NFR. Spent a long weekend in Redmond, WA. The reason? My 9 year old grandson has begun playing (U - 10) with a select soccer team, Black Hills FC. Some random thoughts: a construction worker who joins one of the contractors working on I-405 has a job for life. I remember when there was no I-405, and since it started the construction activity has been continuous ever since. And the weekday traffic couldn't be more gridlocked. I find it hard to believe people actually live like this. Microsoft. I know it's a big company, but holy shit! 502 acres, 125 buildings, and nearly 50,000 employees at the Redmond campus. Very cosmopolitan town with many Asian and more Indian people than I've ever seen in one place. Instead of the usual assortment of McDonalds and Burger Kings, etc., the restaurant scene is dominated by Indian and various Asian restaurants. Unfortunate for me since Indian food is too spicy hot for this Scandinavian. We did happen upon a Thai restaurant - Bai Tong - that is totally next level above any and all other Thai restaurants we have eaten at. Of course I have to order all my dishes at 1* for spicy heat. But wow, that food was good! Housing: Condos and apartments predominate, in contrast to my neighborhood where lot sizes are measured in acres. And Teslas are as common in Redmond as Subarus are in Olympia.
And we were there because of soccer. Multiple tournaments going on at Redmond's 60 Acres Park with about two dozen soccer fields. My grandson and one teammate have been on the same youth team since age 5, and one other player was on their summer youth league team last summer. But basically it's a new team and new coach all learning to work together. Friday was their first ever game together, and they lost 4-0. Saturday they played a good team from Hawaii and won, 2-0. Sunday they played a local King Co. team named Liverpool and won, 6-0. (My grandson scored 3 of his team's goals; gotta' brag a little bit!) This got them to the semi-finals Monday where they played undefeated Kitsap. It was a tense match, and they lost 2-0. Select soccer is sure going to be interesting. Not sure how we're going to afford much of this. We're out well over $1,000 for hotel and restaurant expenses for a 4-day weekend. My Social Security wasn't designed with this in mind. It's sure gratifying to watch the kids' skills develop. But I think I'll get back to fishing this week; that's something I can afford.
