Pretty big day yesterday: late morning and early afternoon, Shobhit and I walked down to the waterfront for the Waterfront Park Grand Opening Celebration (photo album: 35 shots); late afternoon and through the evening, Shobhit and I drove to Tulalip for our second visit with Karen and Dave at their property out there—now with a finished house constructed on it. I'll get to the latter momentarily.

But for now, let's talk about Waterfront Park. My photo album for yesterday's event marked the 14th and final album for my "Seattle Waterfront Revitalization 2919-2025" collection, which includes six albums specific to the demolition of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Highway 99 tunnel it was replaced with; then another eight albums dedicated to the waterfront revitalization in the absence of the eye sore that had been the Viaduct. Among the six Viaduct albums, aside from two albums dedicated to the memory of it with photos dating back to 2005, these span between 2017 (for one dedicated to the opening of the Pike Place MarketFront) and 2019—three albums from 2019 alone (SR 99 Tunnel Walk; SR 99 Tunnel and Viaduct Bike Ride; Alaskan Way Viaduct demolition). Among the Seattle Waterfront (Waterfront Park) revitalization albums, these generally span from 2022 (my earliest photos of the Colman Dock renovation project) and 2025 (two three events or openings in 2024; five of them in 2025).

I've already had a couple of people ask me how the Waterfront Park Grand Opening Celebration was yesterday, and my response has been somewhat muted. I'm glad we went, but I should also note that every point of interest we went to, I already visited and took photos as soon as it was open to the public. Yesterday was basically an event where we went to see a bunch of stuff I've already seen, only crowded.

It wasn't that bad, mind you. I read that 50,000 visitors were expected on the waterfront yesterday, and indeed there were more people down there than I have seen maybe since before the pandemic—it's too bad this "Grand Opening" had to be scheduled so late in the summer; most visits I've had in the past were much brighter, warner weather days. It was overcast all morning and into the early afternoon yesterday, with highs in the mid-seventies which is quite pleasantly warm but it was low- to mid-sixties while the clouds were still here. Only while we were walking back up the hill toward him did I find myself grateful that I had made the decision not to wear my hoodie; it was a bit chilly up until that point, especially right on the water.

It even rained a little early on, though not too bad—never more than a light sprinkle. Shobhit and I walked down 12th Avenue E and turned on Jackson to head over to Pioneer Square and then make our way north along the waterfront. It only started to sprinkle once we were closing in on Pioneer Square, where I thought some events would be happening at Occidental Square, and that turned out not to be the case. I was probably confusing that with "Railroad Way South," which is down by the stadiums and we bypassed by going straight to WA Street Boat Landing, which is where the new Molly Moon's Ice Cream is at.

Side note: I still feel a lack of clarity regarding what specifically constitutes "Waterfront Park" now. On Google Maps, it is only marked on Pier 58, the sight of the original Waterfront Park and which partially collapsed in September 2020, sending, among other things, the 4-ton Waterfront Fountain by James FitzGerald, there since 1974, into the water. The re-installation of the fountain when a fully reconstructed Pier 58 opened in July was a big part of the fanfare of the overall Waterfront Park project this summer. But if you click the "Explore" button at top-right at waterfrontparkseattle.org, the links under the "Waterfront Park" heading include Pier 62; Overlook Walk; Pier 58; Park Promenade; Pioneer Square Habitat Beach; and Railroad Way South—at least four of which had specific stages and entertainment and vendor booths set up for the Grand Opening Celebration yesterday. The overall messaging now is that "Waterfront Park" extends the majority of the the length of the Seattle Waterfront, from Pioneer Square all the way up to Pier 62.

Curiously, Pier 66 was also in on the celebrations, with a "Family Fun" area set up on the rooftop public space atop that building—it was where Shobhit and I kind of had the most fun as we walked the waterfront yesterday. We got lots of free stuff there, from tiny, adorable single-bite ice cream cones to cotton candy spun right in front of us (and this was when I learned that in India, apparently unironically, they call cotton candy "old lady's hair"—I laughed pretty hard at that) to prizes for answering trivia about the Port of Seattle (which operates at Pier 66).

I had learned that Danielle was planning to come to this celebration too, and there was the general idea that we'd meet up with her. And we did, but only very briefly; she texted to aske when we were planning on coming down when we were already coming back and about ready to head back home. She said they were in line for the new public bathroom, so we did backtrack just a little to meet her there. She was with Rylee, and who I assume was Rylee's boyfriend, a really tall guy with long hair whose name I forget. Anyway, I had assumed this would get Danielle a Social Review point, but we saw each other for all of five minutes so that really doesn't count.

Shobhit and I walked up the Overlook Walk to Pike Place Market, where we got a loaf of kalamata olive bread from Three Girls Bakery, then we walked back home.

So that brings us to the drive up to Tulalip: I managed a 22-shot photo album for this one; this is now part of a two-album "Tulalip collection," the first album being from our first time up there to check out the property, which it was just an open lot and the only completed structure was a shed. (The above shots are relatively close to the same view, September 2021 vs. 2025). I discovered when going through my Facebook Memories on Friday that when we went up there in 2021, it was on September 5. Yesterday we returned only one day past four years to the day from our first visit.

As you can see, a lot's gotten done since then. I've peppered Karen regularly about this house the entire time. Karen told me the house was move-in ready as long ago as March, but there was no furniture put in it yet; they've only been going up to stay regularly since June. Their cat, Kiki, was there last night, and Karen noted that this was only Kiki's third visit. It sounds like Karen goes up pretty often, though, regularly going up on a Friday and returning to their house in Magnolia on Monday.

I can still remember when Karen and Dave lived in an apartment in South Lake Union for several months in 2009, when their Magnolia house was being renovated, largely to make it more comfortably accessible for Karen and their daughter Anita, both of whom are wheelchair users. We even went to their apartment to watch the Lake Union fireworks on the 4th of July that year. I think they're still pretty happy with that house, but this house in Tulalip is not only designed and constructed from scratch with accessibility in mind, but with their individual needs in mind. It's nearly one and a half times the size of the Magnolia house in terms of square footage, and that's the house alone; the plot of land in Tulalip is far larger than the one in Seattle as well.

Indeed, the thing I noticed immediately was how spacious it was. There are no rugs and it's basically concrete floor the entire house, which kind of makes sense with two people in wheelchairs regularly using it. I should note that Anita is now 28 years old (kind of nuts to me; she was therefore 24 when we met up with them in 2021—she had been 16 at Shobhit's and my wedding), but she still has her own room for when she comes home to visit, complete with a specially designed couch and mounted flatscreen TV because Karen did not want a TV in the living room. Anita had come out to join us for Shobhit's and my visit to Tulalip in 2021, and we were delighted that she did the same last night as well.

The dinners between 2021 and 2025 were pretty drastically different, of course: in 2021 we basically had a picnic on folding table, and thankfully the weather was decent. Last night, as Karen had long ago promised, we had fondue for dinner, using a pot she was using for the first time. I should have taken a photo of the fondue spread last night, but I never did: the fondue pot had a delicious melted cheese in it, and the different bowls of food for dipping included one bowl of bread pieces; a bowl of cherry tomatoes; a bowl of sliced apples and pears; and a bowl of bite sized potatoes. That's not even to mention the chips and salsa set out when we arrived, and the grapefruit gimlet cocktails Anita made for all of us (with the exception of Karen, who doesn't really drink).

I did make chai and bring it for them, which Karen was thrilled by but did not want to drink that late in the day. So, they poured our two thermoses of chai into a pitcher for them to save for breakfast this morning—Karen texted me a photo of their Tulalip house guest book sitting next to her chai, now cold and with ice (I much prefer it hot but whatever). I didn't get any of that chai as a result, as we had cocktails and later wine instead; I made a fresh batch of chai for Shobhit and me earlier this afternoon.

In any case, the dinner was fantastic and fun. And although Dave was sometimes a little awkward with his "dad joke" references to being privileged White people ("I tell people all the time I was raised by White people," said Anita, who was adopted from New Delhi, India), and Karen got just slightly testy a couple of times (with her own family, never with Shobhit or me) while prepping the dinner just before we all sat down, any stresses pretty much melted away once we were all eating.

They were very careful about never setting anything directly on the dining table. Dave did make the somewhat odd choice of saying "That costs more than you're worth!" I knew he was joking, while also trying to demonstrate the table apparently cost a fortune, but I refused to believe the table was worth more than Shobhit's and my combined net worth. So I asked Shobhit what that was, and he kind of indicated later that he didn't like me asking that in front of them. This was slightly surprising to me, given how seldom Shobhit realizes people think it's rude if you ask how much they spent on something. My defense was that Dave brought it up first, and facetious or not, I wanted to prove we were worth more than the table. I think Shobhit was actually slightly embarrassed to share our combined net worth only because he was certain it's far lower than theirs. I have no doubt that's probably true; I just don't care or have any particular embarrassment about it myself.

For the record, Shobhit's and my combined net worth is far greater than the value of their table. So there!

After dinner, Dave kind of retired to the chair in the living room with his laptop and headphones, as he's not into playing games. But Shobhit and I were all about the proposal to play a couple of games of Yahtzee, which we did; then we played another fun game they had, called Flip 7.

I got the sense that we could have gotten away with staying a solid hour later than we did, but I was the one who was feeling a bit tired and had in mind that it was still going to take us an hour to drive back home. (It was closer to 45 minutes on the way back, to be fair; on the way up we stopped at a Costco to get some gas, and since we had some time to burn we did a bit of shopping too.) We were getting ready to go by about 9:30, and then, after some last-minute questions about the house, we were going through the gate to their little community at roughly 9:45. It was around 10:30 when we got home, at which point I was dead tired so I went pretty much straight to bed.

I did text Karen from the car, though, thanking her again and noting that Shobhit had said after we got in the car, "That was a fun night." Karen replied, "You're welcome and we thought so too! All 3 of us remarked on it!" It really is lovely up there and I rather hope we can return or a visit sooner than another four years from now.

[posted 1:53pm]