Bocce Glory

This is where we walk after work to play bocce. Occidental Square, in the heart of historic Pioneer Square... more commonly known as where there are statues of firemen next to large numbers of rowdy hobos. It's a beautiful park, cobblestones, ivey, big trees, totem poles, and brick building. A few blocks from Yesler St, the true original Skid Row. Much of our time there has been during dark hours, dimmly lit by lamposts planted all over.
There's 3 of us on the bocce team, RoundRobin, I'm convinced it's better than 1on1 or 2on2. That is Lee there rolling red. Matt's in the background serving as the measurer. I am not in the picture and playing green. Games are to 16 and generally last around 2hours. We play once or twice a week (although a couple times there we played 3 nights, that's a lot of bocce...not sustainable, thankfully). We gamble labor. The loser has to put all the balls(together they weigh 30,40, or 50pOUNdS!, jeez, who knows?), measuring tape, and a coupla towels into the bag and set up the handtruck. The person in second place then carries the bagOballs on the 2WheelCart about 3 blocks, across 2nd Ave... pretty flat traveling. At this point the loser takes over. Up 3 progressively steeper hills to summit on 5th Ave where, on flat ground, we walk 1.5blocks to our work building place. In addition to carrying the junk up the grueling 4th Ave Hill, when walking down for the next game during another day, the loser of the previous game must carry the balls on the handtruck. Utterly hummilating, isn't it? Trust me, you really just don't want to lose. Second place is alright. Light labor, you can live with it. But to win, you get to relax and shine with Bocce Glory.