Sox games and swimming in Lake Washington

Never one to let a summer weekend slip idly by, I spent this past one attending two Red Sox/Mariners games and also spent my Sunday with friends on the boat, this time venturing into Lake Washington to do some swimming.

The weekend had been forecast to be a scorcher for some time, and it didn't let us down. Temps all three days were in the 90's, which is uncommon in these parts. The Friday night Red Sox game turned out to be the best, since the Sox actually won 9-4 (usually they lose when I go to see them play here). I attended with some friends from work, and was happy to see Red Sox Nation still alive and well in the Pacific Northwest.

Saturday's game was a bit less exciting, since the Sox only got four hits and lost 5-2. The upside was that Vince and I scored some Terrace Club tickets for free from Big Brother/Big Sister. On the way into the ballpark, we had a near-disaster when Vince dropped the tickets out of the envelope they were in. In typical Seattle fashion, another fan behind us passed by, asking us if we had dropped a ticket. These were $55 tickets face-value, and easily could've sold for $100, given the demand.

Sunday was definitely the highlight of the weekend. Ever since I got a boat, I've been wanting to take it into Lake Washington and swim off of it, since the Puget Sound waters are too cold, no matter how hot it is outside. For those of you not familiar with it, Lake Washington is a very large urban lake (the largest such lake, I think, in the country). It is accessible from Puget Sound via the Hiram Chittenden Locks, and requires me to have four drawbridges raised along a 5 mile route from the Locks to the UW.

The day was perfect: 85-92 degrees, without a cloud in the sky. I was hoping to see how many people I could fit comfortably on the boat for such an excursion. For sailing, I try to limit it to 8 people, but I figured since we wouldn't be doing much sailing, I'd try for many more. Turns out we eventually got 11 people on board, and by the time we finally reached the lake after about 2.5 hours en route, everyone was eager to jump in. And they did. Eventually, we did raise the sails for about half an hour, since the wind was really ideal for it, but the evening was approached with the long haul back, so we didn't keep them up for long. Can't wait to do this again!

Here is a link to Sunday's pictures.