Safeco Field Tour - April 20th, 2017

(from the Take Me Out To The Ballgame department)

Hi everyone,

My family and I got a rare opportunity to take a "behind-the-scenes" tour of Seattle's own Safeco Field.  We gathered in the gift shop, and walked out on the upper level:

After a quick introduction, we went down into the stadium to the Visitor's Locker Room:

Lining up prior to entry

Visitor's Batting Cage

Inside the Visitor's Locker Room

They allowed us to pose in front of one of the lockers.  I was pretty excited about it.  Rose - not so much:

Dana soon had her smiling though

Well - kinda

Dana sitting at the Visitor's table

From there - we went to the Visitor's dugout:

Okay - couldn't resist it.  Selfie time!

Heading back inside

One last shot

From there - we gathered at a room where they hold press conferences:

Homeschooling press conference

We headed to the outer deck and a gorgeous view of Seattle:

(Google Panorama)

(Sony Panorama)

(Sony Panorama)

Then we headed to some of the 300 level seats:

(Google Panorama)

From there we went to the 200 level to visit the corporate suites:

All of the suites are named after Hall Of Fame players.  The first suite we entered was the Lefty Grove suite:

Lefty's jersey on the wall

We went through a few more suites - I took pics of some of the jerseys:

Rogers Hornsby

Micky Mantle

This is the founder's suite:

Hiroshi Yamauchi - Nintendo President and Owner of Seattle Mariners

From there we went to the press box.  Interesting note - they open the windows during games - and it's right behind home plate.  Foul balls can - and do - go in here all the time:

They framed where the ball hit the wall

Some of the promotional materials throughout the years:

Finished our tour at the entrance to Safeco Field.  This is the Chandelier of Bats:

The compass rose down below.  It includes northwest items in its matrix.

And that was our tour.  Our guide was really good about telling us Safeco Field trivia.  Sadly - I don't remember a lot of it - except that they keep the grass at 57 degrees.  There's an entire plumbing and heating system underneath the natural grass field.  This insures that it keeps growing year round - even during the winter.

If you ever get a chance - I highly recommend this tour.  It was a once in a lifetime trip for me - I've been to Mariners games ever since they started at the Kingdome, and I'd get free tickets if I were on the Honor Roll at school.  I'm really glad I had a chance to share these memories with Dana and Rose.

Cheers,
Paul

Tour of Theodor Jacobsen Observatory, University of Washington - April 19th, 2017

(from the I Love Telescopes department)

Hi everyone,

We had an opportunity to take a tour of the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory, located on the campus of the University Of Washington.

(University photo)

From the University website:  Built in 1895, the Observatory with its 120-year old, 6-inch refracting telescope is still offering celestial views of the wonders of the Universe.

The telescope and dome have been restored.  Sadly - there's too much light pollution to really use this telescope too much anymore - but the Seattle Astronomical Society does have viewing nights there.  Click this link for more info: TJO Evening Public Talks

After attending a presentation by the University staff about the Sun, we followed the sign on the stairs to the top of the dome.  (No more than 12 at a time, though!):

And there it was! Fully restored!

This telescope was built before electricity was readily available.  There is a clock mechanism that moves the telescope to track celestial objects.  You crank it up on the side - note the weights down below to keep it moving:

There is also a secondary telescope in a special room called the Meridian Room.  Instead of a standard dome, this room had a slit in the roof precisely aligned with a meridian.  The telescope in this room was connected via wires to a type of chart recorder.  What you did was point it at a place along the meridian, and wait for a star to transit the telescope.  When it did, it set the clock in the room and that established precise time.  This was used for years to set time in Seattle for the trains, etc.  Sadly - this telescope isn't used anymore - they weren't even sure if the roof opened - but it's been restored so you can see how it used to work.

All in all - a great night.

Cheers,
Paul