Most of my
Independence Day photo albums cover just the day itself, and often fewer total photos per album than a lot of annual holidays: 2025 had 40 shots; 2024 had 44; 2023 had 42; 2022 and 2021 both had 31. Every several years, though, Independence Day turns into "Independence Day Weekend" because of the day landing
on the weekend, and I can add another day or two of holiday-weekend activities to it. I've had eight "Independence Day Weekend" albums over the years, the first cluster being the three years between 1997 and 1999, all three years of which Danielle came to visit me for the holiday when she still lived in Spokane.
The next "Independence Day Weekend" was 2009, which weirdly included "Disney's A Christmas Carol Trail Tour" on Friday, July 3 that year. Next there was a couple of "Independence Day Weekend" albums as part of the four years I spent the holiday with Shobhit at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles. In 2020, during covid restrictions, there were no public fireworks displays, but that year's "Independence Day Weekend" album included Shobhit's and my day trip to Larabee State Park on Friday, July 3 that year.
Well, six years later, I've got my next "
Independence Day Weekend" photo album, totaling 64 shots—29 of them on Friday (again, July 3—"Independence Day Observed," so I had the day off work), when Laney and I had a BYOB Happy Hour meetup at the newly renovated
Myrtle Edwards Park; the other 35 shots from yesterday for the 4th of July itself.
I actually had my biweekly
Zoom lunch with Karen on Friday first; we were both off work but decided to keep our virtual lunch appointment anyway. There was a lot going on at the same time; I was preheating the oven for baking the veggie corn dogs I was actually going to take with me to eat with Laney at the park, and Shobhit had a couple house cleaners Mary from down the hall recommended come by to offer a quote for a deep clean on our kitchen and main bathroom. And I still had to assemble the parts of the margarita with salted rim I planned to have with Laney too.
Karen could hear the chatter when Shobhit brought the ladies into the main bathroom while I was on Zoom with her at my desk in the bedroom. And after they left and I went to go put the corn dogs in the oven, I told Shobhit Karen was on the screen and he could go say hi to her if he wanted. So he did that, and actually chatted for several minutes even after I returned. After a bit I said, "Can I have my chair back?" Karen giggled and said, "This is my call!" Indeed! Still, I guess they both get Social Review points for that.
Shobhit talked to her a lot about hiring the cleaners. I had talked to her a bit about the holiday. She was set to drive up to their house in Tulalip after the call was over, at which they were going to be hosting
ten people yesterday—I said, "It's like a half-year Thanksgiving!" She noted that this holiday is easier though because all they have to provide to eat are hamburgers and hot dogs.
When Karen's and my Zoom Hour was over, I went and finished making my margarita, which was a little odd as we don't have margarita mix so I made it with tequila, sweet & sour mix, and for added volume Lemon Lime Twist flavor Zevia Soda. I mean, it was fine, but it did not taste like a standard margarita. But! I did bring the margarita salt Shobhit keeps wanting to use for cooking but I won't let him because I keep saying I will use it for margaritas, and on Friday, I did! Once Laney and I reached Myrtle Edwards Park, we found a spot to sit, and I ate the corn dogs I had transported inside a large thermos that really did not do a great job of keeping them particularly hot. And then I used the lidded plastic cup I brought, wet its rim with my fingers dipped in the margarita itself (which was in its own insulated bottle), and stuck the rim into the shallow dish of margarita salt. I did this twice; I basically got two cocktails out of it.
Laney had taken her van over to Alki and found a great parking spot far from the expected 4th of July chaos on Capitol Hill, so we decided to meet at Pier 50 at 2:00, where she took the King County Water Taxi over from West Seattle. I walked from home, and then Laney and I walked the roughly two miles from Pier 50. Ha! I'm glad I didn't look it up, because Laney guessed it was a mile and a half which shouldn't be too bad. She may have still walked the waterfront to get there from Pier 50 had she known it was two solid miles, but she may also have been a bit less inclined. Whatever, we paced ourselves and it was a lovely day.
Shobhit stayed home when I left, but decided to go on a long walk to get his daily steps in, and wound up walking by Myrtle Edwards Park anyway, so in the end he joined us. But! Not before we were right by a wedding proposal, which took place close enough to where Laney and I sat for me to
get a photo. The guy—it was a straight couple—had a blanket spread out on the sand of the beach, with pillows propped up and against them a sign that read WILL YOU MARRY ME ❤️ 07.03.26. There were little signs posted on the nearby fencing asking people to steer clear of the area when a proposal was to happen in about an hour; we clearly got to the area when the proposal was maybe half an hour away. We weren't super close anyway; we were on the other side of fencing maybe fifty feet from their blanket. And when the woman clearly said yes, a smattering of people in all directions applauded, including Laney and me.
"I give it three months!" I said to Laney.
I mean, half of marriages end in divorce, but Shobhit and I have been together 22 years now—officially married 13 years. There's still time for me to murder him though. Don't count me out just yet!
Anyway, I should mention Myrtle Edwards Park recently reopened with major renovations
about a month ago. This was the whole reason Laney and I went there, to see the improvements. And it really was fantastic; the park is beautiful. Also, I didn't even know until Karen informed me during our lunch call that they also opened a
Cafe Hagen there; there was no cafe in the park before the renovations. Karen told me they have an amazing "cardamom roll," which we discovered is actually a "
Cardamom Knot," and we managed to snag the last one in their case. Laney was going to wait behind while Shobhit and I went ahead to find the cafe and order, and she asked us to get her one of the cardamom rolls too, but when we discovered there are public bathrooms (gender neutral!) behind the cafe, Laney caught up with us so she could pee.
And then we all sat down at a small table at the cafe and split the Cardamom Knot we ordered. We also ordered a hot chocolate, at Shobhit's suggestion, and I probably shouldn't have considering the two margaritas I had already drank but whatever. The hot chocolate was fine, at least once they remade it for me since the first one they gave me was actually a mocha and the coffee made it disgusting.
Anyway, I would definitely go back there. And Karen was interested in checking it out but was unsure of how easily she could get there as a wheelchair user. I later texted her photos that showed there is an easily accessible parking lot behind the cafe, with a path she could get to the cafe from there, just crossing a bike path. It's only a roughly 10-minute drive from her house in Magnolia.
From there, Shobhit, Laney and I all walked the waterfront back down southward; Laney was headed back to Pier 50, and we all stopped at Colman Dock so both Laney and Shobhit could use the bathroom. Shobhit and I then went to the stop for the RapidRide G and took that bus back up the hill toward home.
There's probably not nearly as much for me to share about yesterday, the actual 4th of July, which I spent just with Shobhit, as is what usually occurs—we went to Renton to spend the day with Danielle in 2020 and 2021, when public gatherings were being canceled due to covid. But, Shobhit and I have gone down to South Lake Union Park to watch the official fireworks display over Lake Union every year since 2022, just as we had in 2017 and 2018 before covid (in 2019 we went to a 4th of July party at the condo Lea lived in at the time; the four years prior to that were 4th of Julys in Grand Park in Los Angeles).
A few years ago, we were still going down there rather early to stake out a spot and then hang out for a few hours until the fireworks actually happened at 10:20 p.m. But, in recent years Shobhit and I seem to have perfected a system: we still walk down to South Lake Union Park from home, which is again a two-mile distance, and we get there maybe an hour before the fireworks. The crowds are of course already
very thick by then, but it's still early enough for us to find a decent enough spot behind maybe two rows of people behind the fencing that separates the people who buy ticketed seating, and the view from there is more than good enough. And this way we don't have to wait more than about an hour.
I'm also find with getting there earlier and finding a good place on the grass somewhere, but this also works.
I suppose I could mention that this is supposed to be the special "America 250" celebration; the country is 250 years old this year—I was born the year the United States turned 200, and my understanding is it was a
way bigger deal then, celebrating the bicentennial. And a lot of us might be more inclined to find ways to celebrate the 250th, except that we have one of the most heinous presidents this country has ever seen. I have paid zero attention to whatever they did "special" in Washington. D.C. And you know what? The Seattle celebration was pretty standard, no more special than any average year. Amusingly, last year I had seen more than one person wearing a T-shirt that read,
I'M JUST HERE FOR THE FIREWORKS. I did not see any of those this year, and this year, when the 20-minute fireworks display ended, there was a group of young men who chanted, "
U.S.A.! U.S.A! U.S.A.!." And that was of course kind of dumb but whatever; it was the closest thing we saw to anything "special" for the country's 250th birthday.
I got the fireworks I wanted, and then Shobhit and I walked back home again, stopping briefly at Hot Mama's Pizza on the way for a couple slices of pesto pizza. My steps count yesterday was just shy of 14,000, but Friday's was a fair amount higher, at 17,664. I should probably be walking as much as I can, to train for all the walking we're sure to wind up doing in Amsterdam in a few weeks.
Anyway, should I tell you what I did today? I had a double feature with Alexia, which was supposed to be in the theater downstairs but it's still not repaired so we watched the movies in the condo. The double feature theme was "time loop movies," and so we watched the 2014 Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt alien-invation action movie
Edge of Tomorrow, and then the 2020 Hulu original Adam Sandberg and Cristin Milioti romantic comedy
Palm Springs. And we had a great time with it.
Shobhit did go on a long walk through one and a quarter of the movies, but he came home with some desserts from the Capitol Hill Farmers Market during
Palm Springs, and watched the rest of that one with us. He's just butting into the Social Review points all around all weekend! That should make him happy.
We talked a bit, after the second movie, about the proposed trip to Alaska with Alexia, which I had been aiming to do in 2027, but it may now get punted to 2028. Shobhit is leaning toward taking the combined Hong Kong / Singapore trip next year, since his sister should still be living in Singapore then and may not be a year after that. And here I thought 2027 might pass by with no international travel. We'll see, I guess.
[posted 7:41pm]
