After the majority of the day yesterday was still dedicated to the overnight trip with Dad and Sherri to Long Beach and Cape Disappointment (and the drive back from there), resulting in the largest Flickr photo album of my Birth Week thus far, my much briefer visit with Shauna last night resulted in the smallest of my Birth Week photo albums thus far this week, at 24 shots. If I had been thinking, I would have taken at least one video clip—every other day or photo set has had two or three video clips, after all, but I spaced it.

I suppose the smaller photo album was kind of apropos, given that Mukilteo Lighthouse Park was also easily the smallest park I have visited this week. It's very cute but also very small, consisting of 14 acres, most of even that you don't realize because the real attraction is the lighthouse grounds. It's now a city park owned by Mukilteo and has been since 2003, but prior to that had been a Washington State Park since the 1950s. Shauna had suggested that park as the one to visit when we first discussed what park to go to, and I went for it even though it's not technically a state park, because it used to be one.

She was also unable to schedule a weekend day visit with me like we usually do (more often than not I meet up with her on the Sunday that closes out my Birth Week) because she's taking a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona this weekend. I did not want to shift everything I had already planned for last weekend to this weekend, so I asked if she could meet up after work during the week. She said yes and we chose Wednesday, which would give me plenty of time to get back from Long Beach.

The drive, all combined, was nearly four hours, although that last hour should have been a few minutes but for the rush-hour traffic I dealt with north of Seattle, that shit having been gradually going back to normal over recent months. This was why it was nice to break it up by stopping at Dad and Sherri's house in the middle of the drive, killing time for about an hour before heading out again. The drive from Long Beach to Olympia was about two hours and 15 minutes; the drive from Olympia to Mukileo was about an hour and 50 minutes. It still passed relatively quickly, though, because I made good time to Seattle, which is usually the destination, and I had my podcasts to listen to. In the freeway traffic on the way to Mukileo I listened to Dan Savage giving both sex advice and bringing on an expert to explain why the quickly-developed vaccines are safe. (This was illuminating even for me; I never doubted that they were safe, but I did not realize they were the result of particularly good timing, after messenger RNA vaccine technology had already been being developed for other viruses over the past several years. And here I had been thinking the quick development had just been the "emergency use authorizations" that meant they weren't required to spend years longer on clinical trials.)

Dad remarked to me on Tuesday how little time I had been spending at each actual park so far: less than an hour with Gabriel at Dash Point on Friday (we had other things to cram into that evening though); less than an hour with Jennifer at Jarrell Cove on Saturday (ditto); roughly an hour with Valerie at Fort Worden on Sunday (that visit would have been longer but for my desire to get back home in time to watch the Academy Awards). I pointed out, though, that I was at Deception Pass longer than two hours with Danielle on Monday—it was just that Morgan began whining about going home after only about an hour. Danielle and I still took our time on the beach and then walking across the bridge and back after that. And then, thanks to our riding bikes through it, Dad and I spent a good hour and a half at least in Cape Disappointment State Park on Tuesday. That was part of an overall bike ride that took around two hours, although we did ride a bit through Ilwaco on the other side of the park from Long Beach. But, we then returned to the park again with Sherri in the car yesterday morning and probably spent around an hour in the park then.

But, last night's park visit was again relegated to a shorter visit, for three key reasons: the small size of the park; having to wait until evening to meet there; and then it getting a bit too chilly after about an hour and a half.

Shauna and I certainly made the most of those ninety minutes, though, both of us quite charmed by the lighthouse grounds. She also brought me a little birthday gift: tecquila shots! She had a flavored sparkling water to mix with them, and cups, so we had a little cocktail picnic at a table right outside the lighthouse grounds. When we raised our glasses, she said, "I treasure our friendship!" which was rather touching to hear. I also realized that we met when I started working at PCC, which means I have known her as long as I have worked there: as of this August, 19 years. (Shauna left in 2008.) I even figured out that when we met, she was 43 years old—two years younger than I am now! Or, will be tomorrow, anyway.

Because of her living up in Edmonds, anymore we just see each other during my Birth Week, which we made a pact to be better about changing going forward. It also meant that, since last year my Birth Week was all-virtual with the exception of what I did with Shobhit, I had not seen Shauna in person in two years. It was really, really great to see her. And one thing I love about hanging out with her is how easily we just pick up where we left off. Friendship with her sustains no damage by time spent without connecting. Well, okay, she does really talk a lot. But, that's a big part of what makes it easy. There's no struggling to come up with something to talk about with her.

I did also want the time at the end of the evening to write a post about the trip to Long Beach, though, to remain consistent with one post per day for each park and person (or people, as the case may be) visited. And, as I said, by 7:20 or so it was starting to get dark and rather chilly, so we just organically started getting ready to go. We said our goodbyes and I was on my way, hoping to keep the commitment to see her again before another entire year has passed.

[posted 7:56 am]