And here we are, the final post for Birth Week 2024: Washington State Islands. I sure had a great time, two people having to cancel notwithstanding.
I've been keeping a spreadsheet of Birth Week expenses since 2018, the first year I started instituting a theme. Setting aside the stay-home covid year of 2020, when all I did was have "virtual quarantini" cocktails over video chat with people all week—and I did not track the cost of the liquor I consumed—this year I actually spent less money on my Birth Week than any other year
since 2018, when my Birth Week expenses totaled about $120.
This year I spent about $158. It would have liked at the very least exceeded $200, but aside from ferry fares, most of the money was spent at restaurants, and multiple people insisted on buying my meals. In the past, Gabriel has accused me of using my Birth Week as a ruse just to get people to buy me meals. Listen, I was fully ready and willing to pay for all the meals I had scheduled last week—I literally budgeted for them—but you know what? I'm not going to complain about being able to save some money either.
The real truth is, what I saved the most on this year was neither renting a car nor staying the night in a hotel at any time. In 2021, when I did the Washington State Parks, I rented a car for the entire week. Last year, when I did "Hidden Gems," I rented a car for a few days for two different portions of the week, spending about $30 less than in 2021 in so doing—and in 2021 it was an extra $331 expense. 2021 had also included an overnight stay in a hotel with Dad and Sherri in Long Beach on the Washington Coast, another $195 expense. In 2022, I spent a total $448 on my Birth Week riding trains, without even any separate expense for car rental or hotel.
For some time, I really expected to rent a car this year, as I would be doing a good amount of driving. But, it hardly took a lot of convincing to for Shobhit to let me drive his car when I needed it instead, and give him my bus bas to use for commuting. More often than not, I was still able to drop him off or pick him up anyway. I drove his car on Saturday April 27 to Harstine Island to meet up with Jennifer and Matthew, then on to Olympia to meet up with Dad the next day, and then back home that evening. I drove it to lunch with Karen in Magnolia on Monday, dropping him off earlier in the morning and then driving home and back to Magnolia again before being able to pick Shobhit up at work right after he got off work that day at 1:00. Shobhit drove the car for us to take our day trip to Lopez Island on Tuesday. After Danielle canceled on Wednesday, he drove us to Foster Island and Marsh Island at Washington Park Arboretum that afternoon. I drove the car to meet up with Valerie for lunch at Mercer Island on Thursday, before heading on to Snoqualmie for Gabriel and Lea's wedding rehearsal. I drove it again to Snoqualmie Saturday for the wedding, and then one last time yesterday to Everett.
The only days I did not use the car were Friday April 26, when Alexia drove us to Harbor Island; and on Friday May 3, when Tracy drove us to Vashon Island.
So what did I do in Everett yesterday? Jetty Island! Sort of, anyway: we walked along the waterfront, where I took photos from the mainland shore. Everett's downtown and waterfront are located on a peninsula formed to the east and north by the Snohomish River, and to the west by Possession Sound—which is on the other side of the 2-mile long, very thin, man-made island called Jetty Island. From the shore, at least yesterday, it was so close, yet so far away: it is less than 2000 feet, or about 0.2 miles, from Boxcar Park on the mainland. But, there's no getting out there, unless you have your own boat—motorized or not; you could take a row boat or a kayak out there.
But!
from the day after the Fourth of July through the end of August, you can reserve a spot on a passenger ferry out there. So, even though I already got
a 30-shot photo album out of yesterday, I fully plan to return later this summer so we can all go out there, and I will add those photos to this same album. Amazingly, not even Zephyr, who grew up in Everett, has ever been out on that island. (He did tell a nuts story about trying to row across to the much-further-out Whidbey Island—it's 2 miles across the water from Mukilteo—at 3 a.m. once when he was a teenager.) When we said goodbye yesterday, Zephyr was like, "We say this every time, but we should get together more often!" And I was like, "Well we already have a built-in plan for later this year, I'm definitely coming back this summer! We're going out to that island!"
Anyway. I did drop Shobhit off at work yesterday morning at 9:00, and then drove back home first. I was unable to pick him up this time, when he got off work at 1:30. He already knew I was meeting Lynn and Zephyr at 1:00, I don't know what made him think there was any chance I'd be back home from Everett by 1:30.
I left home at about 11:30, after barely getting my
post about Gabriel and Lea's wedding written up and posted. I then drove downtown, parked in a 30-minute loading zone, and returned the suit rental at the downtown Seattle location of the Men's Warehouse.
I got a free pair of socks out of that by the way. I need new socks! I was apparently also allowed to keep the pink pocket square but I didn't bother keeping that.
And then, I was off to my final Birth Week activity, with Lynn and Zephyr. You can perhaps see this in the top and bottom photos in this post, but the weather was bad: it rained the entire day, the only variance being in how heavily. It was easily the worst weather day of the entire 10-day Birth Week, making it, I suppose, just as well that Jetty Island was what got scheduled for that day—since we couldn't actually get out there yesterday anyway. Just walking along the waterfront was a bit of a challenge, with the rain and a bit of breeziness, and also Lynn having to go slowly. Within the past couple of months she had emergency gall bladder removal
and a kidney infection! She's mostly recovered now but still unable to move very quickly.
Last year, we had lunch right in that same area, at a place called Bluewater Distilling, in a small business complex called Waterfront Center. Lynn's recommendation this time was Scuttlebut Brewing, which is at the opposite end of the very same business complex. It's apparently a bit cheaper, and the food was phenomenal: Zephyr ordered a pita platter as a shared appetizer, and I think it may have been the best pita bread I've ever had; I ordered the
portabella mushroom burger with bleu cheese crumbles, and holy fuck it was delicious. I even ordered their
root beer as a beverage, even though I otherwise never get sodas at restaurants, but I was told they brewed it in-house and the menu said it was "award winning" (it tasted . . . like root beer). Oh, and I had onion rings as my side, which were fucking amazing, but there were so many I couldn't finish them. I could have taken them home for Shobhit but since he's on Weight Watchers I figured I shouldn't. Zephyr went ahead and put them in their own box of leftovers.
"It's the least I could do, since you covered lunch," I said. I really tried to pay for my lunch, but they insisted, even when I said to Zephyr, "You just lost your job!" He was laid off about a month ago, but Lynn's response was, "Yean but I didn't," and Zephyr got a decent severance, apparently. They said they're probably set to stay comfortable for as long as a year, apparently. I'm guessing Zephyr will have a new job soon enough, and he's got an interview already lined up with a place he has already worked at before and always had a good relationship with.
I suppose I could explain the video clip. This happened shortly after we were seated. There were actually three kids, two girls took turns but the boy stayed up the whole time, doing traditional Mexican dances. At first I was a bit baffled by this happening at a brewery rather than, say, a Mexican restaurant. But, a) it
was Cinco de Mayo yesterday, so these kinds of things were probably happening all over the place, whether the location seemed obvious or not; and b) according to Zephyr, Everett has a large Latino population, which he estimated at 30%, then amended to maybe 20%. (Let's check
Wikipedia. First of all, wow, Everett is a lot bigger than I realized, having surprassed 100,000 people in 2010, making it the seventh-biggest city in Washington State (after Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Vancouver, Bellevue, and . . . Kent, of all places, bleh). Hmm: it says, "Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 17.2% of the city's population." Slightly off from Zephyr's estimate but about the same if you round up (although it's technically closer to 15% than to 20%, whatever. It's still the largest minority group there).
I had gotten to Waterfront Center first, maybe seven or eight minutes before Lynn and Zephyr did, and I went inside just to get out of the cold, and hung out in a large kind of atrium to the building. I took a few photos. And, I saw the little girls in their elaborate, traditional dresses for the dances, having no idea they were waiting to go in and perform in the restaurant. A bunch of extended family were also there, most of them speaking to each other in Spanish.
Lynn and Zephyr later remarked that Scuttlebut is usually much busier than it was. Well, it wasn't dead either, and not being slammed was fine by me. We got good service and the food was delicious, what else could you ask for? I might ask to go there again when I return this summer. I'd really like Shobhit to come along for that, I think it would be fun for him to join us out on the island—which I want to walk the entire, two-mile length of—and also be able to catch up with Lynn and Zephyr. Zephyr shared a lot of detail about the complicated circumstances of his getting laid off, and I wasn't able to remember them all when I got home.
After lunch, we walked over to the old
Wayerhaeuser Office Building, which had been under construction and renovations last year: now it's
The Muse Whiskey Bar & Coffee Shop, and it's
really nice, particularly
on the inside, with rooms where you could sit in plus furniture. Unfortunately, all those seats were taken by the time we had ordered. We went upstairs to sit at a tall table
next to some smaller windows—but, through which I had a nice angle for some good photos of Jetty Island across the water. Perfect!
Lynn ordered a London Fog tea. Zephyr had a coffee. And I had a very delicious hot chocolate. It would have been nice to have these hot drinks in hand when we left there to walk the waterfront maybe, but, I suppose that could also have complicated dealing with the definitively unpleasant weather. After we had walked to two different spots with good angles on the island across the water, we walked back to the parking lot, and I thanked them both for indulging me. It was especially nice of Lynn, since she had to walk so slowly.
They have standing plans every Sunday at 6:00, but since there were still a couple of hours until then, Zephyr said I was welcome to come hang out at their house for a bit. I declined, though, and said I had too much to do and needed to get back home—I'm insisting on returning for a longer visit in nicer weather this summer anyway! So then, after getting one last exterior shot of the lovely Muse / Wayerhaeuser building, I drove the roughly 40 minutes home.
Harshal (pronounced like "Hirschel"), Shobhit's cousin—or technically, his paternal cousin's son—was there, having a goodbye dinner that Shobhit had prepared. I had already eaten way too much yesterday, but there were homemade parathas, what was I supposed to do! Anyway, Harshal's visa did not go through, I guess the demand is far higher these days when Shobhit got his (that's what he says, anyway), so Harshal is not able to stay in the U.S. as desired. Shobhit said his wife is already back in India, and Harshal will shortly be traveling back to Bangalore to live permanently.
He "formally invited" both of us to visit him whenever we are in India. I've already never been there, and Shobhit only suggested for the first time a couple of months ago that we travel there together next year. That would be to Delhi, though. I asked Harshal how far from there Bangalore is, and he said, "Only about a two and a half hour flight." I have no idea if visiting multiple locations we would have to fly to is in the cards, but there is still the fact that Harshal offered his place for us to stay, which would certainly save us some travel money. (I have a feeling I would have to get a hotel in Delhi; staying with Shobhit's mother remains far too tricky. Besides, Shobhit already told me while he was there last month that although the place has two bathrooms, the
one bathroom that has a mirror on the wall has no functioning plumbing. That alone makes me lean toward a hotel. Although right now I'm also thinking about things like what sort of shots I might need before going, or how dangerous the water there would be for me, etc.)
It was nice to see him, anyway. I processed my photos from Everett on my MacBook laptop while they visited in the living room, chiming in occasionally whenever appropriate. I also finished "part one" of my Birth Week travelogue, and got that sent out moments before we all left to drive Harshal back out to the family he always stays with in West Seattle when he's in town. I took a couple of photos of all of us before we all hugged and Shobhit drive us back home again.
So that's that, then: my
22nd annual Birth Week, now done and in the bag. Time to start planning the next one!
[posted 12:35 pm]
