This would be my favorite photo from the Fremont Solstice Parade today. I love the framing, the composition, and the bubbles. Usually my favorite photo, or favorite photos, from this event are heavy on the guys I find super hot; I didn't have that reaction to a whole lot of them this year, even though the crowd of cyclists—which these days also includes people on
skareboards and
roller blades and
Lime scooters and
self-balancng scooters—was as huge as ever. It could have been partly that I chose my viewing spot kind of poorly, though.
I spent much of the day thinking I had remembered going last going to the Fremont Solstice Parade last year with Laney; I forgot until I looked at my calendar that, instead, Shobhit and I chose to go to Georgetown Pride last year, which was on the same day. (This year they've bumped it to a month later in the summer, which means it'll happen while Shobhit and I are in Amsterdam this year; I'll have to look at the scheduling again next year, but I'm glad they've chosen a different day than Fremont Solstice.) Anyway, I last went to the Fremont Solstice Parade
two years ago, when I went with Laney. And I remembered that we found pretty good viewing spots right where the parade began, so that's what I did with Ivan today, who happily just took my lead on the matter: I had us get off the bus on 34th when it was already being detoured, and we walked up 36th to the start of the parade. We were at NW 36th St right where Leary Way veers into it, and we sat on the curb across the street from where the regular parade contingents flowed south onto 36th from 2nd Ave NW.
A bit annoyingly, the
Fremont Fair website explicitly states, "The 2026 Fremont Solstice Parade kicks off at 3rd and Leary Way." That's like two blocks further northwest from where I chose for us to sit, and clearly insinuates that the parade would pass right by us there. We could see the contingents staging across the street on 2nd Ave NW where it opens out onto 36th, though. What's more, the famous nude cyclists that have been opening this parade for decades don't come from that direction; they come from the
opposite direction, and then loop around. They didn't always do this. In fact the entire parade route
used to end at Gas Works Park but they don't involve that park at all anymore, opting instead to close down several blocks for the fair.
We did get a parade ambassador lady come up and talk to our section of the crowd, and she pointed out a
blue line across the street and said not to cross it with any of our limbs. But then, when the nude cyclists finally did start coming,
this nude traffic director guy allowed the cyclists to loop past us to the northwest just once, and then created a barrier like half a block
southeast from us, with crowds quickly gathering over there and blocking our fucking view!
Without thinking as clearly as I really should have been, I told Ivan I was going over there and I would be back. It was kind of rude of me to expect him to just sit back there on the blanket tote I had brought (a much lighter one so when it was stored in my backpack it would not put too big a strain on my back; I'm still a bit weaker even three and a half weeks since the accident), as I didn't really think about how much time this parade spends on the nude cyclists. The parade itself lasts barely more than an hour, and the nude cyclists must go on for at least half an hour beforehand.
I got most of my best photos from that spot, though; you can see the nude cyclists in their own, 67-shot photo album
here (but also part of a 128-shot album of the overall Parade and Fair
here). After a while, I thought to look back and check on Ivan, and he turned out to be just a couple of feet away from me. "Matthew!" he called, and even indicated he had picked up my backpack for me, which I really appreciated.
Anyway, another note about my photos of nude cyclists: unless you have your own Flickr account, you won't be able to see a lot of them. I am required to flag any photos with full frontal nudity—basically, any lower genitals—as "restricted," and those can
only be viewed by other account holders on the site. If there is merely partial nudity, such as breasts or bare butts, I can label them as "moderate." These ones can be viewed, but they come up obscured first, with the option to click to view. No, wait, I just tested it; that also only happens if you're another Flickr user. I just logged out and viewed the album and only the 9 photos of cyclists that I could load as "safe" are visible.
You know what? Fuck this! I want to be able to share all of these photos! You won't be able to see tags or captions or anything like that like on Flickr, just the photos themselves, but I have now loaded all of today's photos on my OneDrive account, and you can view them there.
Click here for painted penises!
I've been going to this event off and on for two decades now, but I discovered after we got home that this year made
my tenth time. I haven't gone with Shobhit since before the pandemic, in 2019; honestly it's a bit frustrating with him because as soon as the nude cyclists are over, he loses all interest—and I quite enjoy the Fremont Solstice Parade post-cyclists. In fact, I texted Laney today
from the parade about how people at this parade seem to have
a sense of camp—some of it even
overtly queer—that Pride seemed to have mostly lost years ago. Not only that, but the parade lasting barely more than an hour is a lot easier to swallow than the four hours it takes for all the contingents in the Pride Parade to go by. I really think they should start getting more strict with rules about just meeting deadlines in order to get among a limited set of contingents, but whatever.
Pride still means way more to me, for the record. It's very personal and I still have a good time at it. My only point is that they could learn some lessons from the Fremont Solstice Parade.
At Shobhit's suggestion, I had made a cocktail to bring with me. I didn't even start drinking it until the parade began, but not having peed since before Ivan and I left at about 11:00 this morning—Shobhit didn't go with us as he had other plans today—it was maybe 50 minutes later that I had to pee so bad I was in increasing agony. I asked Ivan if he wanted to wait there or if he wanted to come with me, and he said he'd wait there. Thankfully I found Fremont Fair port-a-potties only a few blocks away, and because the parade was still going, the lines were pretty short. Still, the parade was just ended when I got back, and Ivan was standing in the street looking for me. I had already folded up the blanket tote by then, which I did after we returned to our spot after getting closer to the cyclists but then there was a bunch of people standing around there so there was no point in sitting any longer.
Ivan said he was willing to walk the Fair with me, and
that I have not done since Gina and her friend Jennifer came up from Olympia for this event in 2023. Laney was still far too wary of crowds so when I went with her in 2024, we did not walk the fair. With anyone else I might have spent more time stopping at booths, but we just walked through the fair, with one notable stop at
the Art Cars parking lot. I got a few good pictures there. And then we walked through the crowd down the streets of booths, not even all the blocks but probably a slight majority of them. I only stopped briefly at one of them, to look at a bunch of queer-themed earrings. I didn't buy any though. I did need to find a bathroom yet again, something that happens frequently when I drink cocktails, where I have to pee really bad and then again within ten or twenty minutes.
After that we managed to get on the #62 bus back toward downtown with the bus coming up to the temporary stop right at the north end of the Fremont Bridge within minutes of us getting there. Between that stop and the stop right at the other end of the bridge, though, that bus was
packed clear until we got downtown. Ivan and I got a bit separated while boarding, and while I found a chair to sit in, he wound up standing the whole way right by the side door in the front half of the bus.
We got off at 3rd & Pike, and when I gave him the option of catching a bus up the hill from Pike or just walking, he was eager to just walk, clearly exasperated by the crowd on that bus. We had discussed going out to eat at a Thai restaurant, but then he suggested Annapurna on Broadway, a favorite place of his, though he thinks he hasn't been there since before the pandemic. Stunningly, the last record I can find of eating there
myself was
July 2017—nine years ago!—when I went there with Ivan after Shobhit made a dinner that was way too spicy.
Ivan and I both had matat masala, and it was delicious. I had a piña colada with it. Ivan also ordered a cocktail, which was surprising; he told us a couple of visits ago that he doesn't drink anymore "because I don't want to become an alcoholic." I should have known I could continue to rely on his inconsistencies, though. I mentioned this when he ordered a cocktail today and he was pretty nonchalant about it, like well, he just wants one now. "I don't think I've had a cocktail in about a year," he said. God knows if that's even the truth. He has a long history of being kind of weirdly duplicitous about the things he shares with me.
This was his one full day of his visit this time, but he did get here early enough yesterday for us to go see the queer horror movie
Leivicus, which I really liked a lot and Ivan seemed to like just okay. He actually got here while I was at work and Shobhit let him in, around 2:30; he really was here early enough for us to go to the 5:10 showing that I would have preferred, but he asked to go later. When I got home from work he was napping, and I later realized thst the previous two nights of 12-hour graveyard shifts would have been a good reason for him to want to go later; he knew he was going to be tired and need rest when he got here. (I did ask him, and I guess from where he's staying in Edmonds, he busses to Lynnwood Station and then takes Light Rail down from there.)
We watched a movie again today after getting home—sort of. He asked if we could watch something, as he often does, and so I went to look at my top 10 movies in 2025. I suggested
Black Bag and he seemed interested enough. Except he totally snoozed through half of it. And maybe a quarter of the rest of the time, he just browsed on his phone. I don't think he paid very much attention to the movie at all. I even paused it at one point when he was clearly nodding off, but then he told me to keep playing it. Maybe he just gets some kind of comfort in the sound of the TV being on. Shortly after the movie ended, he went and took his shower and went to bed, even though it was like 7 p.m. I bet anything he'll get up for a bit again tonight before going to bed again. Somehow he prefers these graveyard shifts he works, but I truly don't know how he does it.
He'll head back to Edmonds tomorrow. It was still a delight to have him here, as always.
[posted 9:43pm]
