Is anyone going to the parade tomorrow?
Too crowded for so I'll be watching on TV!
= new reply since forum marked as read
...but was assuming, from initial descriptions, that the parade would conclude with a rally in the CenturyLink north plaza. I was going to take light rail in to the stadium stop, as there was no way I wanted to drive in from the exurbs and try to find parking. But then it was announced that the rally would take place inside the CLink, with season-ticket holders getting all the seats, and the rest of us would have to watch the proceedings over the video board at Safeco. Now, while it's cool that this is going to be so popular that it needs two major-league stadia to hold it, I fail to see the point of coming in early to wait for hours at Safeco in sub-freezing temperatures just to watch the parade and rally on, let's face it, a big television screen. I've got an HDTV projection system at home, and can watch the same video feed in better quality while staying nice and warm on the couch, with the appropriate refreshments close at hand (and, shall we say, no need to limit them for safe driving back from the light-rail station -- although, since it's probably the first thing you're thinking of, no, I don't have any of Washington's latest legalized "refreshment" at hand 
). As a bonus, I can also watch the Sounders' first preseason match via web streaming at the same time.
Good move!
Last edited Fri Feb 7, 2014, 07:12 AM - Edit history (2)
Actually, I changed my mind at the last minute and drove in from S.E. King County sometime after 8:30. My plan was to go to the north end of the parade route and see if I could find parking there, and, if not, return home and watch the whole thing on television. The drive in took quite a bit longer than predicted (mainly due to the First Avenue bridge being open for ship traffic for about fifteen minutes), and I wound up getting off the north end of the Viaduct sometime after 10:00 (less than an hour before the parade was due to start). I was about to head up Broad Street when -- and I still can't believe this happened -- I looked up Eagle Street (a small east-west street between the waterfront and Seattle Center), and saw an open street space a half-block away. Needless to say, I grabbed it immediately, and realized I was within three blocks of the start of the parade route! I wind up getting a great vantage point right in front of Fisher Plaza directly across from the Needle, about ten feet away from the parade. Afterwards, even with a horrendous traffic jam on Mercer, I still get home in time to catch the whole rally at CLink.
And, to top it off, I find out that there was a power-failure to part of our housing development while I was out and, while our house didn't lose power, the main pumping station did, so, had I stayed here instead of going into Seattle, I would have had no running water for most of the time I was gone. Who said the age of miracles is past?
I can see the Ship Canal Bridge from my house and it was really slow northbound starting about 3pm.
There's a lot of pics and videos on Reddit and they really show just how many people were there!
