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To Vancouver with the Emerald City Suporters !







Adam and me traveled to Vancouver B.C. to see the Seattle Sounders F.C. play the Vancouver Whitecaps . We met the bus at the aptly named Northgate in North  Seattle .

It was an excellent though intense experience .!

We stated on a keg of their own brew before 10 AM and the party began !  There were a good selection of folks including two great kids who had wonderfully been brought up to be polite and respectful generally but to also be passionate about their team even to the point of swearing in the right company - I kid you not ! .



There was a British EX-pat family just near us at the back of the bus and they as well as everyone else were really welcoming .  The community atmosphere was perfect - everybody shared what they had - including beer spirits and Razberitas - ( Courtesey of Razzle ) . All the ECS trip Virgins inc me and Adam took it in turns to go to Tom at the front of the bus , introduce ourselves - Name our fav. player and sing a song .

The singing and the beer flowed liberally until the Custer rest stop ( 2 hrs North and 30 min from Canada where all the booze had to be placed in the luggadge hold ( to ensure less issues with the border ) Keg Stands took place and people downed their plastic cups ( not sure if it was legal as Washington State has some very strict laws reguarding public consumption of alcohol . Getting into Canada was a breeze with me and the Brits taking point .

We got to BC place the Whitecaps stadium with 2 hrs to spare and sang until they let us in .

 The B.C. Place Stadium - home of the Whitecaps was a really good looking venue with a full roof and the best positioned and largest array of screens to catch the replays and watch the action ( which was really useful as the proudly waved flags of the ECS often obstructed the view )
                                      
They even had early bird pricing for the beer ( supplied in kiddy type  sippy cups ) spirits and food ( I has an excellent $6.00 Canadian slice of Pizza ) I did think of how I miss " pucker pies " and " British Chips " with " Brown Sauce " though !

I was peeved that the Whitecaps had taken the old Chelsea F.C. song of my youth and sang " White is the colour " instead !  They attacked well initially but luckily for the Sounders their finishing was poor . The game ended in a 3 - 0 victory for us though I did think a fairer result would have been a 2 - 1 but that's real International FOOTBALL ( not soccer or the ridiculously similarly named NFL game the Americans play largely amongst themselves ).

I learned about Cascadia and then we won the Cascadia Cup all in the second half !
 Amazingly to me the cup was passed around the supporters after our victory and was transported back to Seattle on our bus - not the team bus . It was the center piece of further celebrations involving drinking Champagne at the Southbound rest stop - all supplied courtesy of the E. C. S. We even had a celebrity ( once removed ) with us on the journey South - The wife of Stefan Frei our overworked goal keeper not to be confused with Stephen Fry the British comedy actor and body double of my brother Owen .

We had much more trouble getting back into the USA than entering Canada - A long wait bringing all our stuff with us and putting it through a scanner was required . A sniffer dog even checked the coach . This is in sharp contrast to getting through in a car where its normally a simple drive through after a thirty second  chat . One mystery has been solved however . The need for individual labels on Apples which has pissed me off all my life up to this point  I was apparently saved from a $ 300.00 fine for illegally importing Apples as the little labels on each apple showed they came from the USA originally ( I had forgotten to declair them but the eagle eyed homeland security people spotted the contraband with their scanner )

I utilized my ability to " catnap when the need arises " and despite laying across the isle among the rowdy fans managed to get a match length 90 minutes of shut eye .

We caught the 11 30 ferry and were back home in Coupeville shortly after midnight .

All in all an excellent day and we are both looking forward to making more ( home and away ) trips in the future !

THANK YOU E. C. S.
My Facebook Album
ECS Song videos and Lyrics here   Song sheets pdf

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