tells us a bit more about Summerfest. ...

For over 60 years, the Magnolia Chamber of Commerce has presented the Magnolia Summerfest. The Magnolia Summerfest is an annual event in the neighborhood of Magnolia where you can go and eat, drink, listen to any band that might be playing there, buy affordable merchandise from the stands, and everything except for that last part.

We arrived at about 1:30 P.M, (Sunday) and we listened to the band that was playing there. At one point, my family decided to look around the numerous stands present at the the event. Some of them were nice, like a station with stenciled vinyl records themed around pop culture, and another with a delicious caramel sauce. 

One special (for us) event at the Summerfest was the youth talent show, where kids would showcase their talent on stage, such as playing the keyboard, guitar, carefully swinging poi-balls around, and even a three-man unicycle act!

My sister and I participated in the talent show, and for our performance, using our acoustic guitars, we played "If I Had $1,000,000" by the Barenaked Ladies. Although the audience seemed to like the song after our performance, I was disappointed with the guitar microphones.

CJ's disappointment was soothed greatly by the fact he and Annabelle won $40 for their performance, placing as the top music act at the show. Nice!

Annabelle had this to say. 

The Magnolia Summer Fest youth talent show was a part of the Magnolia Summer Fest in the Magnolia village. It was comprised of 17 acts and we were the second to last to perform. The talent show included many musical acts and a lot of dancing. By far, my favorite act was the unicycle troupe that was the last act, out on the street. Some of the acts were really great and I thoroughly enjoyed watching and participating in the talent show!  

Here's video of their performance. You'll see what CJ meant by the technical difficulties with the guitar mics. Oh well, they powered through!