Seattle - Cascadia Qualifier

5,001 km

The last weekend of June saw me and many other polo players from around Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia head to Seattle for the annual Cascadia Qualifier. The top nine teams from this tournament book there spot in the North American Hardcourt Bike Polo Championship, this year to be held in Minneapolis, USA.

Before the tournament began I make the trek down to Everett to Play with my teammates Jared and Jeremy. I stayed with Jared, his wife Heidi, and there daughter Poppy for two nights in the older area of Everett Washington. 

  

While I was there we played polo one evening, Catan another, went to the Diamond Knot Brew Pub in Mukliteo Washington, and drove by the largest building in the world by volume(The Boeing Factory in Everett). In Mukliteo we had lunch and wandered around a bit and took a look at the old historic lighthouse. Here are some pictures of my stay in Everett, WA.

On the Friday I migrated into Seattle and hung around for the day in Capitol hill and then met up with my host for my stay there, Ryan. Ryan is the vocalist and guitarist in one of my favorite bands, Addaura. I went to one of his shows at the Black Lodge on Saturday night and it was killer. Nice to see and meet a band that I have listened to a lot from almost 5,000km away.

The tournament kicked off on Saturday morning with 5 games played that day. We did not fair so well but we were playing some of the best teams in the world. We ended the day 1-4 and had lots of fun and improved a lot.

Sunday was the final day of polo and we played two games and lost them both. We had lots of fun while playing and gave both teams a run for their money. The rest of the day was spend drinking, heckling, and watching some intense polo. 

Overall it was a highly memorable five days. Here are some misc photos from around town.
 

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