On Friday evening, Bryan and I embarked on a 315-mile journey from Seattle to Pullman, WA to attend the Apple Cup, an annual football game between Washington’s cross-state rivals, the University of Washington Huskies, and the Washington State University Cougars (and a big thanks to Rich and his lucky wife for the tickets!). In the process, I saw more rolling hills, grain fields, and crimson-covered college students than I’ve seen in my entire life.
As a Chicago native, this was a great opportunity for me to get out and explore the state I now consider my home and also check off a few items on the great to-do list. A few of the more notable items:
Eastern Washington is… East of the Cascades. I often tell people I’ve never visited Spokane or Eastern Washington in general, and that I should try to do so one of these days. Although this almost always prompted a string of disclaimers that there’s really not much to see or experience in Eastern Washington (with the exception of Aplets & Cotlets) people would eventually agree that I should travel East of the Cascades at least once. Well, I’ve now done it! And I saw lots of rolling hills in the process. And grain fields. And long stretches of highway. And nothing. But I’ve done it! Hell, I even spent a night in Ellensburg, and spent some time driving around the city of Ritzville (which, let me tell you, is anything but…) Is there anything I didn’t do on this trip?
College football is fun. I went to a college whose greatest claim to sports fame was probably its fencing team. Needless to say, it was pretty darn impressive to watch a college football game between two D1 schools. What’s more, this was my first college football game ever. Yeah, I need to get out more. Given the level of excitement that surrounded this game (somewhat infamously referred to on ESPN as the “Crapple Cup”) I can only imagine what it must be like to go to a BCS bowl game, or pretty much any game involving LSU. Or any college football team with at least one win.
Traversing the Columbia. It’s the longest river in Washington State, it provides the backdrop to one of the premier and most scenic concert locations in North America, and it’s the star of the state’s folk song–it’s the Columbia River! Actually, it was a pretty fleeting moment when I saw the river, and we basically just drove over it and that was it. But I saw it. And it was pretty.
The “other” state university. I visited, for my first and probably last time, WSU’s campus in Pullman. I think I can now say I understand a little better the rivalry between the Huskies and the Cougars.
So that’s a small hit list of cool takeaways from my trip to the Apple Cup. If you’re interested, pictures are posted in the Gallery, complete with mildly intelligent captions. All in all, I have to say I had a blast on this trip; good times, good company, and good puns (that is, they weren’t too pedestrian).
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Bryan · November 24, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I think the best part is we made it out alive despite being surrounded by Cougar fans. Another highlight was Cougar Country. While there burgers aren’t even close to Red Mill (let’s face it, nothing is), they were pretty darn good given we were in Pullman.
Road trips are always fun, and this one was no exception. Go Huskies!
Rich · November 25, 2008 at 1:00 pm
wow sounds like you had a great time. How did you get tickets to the game? I hope you had good seats.
Admin comment by Jonathan · November 27, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I should’ve added that if I have to listen to “and that’s another…. COUGAR first down!” with that wussy cat meow afterward, I may have to gouge someone’s eyeballs out.