Before I left, I checked out the traffic situation - our office building is right next to the highway.  I noticed a TON of cars on the highway heading in the direction I was going... I didn't know why at the time (the Shadow Lady told me when I got home), but I knew I was in for a "Less than fun" drive.

 
Right from the start, it was bad.  I watched the traffic lights cycle several times, without moving an inch.  Horns were blaring, as folks got caught in the intersection as the light changed... it was gridlock in its finest form. 

 
I noticed that there were TONS of folks waiting for the bus at the bus stops... since the busses were in the same traffic I was in, it made sense that they would back up, too, although I'd never thought about that before. 

 
Using my GPS, I jumped onto less travelled roads, but even that didn't help much - they were pretty full, too.  It did let me move a bit freeer, though, and while it complained I was "Off Route" a lot, I could hit the 'reroute from here' button, and it'd let me know which direction I had to head.  It was nice to have! 

 
By the time I finally made it to the highway, they were telling folks on the radio to just wait it out where you were for the traffic to thin out... the city was locked up, and I-5 was basically a parking lot.  520, the other bridge across Lake Washington, was clogged by the extra traffic, and the highways were overloaded by folks trying to drive around.  Once I was on I-90, though, the crawl across was at a nice leisurely pace of about 10 miles per hour... I'd missed the worst of it downtown by taking the 'non standard' roads... 

 
I didn't know why they were closed at the time  at the time, but I knew that this was the reason traffic was so miserable... 

 
By the time we were in the Tunnel, the chokepoint was behind us, and the roadway spread out to more typical traffic levels...  A few minutes later, and I was home... 

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