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Still working from home today. It probably would have been fine to return to the office today, but I decided to wait until I have tested negative twice 48 hours apart. And I hate working from home! There is one thing I will miss, though: I have made chai every morning I've worked from home, which was Wednesday and Thursday last week; and Monday through Wednesday this week. Of course I also made chai every other day too. I'll have to go back to regular tea when I get back to the office.
This has all been a very odd experience, working from home for just over a week even though I never actually got sick.
Shobhit and I did go out last night, and this was at my suggestion: I was just really bored, and wanted to do something. I suggested we walk to the Arboretum. Shobhit is still easing into long walks, and didn't think he was up for walking all the way over there just to also walk around the park. "We could drive there," I said, and that turned him around.
I'm so glad we did. I really loved it, mostly because we once again attempted the Arboretum Waterfront Trail—which Shobhit and I already attempted once, in early May of last year, as
part of my Birth Week theme of Washington State Islands: this trail crosses Foster Island and Marsh Island, at the north end of Washington Park Arboretum. Unfortunately, in the spring of last year, there were two issues:
water levels were high, blocking access to certain spots on Foster Island as well as the approach to the eastern side of March Island; and multiple sections of the floating walkways were in various states of disrepair, including the one
connecting the west side of Marsh Island to the mainland part of Seattle's Montlake neighborhood.
I was most disappointed in all this at the time, as it deprived me of exploring of the the islands I had on my agenda for my "Washingtob State Islands" Birth Week theme. As such, I was delighted to discover yesterday that it was
all repaired—this combined with lower water levels due to the time of year meant we had easy access to the island, on both ends of it.
We parked in the lot closest to Foster Island, which is also near the Arboretum Foundation building and the Arboretum Garden (which we walked through after coming back). The walk from there to the Arboretum West Trailhead was
a solid mile; so once we returned to the Arboretum Garden the round-trip walk was barely more than two miles—kind of perfect, really, and totally fun and beautiful. By the end of the day, my Health app steps tracker indicated 7,104 steps, or 2.9 miles; this was slightly shorter than the 3.2 miles I walked on Friday (when I took myself to a movie downtown); 4.5 miles on Saturday (when Shobhit and I walked around Discovery Park); and 4 miles on Sunday (when Shobhit and I went to Volunteer Park). It was only Monday that we didn't go anywhere at all. I logged barely more than a quarter-mile of distance that entire day.
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— पांच हजार आठ सौ नब्बे —
Anyway! The Aboretum Waterfront Trail repairs must have been very recently finished; virtually anything I can find about it online still either says it's closed or that repairs are underway—including the trail's
Seattle City Parks web page itself. That actually shows one of the floating walkways partially submerged in water, something we saw when we were there last year.
Every spot we tried to access last year but couldn't, plus a bunch more, we were able to access yesterday. We walked straight through the much larger Foster Island (only technically an island because of a small creek of water that cuts through its south end and the mainland), and spent most of our focus on Marsh Island, because I was so delighted to have access. The last time I actually managed to get all the way out to Marsh Island was 18 years ago, in 2007, when I
went with Barbara.
I completed a
full collection dedicated to visits to Washington Park Arboretum, which consists of 5 photo albums (2005, 2006, 2007, 2024 and 2025); I also created one dedicated
just to Foster Island & Marsh Island (this one I put under the heading of
Washington State Islands). The
album from yesterday consists of 25 shots, and I also added that to my
Birth Week 2024 collection, even though it's a year and a half after the fact—but, it completes what we could not complete when we went there on May 1, 2024.
It had been so long since I had full access to that area, it was only as of last night that I think I've decided this is one of my favorite places in Seattle. It's certainly my favorite part of the Washington Park Arboretum—and that includes the Japanese Garden (which is also beautiful). There's just so much this city has to offer. I love it here!
Anyway then we drove back home, ate dinner, and watched this week's episode of
Slow Horses. Each season is six episodes so that means this season is already half over!
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[posted 12:32pm]
