Well, all the driving I did over the past couple of days allowed me to catch up on all the podcasts I otherwise would have been listening to while working. I drove over three hours yesterday, and roughly four hours total today, and I didn't listen to music during any of it. I plugged my phone into the rental car's USB port and caught up on my many podcasts.

Before that, though, I left the condo yesterday morning shortly after 9 a.m.—and started down Madison Street, thinking I was headed toward Dad and Sherri's house in Olympia, only to discover the rear right tire had low pressure again. So, I slightly altered course, and drove straight to the Convention Center location of Hertz Rent-A-Car.

I have to give them credit: I pulled up to their location on the 6th floor of the Convention Center parking garage, and saw the same guy I had picked up the car from on Friday, and when I told him I was having a tire pressure problem, he just said, "We can switch out a car for you," and he then did just that, no questions asked. So, I parked my white four-door Kia, and was issued a silver Chevy. This one doesn't drive quite as beautifully smoothly as the Kia, and the dashboard screen takes longer to recognize my phone when plugged in, but at least I haven't had any tire pressure issues.

The only thing that set me back, really, was getting my bike into the new car, which necessitated pushing the sea tbacks of the back seat down, and for several minutes I could not figure out how to release the seat backs to push them over. I had even found the page in the owner's manual from the glove compartment, and struggled for a bit. I was just about to go back to the employee guy to ask how the hell to do it, when I finally figured it out. (In the Kia, all I had to do was press on the back of the seats reaching through the trunk, but in this car I had to find release levers.)

So, it was much closer to 10:00 a.m. when I finally found myself leaving town, in the new car, yesterday morning. I thus got to Dad and Sherri's in Olympia shortly after 11:00, and had roughly 45 minutes to take a break before we all left again headed for Cape Disappointment—Dad and Sherri in their car, me in mine. We all left at noon, so we arrived at the Best Western at maybe a quarter after 2:00 yesterday afternoon. Turns out, that hotel is literally just two buildings over, on the same street, from the Boardwalk Cottages where Shobhit and I stayed for our anniversary trip for two nights last June.

We were all able to check in a bit early, which meant they couldn't put us into rooms right next to each other—but, they were able to put us all on the same floor, the top/third floor, and that was good enough. The view out the window from my room was of the motel's parking lot to the east; Dad and Sherri's room's view was to the west, toward the beach, although all you could see was trees. There are no hotels in the main town of Long Beach that are close enough to have a view of the water, because there are too many trees and sand dunes in between.

So, we all got settled in, and we relaxed a little for maybe an hour and a half. And then, Dad and I did what we came there for: we took a bike ride, with a route chosen by Dad, part of it the same as we had during the family reunion in 2009—twelve years ago—but, extended this time to include a newer extension of paved bike path Dad said was ony finished within the past couple of years.

We rode south from Long Beach to Cape Disappointment State Park (hence yesterday's state park visit for my Birth Week), up to North Head Lighthouse, the more recent of two very old lighthouses there, and then down to the tiny town of Ilwaco on the other side of the park, again at sea level. The lighthouses are atop high bluffs in the park, so getting to them on our bikes was a bit of a challenge. We made it, though; it was totally worth it; and it was lots of fun.

There was a point last night when Sherri told me, "This sure meant a lot to him that you guys were doing this." I had no reason to assume that wasn't the case, but it still made an impression to hear it. It was one of two particularly memorable things said to me on this overnight trip to the Washington Coast. The other was when they were talking about the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Sherri told me, "Your dad said he was embarrassed to call himself a Republican." Whoa! She wasn't in any way putting words in Dad's mouth, either—Dad was in ear shot when she said that, and openly confirmed what she said. They clearly both felt what happened that day was idiotic and embarassing to the nation.

And that's not nothing.

Oh. I guess a third memorable thing that was said would be when I mentioned how everything I'd been posting this week had been about my Birth Week, and I said, "Which, as of this evening, is half over." Sherri replied, "Just like your life, huh?" Savage! This was partly a reference to Danielle saying multiple times on Monday that I'm "halfway to ninety."

Anyway, I could write a lot more about our overnight trip to Long Beach and Cape Disappointment, but I am rather tired and want to get this posted . . . suffice it to say I had a great time, and it was wonderful to get some quality time with Dad and Sherri in a way I haven't been able in ages. (Sherri did ask me this afternoon if I thought Mother's Day might be hard for me this year, and I was like, "No, I've got a spare." That cracked her up.) One day soon I'll be able to add a lot more detail in captions to the photos I took—69 shots in total, thanks to the inclusion of photos over two days making it the largest photo album of my Birth Week thus far this year. For the time being, however, due to being pressed for time, it being later in the evening and my being tired, I am writing this before I even have managed to put all the tags I want on those photos. Regardless, browsing the photo album should still give a good overview of how the past couple of days have gone.

We did eat out at restaurants twice: dinner last night at Long Beach Tavern, and breakfast this morning at 42nd Street Cafe. The former apparently has a reputation for great pizza, so that's what we had. (I've thus had pizza for many meals over the past week: for lunch at home during work on Friday; for dinner with Gabriel and Lea's on their back patio Friday night; for dinner at Jennifer and Matthew's on Saturday; for dinner last night; and then the leftover half of my personal pizza for breakfast this morning.) The pizza was very good, but more than any of us could eat, and we all made reference to having pizza for breakfast—so, I ate my own leftovers as soon as I woke up this morning. Dad and Sherri still wanted to go out for breakfast, though, so I joined them and just ordered "New Orleans Style Begnets," eating one and saving one for Shobhit, plus some tea.

The cooler thing about 42nd Street Cafe was that they had postcards on each table, with a little sign suggesting you fill one out and address it, and they would provide the postage and mail it for you. This struck me as a clever marketing scheme, but it also immediately made me think about how I would absolutely have written one out for Auntie Rose were she still alive. So, I wrote one out to Valerie instead.

Incidentally, these were my first time dining in at a restaurant since Shobhit and I went to eat at the Shipwreck Cafe under new ownership in Olympia last June, which happened also to be on our way to Long Beach, WA for that trip. The restaurant that day was fairly slow and we sat next to an open window, so it felt relatively safe. This time, Dad, Sherri and I are all vaccinated, and they have actually been going out to eat fairly regularly since even before they got their vaccines, I think largely just because they were just ready to get out and about in some way or another again once restaurants were allowed to open for dining in again.

I mostly avoided it in the meantime, but kind of dove into the deep end with it on this overnight trip: I went with Dad and Sherri to a restaurant three different times between yesterday and today. The first time was for a late lunch yesterday shortly after we got into town, as they were very hungry. I merely accompanied them, and they let me graze off their potato chips of French fries. I had already had my lunch, which I sort of confessed in the hotel: "You're gonna love what I ate," I said. Leftover spaghetti. How did I eat spaghetti while driving, you ask? Well . . . very carefully.

Anyway, at that first restaurant, we again sat next to an open window. The tavern we went to for dinner was a different story, though, not anywhere near any open windows. Still very socially distanced, but if anyone wasn't vaccinated and someone infected with COVID had been in there, it would have been very high risk. The waitress who served us only wore her mask when standing by our table to take orders, and would have it off when she was on her own over by the bar. She clearly didn't understand how transmission really works. It was basically a similar situation at the place we went to for breakfast this morning, except the server, presumably also the owner of the place, was a very old man who could barely pour Dad and Sherri's coffees, but he never removed his mask at all.

All this is to say, compared to most conservatives, Dad and Sherri are not "non-believers"—when in public and around people, they always wear masks, Dad even double masking. I suppose you could say they're taking a calculated risk by still eating out at limited-capacity restaurants, and as former restaurant owners themselves, I think they are emotionally invested in supporting the industry. Of course, they could do the same by ordering takeout, but they clearly never really do that. I think they want a reason to go out somewhere as well, and aside from restaurants (or the occasional hotel), they still don't otherwise go out. They talked to me a lot about how nutty Aunt Raenae has gotten, trying to convince them she has made the right decision to resist getting vaccinated. Sherri has taken to just saying, "Okay Ranae" on the phone, and Dad has told her directly that they won't come visit her at her house (actually Toni and James's, as she's now living in their basement) until the pandemic is effectively over. Apparently Aunt Raenae said to him, "That means I might not see you again for a year or more!" and Dad was just kind of like, "Yep."

In any event, neither Dad nor Sherri are anti-mask, nor are they anti-vaxxers. They got vaccinated as soon as they were able, and even after that they wear their masks everywhere, except of course when actively eating at a restaurant. They just regularly eat at restaurants. And, having spent the past couple of days with them, after eating at a restaurant only once between March 2020 and April 2021, I ate at three over the past two days. I'll eat at another with Shobhit on Friday for my birthday here in Seattle, but for that one I deliberately reserved a table for outdoor seating.

Anyway, the bike ride yesterday, about 18 miles round trip, wore me out enough that I was zonked out and sleeping before it was even 10:00 last night—and then I slept for a whopping nine hours. Dad, Sherri and I all went back to Deception Pass State Park this morning to view the older lighthouse, and then visit the nearby beach briefly, before we all drove home. We left town shortly after noon, and then I stopped by their house in Olympia to kill time for about an hour and get a break in the driving before heading north again to drive straight to Mukilteo Lighthouse Park. But I'll tell you about that one tomorrow.

[posted 11:05 pm]