Red Sox Nation descended upon Seattle over Memorial Day weekend, and they didn’t just confine themselves to Safeco Field. Wherever we went we ran into Red Sox fans wearing their Jacoby Ellsbury, David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez shirts. Ellsbury’s fans were considerably prolific which isn’t surprising since Seattle remains the closest ballfield to his hometown in Central Oregon. But it was a great weekend, sunny and warm enough… quite an amazing thing in Seattle in May.

Mom and I took the train up to Seattle on Monday for a night game against the Seattle Mariners. We checked into a swank historic hotel in downtown and had lunch near Pike Place Market before heading over to the new sculpture park. Later that afternoon we walked to the game and got swept up in the fact that Red Sox fans outnumbered the home team’s supporters. By the time it looked like the Sox were going to run away with the game, there were few Mariners fans in sight. Too bad for them since their team staged a late comeback attempt that was by far the most entertaining part of the evening… unless you were sitting near us and were entertained by the three drunk Canadians sitting in front of us.

Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki, my late grandmother’s favorite player on the team, made the play of the game, which also made ESPN’s Top 10 plays of the day list at number one. It involved Ichiro slamming backwards into the outfield wall to make a nearly impossible catch. He thrilled us with his acrobatics and his amazing throw after the catch towards the infield. My grandmother would have been on cloud nine!

We finished our trip with a fun tour of Rem Koolhaas’ Seattle Public Library and Allied Works expansion of the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle isn’t Portland, but it’s a fun place to take in a Red Sox game. And fortunately I have tickets to the Sox’s next trip to Safeco Field in late July!!