Out of this year's ten-day stretch of my "Birth Week," I would say six of those days were beautiful—honestly, a pretty good track record for late April and early May in Seattle and Western Washington, especially after some years of noticeable effects of climate change, where with each passing year the weather is more reliably pleasant most, if not all, of the week. Furthermore, I would say that eight of those days had weather that was good enough, and still provided me with the views I wanted: we had mostly cloudy skies on both Sunday last weekend and on Monday, and I still got the views I wanted of both Olympia and Tacoma. An 80% record of either beautiful or serviceable weather is pretty good.

I shouldn't be too picky anyway, I guess. It's a bit of a bummer that only the two days I actually went up mountainsides—Tiger Mountain with Valerie on Tuesday, and Crystal Mountain by Mt. Rainier with Shobhit and Alexia yesterday—had weather bad enough to almost totally obscure the views we were going there for. The upside in both of those cases is that the immediate surroundings were still lush and gorgeous—something we can only thank the rain for, as it happens. Only Tuesday had actual rainfall; yesterday was very cloudy but at least it didn't rain.

Today, though, is back to a beautiful day: mostly sunny, forecast high of 61°. Shobhit and I walked roughly three miles to Dr. Jose Rizal Park, specifically for the iconic view of downtown Seattle that you see above, and it was quite a lovely walk. I did spray on some sunscreen before leaving, but as I write this, I can feel on the skin of my face that I must have still gotten slightly sunburned.

Under normal circumstances I might have waited to write about this until tomorrow. But, tomorrow is my first day back to work in, as I said, ten days, and I am sure to be overwhelmed by both my backlog of a week's worth of emails and whatever new shit comes up all day for me to take care of in the meantime. I won't have time to dick around writing a blog post. I have the time t dick around doing that right now though!

I had initially hoped to go to the Sky View Observatory with Lynn and Zephyr today—something I wound up doing with Danielle on Friday afternoon instead. I'll have to meet up with Lynn and Zephyr on Sunday next weekend instead, probably in their neck of the woods, in Everett. I was also originally supposed to do the Smith Tower Observatory Bar with Shauna on Friday evening, but because of the wedding booking they bumped us to Saturday, which Shauna originally said she could do, and then texted later that she needed to bail so she could take care of her ailing and elderly brother. Alexia went with me instead.

This all left today totally open—no friends left to schedule a Birth Week activity. I still wanted to go get a glimpse of this view of Seattle, though, and knowing that Shobhit would be all about getting the steps (as I write this, my step count for the day is 15,042—third-highest for the week, after the day in Portland on Wednesday's 22,077 steps, and the hike up Tiger Mountain on Tuesday's 21,102 steps), he was perfectly happy to walk with me down there.

I did not even realize, until maybe yesterday, that Jose Rizal Park is named after a famous writer and national hero, Dr. José Rizal, from the Philippines. I could have come here with Tracy, who is half Filipino (and half Panamanian)! I mean, maybe she gets tired of my ideas of going places with her because of their ties to the Philippines, I don't know. In any case, it was Laney's idea to invite her to our Happy Hour in Tacoma on Tuesday, knowing she's living in nearby Puyallup. That worked out perfectly well anyway, and was a relief to me at the time because when that was planned, I did not have any other idea yet for Tracy's inclusion in my Birth Week this year. And I want her to be included! She's consistently been a participant every year now for five years.

Anyway. There's a bronze bust of Rizal at the park, which I totally forgot to look for, so now I need to go back and get a picture of it, as well as the art installation that's apparently also there.

I did look up Yelp reviews of this park, and it's got an average rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars from 74 reviews, which is decent enough I guess. Several reviews, though, comment on how sketchy the park is, particularly at dusk when people like to go there for pretty photos of the view. To be honest, even in the daytime, it seemed just slightly sketchy. The park is awkwardly laid out, a lot of thick growth up a steep hillside, although there are some trails.

I'm really glad we went down that trail, incidentally. It went down to a gate open to a bike path, which we chose to walk back to the 12th Avenue bridge (also named after José Rizal, incidentally), and it was along that path that I found the "hole in the fence" often referenced in those Yelp reviews. That's where the greatest photo spot in the park is located, and I am so glad I got that iconic shot for myself. I wouldn't mind going back sometime for another photo at dusk, though.

I took several photos while walking there and back, making an album of 30 shots for the day—just under half of them (14) actually at Jose Rizal Park. Several others were taken at parks along a bike path that runs alongside I-90, including the lovely Daejeon Park, named after Seattle's sister city in Korea, and featuring a beautiful Korean style pagoda.

Shobhit and I spent over two hours taking that walk, which included a stop at the Starbucks on 12th and Columbia on the way home, where we got a hot chocolate to share. We spent hardly twenty minutes at Jose Rizal Park itself, but it still got me all I needed: the fantastic photos of the Seattle view from there!

So, that wraps up Birth Week 2025. Ten days, fourteen "Observation Decks & Viewpoints." Three entire days of the week this year were spent exclusively with Shobhit (the two days for our overnight trip to Portland, and today), and he spent most of a fourth day participating in Birth Week activities (going to Crystal Mountain yesterday, with Alexia). I otherwise did activities with sixteen friends and family, although I'll increase the official count to 18 when I hang out with Lynn and Zephyr next weekend as a belated Birth Week hangout. I should see if I can't find some pretty viewpoint in Everett.

Now I start planning next year's Birth Week! I turn 50 next year, and my working plan at the moment is to make the theme "1976 landmarks." This should prove far less expensive than this year's Birth Week, which I initially thought would have a record high cost of over $600, but after not renting a car like I thought I might and therefore budgeted for, the total cost has come to about $513, which is actually the third-most I have spent on my Birth Week to date. And next year will definitely be cheaper! Well, that's the plan right now anyway.

[posted 4:37pm]