We aren't sports fanatics in our household. Our kids have not grown up singing the Swarthmore Football fight song (well, that would be because A. Swarthmore does not have a fight song, just a chant: Kill Quakers, Kill! and B. First the football coach was fired for winning too much and then the team was disbanded for taking too many resources from the rest of the college or something like that), they have not even grown up singing the Husky fight song even though Grandma and Aunt Julia have season tickets. John watches a lot of Red Sox, Celtics, and the occasional Bruins, but it's kind of on the down low, and our children play no team sports, unlike the rest of Seattle and their soccer leagues.

But, we are not against the big sports hoopla. After seeing how much fun the kids had at the Storm basketball game, we thought we'd give the Mariners a try. Seeing a bad team in September means less chance of losing your kid in the crowd--there's just not that much crowd. That was nice. The stadium is gorgeous and has the kind of amenities one dreams of--like gluten free buns for the kids' hot dogs. We were in the nosebleed seats and could still see everything. When I go with adults I hate all the cartoons and games and dancing moose between innings; I just want to talk to my friends. But all the forced excitement was much appreciated by the kids. The game itself was pretty dull--not a lot of big action or suspense--but the kids seemed to actually pay attention and enjoy it. I enjoyed sitting in the sun with the family.