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Now I know it's a little ridiculous that I obsess over this, but it became clear over the weekend that I will easily match, or probably even exceed, my record number of photo albums for
a year's Christmas albums collection, this year. I previously stated last year I reached a record ten of them; I forgot that I actually made that record the year before, in 2019, and merely managed to match it last year—in spite of last year being at one of the peaks of the pandemic, and it was because circumstances inspired me to find new photogenic things to do. Thus, there's the Capitol Hill tour of holiday lights; visiting "Candy Cane Lane" in Ravenna with Shobhit; and even a small photo album for a brief snowfall got included. Had this been any other year, 2019 would have remained the year with the record ten Christmastime photo albums—and that year was the last one with a photo album for a Christmastime visit to Wallace, Idaho; also the last year (for now) with an album for the Gingerbread Village that hasn't happened in either 2020 or 2021.
This year, I've managed much more significant new things: the Seattle Festival of Trees; and this past weekend, a first-time visit, with Alexia, to the "Victorian Country Christmas" at the Washington State Fairgrounds. But, I wound up creating an unexpected extra photo album for "
Seattle Center Winterfest" kind of by random accident. Photos of that have historically focused on the miniature model village inside the Armory at Seattle Center, but this year Seattle Center has a new, beautiful design of alternating colors and sparkling holiday lights all over the trees around the grounds outside as part of Winterfest, and I happened to walk through them after a movie at SIFF Cinema at the Uptown (my first movie there since before the pandemic) on my way to catch the Monorail. I just wanted to stroll through Seattle center, not having any idea how much prettier than usual it would be, and I got a good 12 shots out of it. I thought about just adding those to the "Seattle Holiday Sights 2021" photo album, but then I realized I would want them in a separated set so I could include them in the history of "
Seattle Center Winterfest" albums collection. I wavered a little bit on this inclusion because those photo albums never focused on the lights in the trees outside before, but then I saw on the Seattle Center website that they are indeed
an official part of Seattle Center Winterfest (scroll about 3/4 of the way down the page, to where it says "Seattle Center Luminata"), so that answered it for me!
Anyway. So, there was no "Winterfest" album last year as it was canceled due to COVID, like so many other things. That now returns to my Christmastime collection this year, plus new ones I've never done before: Seattle Festival of Trees; A Victorian Country Christmas; two I haven't done yet but fully intend to: "
Fluer de Villes Noel," a holiday themed gallery of floral arrangements coming to Pacific Place, which I figure I can get photos of after Tracy and I see the Spielberg remake of
West Side Story there Saturday December 18; and "
WildLanterns," a very cool looking exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo which as of last year replaced what used to be "WildLights," which Alexia and I have talked about going to together. I was hoping to do that on the 19th but just discovered the rest of the weekend dates in December are already sold out, so I'll have to rethink that one and get back to her about it.
That's at least four Christmastime photo albums I've never done before. I already have seven of them either done or started, and still others to add, including Holiday in the Park at Volunteer Park this Thursday (again with Alexia); WildLanters (if we can make that happen); and of course Christmas itself. That already takes me to ten albums for the year, and if I manage a separate one for "Oly Lightstravaganza" for the third year in a row, that will bring me to a new record of eleven. That's not even to mention whether I make it again to "Candy Cane Lane," which I wouldn't mind doing. I'm interested to see if it's basically the same every year or if the houses mix it up.
For now, though: two new photo albums for this year's collection, one on Saturday and one on Sunday. So I might as well get to a few specifics regarding "
A Victorian Country Christmas" which is a five-day annual event at the Washington State Fairgrounds—apparently their 33rd one this year! I'm kind of amazed I've never gone.
Also, side note: it's part of the Washington State Fair, so that album also goes into the
Washington State Fair / Puyallup Fair collection. I've gone to the fair in September every three years since 2012, the most recent three times with Gina and her friend Jennifer (by coincidence, having gone in 2012 with my
cousin Jennifer, so I went with
a Jennifer the past four times); the most recent was a September 2021 visit. But then a sort of reprise, this time with Alexia, for the Christmas event.
And to be fair, it honestly wasn't a whole lot different from just . . . going to the Washington State Fair, except that it was much colder, much wetter, and none of the rides were running; it was limited to two of the large exhibition halls. Walking through them, though, we just like it was walking through them in September, with even some of the same vendors—it's just a lot more Christmasy this time. I totally felt it was worth going to, although just like the main Fair, I see no reason to go every year. I did still get a lot of good photos out of it, especially once it started getting dark and I could get some nice shots of the light displays outside.
Also, in planning our timing, Alexia and I had discussed whether to go on Friday or on Saturday, and I had been thinking leaving right after work on Friday could be fine as it would be going through 9 p.m. and I preferred to be there in the evening anyway—but Alexia counted on it being a several hour affair regardless, and noted that it could have taken use up to two hours just to get down there if we did not leave until as late as 4:00 on Friday. She had originally suggested leaving mid-afternoon but I couldn't do that. And the thing is, even leaving on Saturday early afternoon (12:30, to be exact), it was a four and a half hour affair, getting there and back; going on Friday it would have been probably six or seven—still enough for us to see all we wanted to, but adding a whole lot of travel time unnecessarily.
On Saturday, the drive down took about 45 minutes; the drive back took roughly one hour. That left us less than three hours at the fairgrounds themselves, although to be fair we didn't even need that much; we simply killed time after we had finished the two exhibition halls so it would be getting dark when I got my photos of the light displays outside (such as the poinsettia behind us in the photo at the top of this post).
It was a fun day and we were both glad we did it; Alexia drove us in her car while Shobhit worked a shift at Total Wine. I deliberately waited until 12:30 so I could have had lunch before we left, and was unsure of whether we'd wind up going out for dinner, but we didn't, so I saved that much money at least. Not having any idea how much money I might spend, but knowing they took cash only at the gates (which I still preferred to pay because online purchases tacked $3—25% of the ticket price!—and I don't like wasting even that much money so pointlessly), I withdrew $60 from my checking account at a Bank of America cash machine. I didn't spend nearly that much, though: $12 admission; $5 for a
Fisher Scone Strawberry Shortcake that blew my mind it was so fucking delicious; roughly $11 on
two pairs of Christmas themed earrings I was thrilled to find at a vendor who sold a bunch of them and I had to seriously hold myself back from blowing all my cash on them; and another $5 on a hot chocolate. So I barely spent more than half of what I had withdrawn; not bad, really. I only got the hot chocolate because I wanted a hot beverage while we sat down to "take a load off" (as Alexia put it) and kill time until it got darker outside.
The "Victorian" part of it was that most of the vendors dressed in Victorian era costumes. That was it, though, and much of the time it was barely noticeable. Otherwise, maybe a quarter of the vendors were actually specifically Christmas themed, and the rest could have easily been interchanged with a visit to the regular Fair in September. I still got a lot of photos I was surprisingly pleased with though, most of them holiday themed; the photo album has a good 50 shots in it.
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— पांच हजार इक्यानबे —
The
Seattle Center Winterfest 2021 album, however, has only 12 shots in it—so far, anyway; who knows whether I'll pass through Seattle Center again before the month is out. They are very pretty, though. That was after I took myself to see the documentary
Julia, about Julia Child, at the Uptown Theater on Lower Queen Anne. The Uptown was the most recent of the SIFF Cinema theaters to get reopened, and thus it was my first time back there since before the pandemic—that alone was about half my reason to go see it; it's the only Seattle theater the movie is playing at.
It was the third movie I watched and reviewed over the weekend, although I only saw two of them in the theater. Friday evening I took myself to see
C'mon C'mon at the AMC Seattle 10 in the U District; I was able to walk downtown first and then take Light Rail; I so love being able to do that to go to that theater now, it makes it so easy. Also the movie was truly wonderful, the second solid-A film I saw in as many days (Thursday's being
The Power of the Dog which was and is streaming on Netflix); I can't recommend it enough.
Saturday I managed to watch most of
tick, tick... BOOM!, also streaming on Netflix, both after getting home with Alexia and before Shobhit got home from work—there was maybe twenty minutes of it left when he got home, and maybe ten left once he was fully settled in. It's no masterpiece but I still thoroughly enjoyed it and really loved the music; it's far better than most modern musicals. Ivan actually watched a lot of it with me, as he hung out and made and ate his dinner in the kitchen and at the dining table. He wasn't working that night but later went out; I have no idea where, maybe to a movie. He left for a two-night trip to Portland last night, so until tomorrow afternoon Shobhit and I have the condo to ourselves.
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And then yesterday at the Uptown was when I went to see
Julia. Taking the #8 or even the #2 bus straight from Lower Queen Anne probably would have gotten me home faster, but I just felt like strolling through Seattle Center—and was so glad I did—and figured I would just take the Monorail to the Westlake Light Rail Station and ride that to Capitol Hill. Whether or not that trip itinerary is faster depends entirely on wait times until a train arrives to pick you up. It did not take long for the Monorail to arrive when I got there—and, unlike when they first started taking Orca Cards, they now have the standard scanner towers so you don't even have to wait in line to buy a ticket—but, when I got down to the Light Rail platform, I was stunned by how crowded it was.
I had not realized there had been a Seahakws game. The One Bus Away app is now showing real-time arrival information for both Light Rail
and the Monorail, which is awesome, and it indicated trains were delayed but two coming only a couple of minutes apart very soon. The first one was so packed it was almost triggering (Gabriel would not have even considered getting on it, guaranteed)—in fact, so few people got off after the train stopped, and so many from the platform then packed in, I literally couldn't even get in. I waited two minutes for the next train, and that one was nearly as packed! I still managed to pack myself into that one (ahead of a group of young friends who were too many to fit even that time). I basically just figured: well, at least everyone has masks on, and the ride to Capitol Hill Station from there was only two minutes. I actually didn't consider that all that high a risk.
I then walked the rest of the way home through Cal Anderson Park and up Pine Street to my building; Shobhit was home from work minutes after I got there. We made risotto for dinner, I wrote my movie review, and then we watched this week's episode of
Succession, which contained multiple scenes that were stunning, and a particular one that was a gut-punch of embarrassment for one of the characters. I cannot overstate how great I think that show is.
— पांच हजार इक्यानबे —
[posted 12:33 pm]
