I was particularly efficient yesterday: I visited
three parks—two of them state parks rather close to each other on Camano Island, one of them a Snohomish County park outside of Everett.
And this is the thing: it's mostly an OCD thing on my part. The friends I was able to meet up with both Wednesday night and last night, were the two friends with whom I could not go to a Washington State Park. In Shauna's case, Mukilteo Lighthouse Park
used to be a Washington State Park, but has been a Mukilteo city park since 2003. In the case of Lynn and Zephyr last night, they had to work and there are no state parks close enough to Everett to make a post-6 p.m. visit feasible, so we compromised and went to a county park Lynn suggested instead. But! My Birth Week lasts 10 days and I still wanted to visit 10 total, actual state parks. And with the whole day yesterday prior to about 5:30 otherwise free, I decided to take that opportunity to visit two state parks on my own. This way, yesterday was the seventh day of my Birth Week and by the end of it I had still visited seven state parks.
I wanted to put my Discover Pass to use! In fact, yesterday was the first time I actually used it. At Dash Point with Gabriel on Friday, we walked through—no need for the Discover Pass. At Jarrell Cove State Park with Jennifer on Saturday, Jennifer had her own Discover Pass and I rode with her.
I just realized something. I had my Discover Pass with me, and I should have used it, at Fort Worden with Valerie on Sunday. But, I totally spaced it. I just parked in there without using it.
When I rode with Danielle to Deception Pass on Monday, I left my Discover Pass inside my rental car—and Danielle thought she had one of her own, but could not find it. So that day, I had to pay for a $10 day pass. At Cape Disappointment with Dad on Tuesday, there was no need for the Discover Pass because we biked through. And when we went back on Wednesday morning, we rode in Dad and Sherri's car so we just used their pass. Thus, when I went to Cama Beach State Park and Camano Island State Park yesterday, I
finally actually used the thing for the first time.
And, then there's this: still true to Dad's observation about most of the parks I visited this week, I only stayed at each one about an hour yesterday. But! This time, I went to
three parks in one day, so with roughly an hour at each one, I actually spent about three hours at one park or another. Considering what else I also did yesterday, that feels like an accomplishment.
I didn't even leave home until about 1:00 in the afternoon, although I had initially planned to leave around noon. But, I had watched last Sunday's episode of
Mare of Easttown on HBO; vacuumed the condo; and made myself lunch—and then I realized I still needed to finish my "Birth Week 20201 [PART ONE]" email, which I wanted to sent out mid-week instead of sending out both parts at the same time like I have in years past. This way it hopefully doesn't feel as much like a large time commitment for people to read both at once, as they won't get part two until next week. Anyway, I thought I would get it done quickly, as I had a draft mostly done and still only needed to write about Tuesday, but with it being nearly 12:30 already by the time I was done with lunch, it was nearly 1:00 by the time I was done writing.
So then, by the time I finally got going, and with some semi-heavy traffic slowing things down north of Everett, I finally reached Cama Beach State Park right around 2:30. I already knew it would take about an hour to drive from there to Lynn and Zephyr's house, so I knew I wanted to head back out of Camano Island by 4:30. Thus, exactly one hour for each of the two state parks on the island was all the time I had at that point.
I had even brought library books with me, thinking I might lounge around and read a bit at these parks. No such luck: I barely had enough time to explore each park enough to create separate Flickr photo albums for each:
21 shots for Cama Beach State Park, and
27 shots for Camano Island State Park.
Just a few quick observations about these two state parks, which are
barely more than two miles away from each other on the southwestern-facing shores of Camano Island:
First, that measurement of distance is basically between the centers of those parks. From the south border of Cama Beach State Park to the north border of Camano Island State Park is
barely more than half a mile.
Secondly, I found both parks to be quite lovely, largely due to how quiet and remote they were, still with typical beauty of views to other islands across the waters of Puget Sound. It fascinated me that something seemingly so remote could still be so accessible and relatively close, especially to Seattle. At Cama Beach I walked up to something I had no idea was there:
two rows of eleven or more rentable little cabins, virtually all of them empty today: so far as I could tell, maybe one single cabin was occupied while I was there. I just looked it up and they are $102 a night, which seems like a lot at first glance but then the location is so serene and beautiful. In any case, even if that is not the exact place chosen, it seemed like the perfect
kind of place for one of our now-annual family vacations. I keep wondering if they all book up over summer months or not; it's so far down Camano Island which clearly does not otherwise get a lot of traffic that I'm thinking, perhaps not? I should do more research on this.
Furthermore, both parks have campgrounds, the one at Camano Island State Park quite picturesque. I found it so appealing I found myself wondering if I could be open to for-real camping for the first time since 1996. I mean . . . probably not. Nevertheless, I still
took a photo of site 39, because I decided it was the best one: right next to it is a fantastic, high-above view of Puget Sound through just a few trees.
Both parks are either right on the water or covering heavily wooded areas near the water. Even just being at both places by myself, I quite enjoyed the visits, and could easily have explored both parks for longer had I had the time.
But, I needed to get in the car and drive to Lynn and Zephyr's new house, which they bought and moved into in Everett just a few months ago, after living in the same apartment in Lynnwood for just short of a decade. I knew Lynn would likely not get home until close to 6:00, but she told me Zephyr works from home (as a software engineer for a company based in Louisville, Kentucky of all places—the same city Barbara coincidentally just moved to), so he would be there to let me in if I got there sometime between 5 and 6.
I did wear my face mask coming inside at first, but Zephyr told me I didn't have to wear it if I didn't want to: Lynn has been fully vaccinated since February (she got in early because she works for the State Department of Health); Zephyr is between shots; and I reached two weeks since my second shot on Tuesday this week. Lynn's younger son Nick was home as well, although he didn't spent a lot of time with us, aside from introducing me to their super-fluffy, three-year-old cat,
Freya.
It took a little while before we went to the park we had on the agenda for the evening, because we were all hungry and wanted to eat. Lynn, Zephyr and I all masked up and went to a nearby pizza place, where I declined to let them buy me dinner. Not so much out of politeness—under other circumstances I would have had no problem accepting—but because I had already packed a delicious sandwich on high quality bread that I did not want to go to waste. Saving them the money was just an added bonus, I guess. I had also brought chai in a thermos that I had made in the morning, which I offered them and they declined. More for me! It was delicious.
That reminds me of something I now need to digress about for a moment, something I forgot to mention in Wednesday's post about going to Cape Disappointment with Dad and Sherri. When we had gone out to dinner at Long Beach Tavern on Tuesday, I ordered a personal pizza and a cocktail, and I asked for my own, separate check. No issues there. But, when we all went out for breakfast Wednesday morning, and I just ordered the two "New Orleans Style Begnets" and a hot tea, I just allowed Dad to pay for all of us. I could have asked for a separate check there too, but the guy running the place was very old and could barely pour Dad and Sherri's coffee. I had a feeling splitting the check would be unduly complicated or that guy. So, it was for that reason I guess you could say I threw Dad under the bus. Sorry Dad!
Anyway, back to Lynn and Zephyr. Lynn offered me a slice of the margherita pizza she had ordered for herself, and that I did accept; it was remarkably tasty. That would mark the fourth time this week that I've had pizza.
We all ate at the large dining table in their combo dining room / family room, which they clearly used mostly for gaming. We ate as quickly as we could, and then set out for the Snohomish County park on the evening's agenda, getting there less than an hour before sunset: Spencer Island Park.
It's basically a wetland, formed as an island
by tributaries of the Snohomish River, and it was beautiful—arguably even more so than the state parks at Camano Island. Maybe just as beautiful, but in a different way. Either way, I got more photos at that location that I'll use for future DLU (Daily Lunch Update) posts than I did at the state parks on Camano Island. The marshy wetlands were themselves very pretty; the view of the Cascades beyond them really added to the scenery; and the light through clouds as the sun was setting really added to the atmosphere.
It took about twenty minutes to drive out there from their house, The time stamps oh the first and last photos I took at the park are 7:32 and 8:26, so it was basically one solid hour we spent there, hiking around maybe a quarter of the perimeter and then on a trail that kind of crosses from side to side near-ish to the south end of the island.
I got all the photos I wanted out of all the stops I made, and once we got back to their house, I then drove the rental car home. Another successful day in Matthew's Birth Week.
[posted 7:02 am]
