Yesterday was less eventful than the previous days of my Birth Week thus far this year, even though for the first time it contained two separate "train events." I suppose it would be more accurate to say that I spent less cumulative time on "train events" yesterday than on previous days, which were largely all-day (or most-of-the-day) affairs, whereas yesterday each of the two outings I went on took just under ninety minutes each, which means that combined I was out for less than three hours, doing something that had to do with trains. Okay, four hours, I suppose—if you count the half-hour drive up to Lynnwood as well as the drive back. Still far less time than I spent on previous days. I had time to get nearly caught up on the "part one" email travelogue I'll be sending out, maybe even before the week is done; and, we finally had time last night, after returning, to start the newly released (last Friday) "back half" seven episodes of Ozark after returning for the day last night, getting two of the episodes in, both of which were excellent.

Now I guess I'll start with how we started the day—at least, once I had yesterday's fairly lengthy blog post done and was showered and ready: Shobhit and I took the South Hill Streetcar down to Pioneer Square with a packed lunch we ate at one of the little public tables at Occidental Park. Yesterday also yielded two separate Birth Week photo albums, this particular excursion yielding 26 shots, one of them a video clip, 13 of them specific to the First Hill Streetcar. That's just half; the other 13 padding out the album were just taken while we hung out in Pioneer Square. Shobhit decided we would take falafel sandwiches in pita bread we already had at home, to our picnic dinner meeting with Shauna in the evening, so we looked for, and found, a Greek restaurant in Pioneer Square where we could buy a falafel platter to go that we could use as the pita filling. It was called Cafe Paloma, and was such a cute and cool little place I took five shots in there alone, while we waited for the falafel platter to be prepared.

When we ate the sandwiches I made for us to bring, over in Occidental Park before finding Cafe Paloma, we discovered there's an every-Tuesday public event there (and at Westlake Park on Thursdays, I just learned thanks to Google), from late morning to early evening. I suspect more stuff happens later, as we were there at about 1:30, but there was a temporary six-hole miniature golf course set up. We were amused by the one young woman playing while we ate, as she was hitting the ball over and over again at the same hole right next to where we were sitting, often accidentally hitting it way off the little put green. I would have loved to play, especially as it was apparently free, but Shobhit was eager to find some falafel in the area and so we went to do that instead.

And, when we returned to the streetcar stop, the timing was perfect as a streetcar was just arriving, so we caught that back home. I had taken several photos on the train ride down, but for the ride back I just took the one video clip of the streetcar arriving, plus one still shot of it, as this particular streetcar was painted with pretty huge flowers on it. Otherwise, it should be noted, this streetcar ride was the least novel of the "train activities" I've done for my Birth Week thus far, as I've been on it multiple times before, although Shobhit was pretty sure it was his first time on it (this line started operation in January 2016; the first line, for South Lake Union, opened in 2007). But, because Laney had to cancel the plans we had, I had time to fill, and figured why not be a completist?

I did finally get confirmation from Tracy that the work event tomorrow is indeed canceled, or postponed indefinitely, which also freed up an entire day. I went ahead and bought Amtrak tickets for a day trip, by myself, to Portland and back. So, the most obvious train to ride during a train-themed Birth Week, Amtrak, will now be included. The part that sucks is how much more expensive it got now that I bought the tickets so late: when I first bought a one-way ticket from Olympia to Seattle when I thought I'd be riding with Danielle on Monday last week, it cost me all of $18. These tickets? $36 southbound and $47 northbound, making a total of $83. Yikes! But, oh well. I went ahead and bought them anyway. I want to do this, and will likely take Ivan's suggestion and take the afternoon I have in Portland to ride their public transit out to the Grotto, which he visited when he was last there and sent me some beautiful photos. I may even take their MAX part of the way, thereby adding yet another train for the week! MAX is their light rail system, which has been in operation since 1986. On the other hand, there's also a regular bus that has basically a direct route out to The Grotto, and using MAX I'll have to transfer, so we'll see. Maybe I'll just take MAX one direction. Either way I need to research fares and payment before I go.

Anyway! I just can't stop myself from yammering on and on when I'm writing. Each day prior to yesterday necessitated a lot of detailed backstory regarding how the planning came together (as in the Sounder train with Tracy on Friday and the Northwest Railway Museum train ride with Valerie on Sunday), or came together and nearly fell apart and then came together again (as in the Lake Whatcom Railway visit with Shobhit on Saturday and the dinner at Melrose Grill in Renton right in front of a railroad track with Danielle on Monday). There's a little bit of that with yesterday, but not nearly as much: I already noted that I had to cancel plans with Laney, because she hurt her knee yet again. We were going to walk the South Ship Canal Trail—no train to see with that one, but the trail used to be a railroad, so that's how we made it fit with the theme (same deal with my planned bike ride with Dad on the Willapa Hills Trail from South Bend to Raymond this coming Saturday). We were going to have lunch at Zeek's Pizza. Now we have that rescheduled for the weeknd of May 21. I'll still add that photo album to my Birth Week collection, though, just like when we went out to Kanaskat-Palmer State Park in August last year, as a part of my State Parks Tour. At least this time it'll still be in May. The same will be the case with the postponed visit to Kitsap Live Steamers with Jennifer on May 14, a week after my Birth Week officially ends.

But! Although everything outside of last weekend had to be postponed a week due to my coming down with covid, my evening plans last night, as of this week anyway, remained unbroken: Shobhit and I drove up to meet with Shauna at a park in Lynnwood, a small but very pretty and fascinating place called Heritage Park. This was where I learned that Lynnwood was originally called Alderwood Manor.

It was also what I found when I searched for "train attractions" in Lynnwood, trying to find something close to Shauna. (We'll be returning to Lynnwood tonight, for dinner with Lynn and Zephyr, at The Old Spaghetti Factory, which has a full sized trolly car inside it.) At Heritage Park, they have an old, Interurban Trolley car on display. Unfortunately, it's locked inside a gated building, which I suspect you can go inside to look closer during earlier hours of the day. But, oh well; it was still an interesting thing to visit and learn about.

From the website: Car 55 is one of six Interurban electric rail cars that provided commuter service from Alderwood Manor to Seattle and Everett from 1910 to 1939. The Interurban was key to the development of Alderwood Manor, now known as Lynnwood. Folks from the big cities traveled by trolley, encouraged by the Demonstration Farm to relocate to the country, breathe the fresh air and learn how to raise poultry for profit. After the demise of the Interurban in 1939, Car 55 was retired, serving as a restaurant diner for several years, and later as a ticket office for the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad. The City of Lynnwood purchased the deteriorated trolley in 1993, and began its restoration with a federal grant in 1996.

We had made the plan to meet Shauna there at 6:00. The day was chillier than expected, so when we were on our way, I texted her about twenty minutes out that we were On our way, dressed in layers and with a hot toddy in hand! I wanted to have a hot drink with my pita falafel sandwich, which, incidentally, was delicious.

Shobhit and I arrived first, right at 6:00 sharp, there was really no one else at this small but very pretty park in the middle of the city (the suburb, really, but whatever). We found the picnic table right in front of the trolley car, set our stuff down, and then walked around a little as we waited for Shauna to arrive. When she did, she parked right next to our car.

She didn't bring any food. She did bring a cocktail, as she does every time we get together for my Birth Week. She apparently doesn't actually drink very often, just when she goes out, which is not often. She said she never drinks at home, ever since she got so sick she had to have her kids call 911, sometime around 2008. I guess she drank a little bit of an energy drink that was actually labeled do not mix with alcohol, but she had been too drunk to notice. I guess that can put a person off drinking too much.

One thing I have noticed about Shauna in recent years, every time I am around her. You know how some people struggle to think of things to talk about? That is not Shauna's problem. You could give her the truly slightest, subtlest prompt, and she will launch into a monologue that last ten or fifteen minutes. Last night I was asking her to remind me how she wound up working at PCC (that's where she and I met; I started in 2002 and she left in 2008), and she launched into great detail about how her parents died over the same holiday season one year. She kind of trailed off from those details, finally, and I was like, "Okay so, how is that connected to how you started at PCC?" And then she said, "Oh, right!" and talked about how she was on leave for those reasons for a while (also the birth of Sterlng, whom she had when she was 35 years old; I never did the math to realize that before) and how that led to other career choices.

I'm not saying it's irritating, per se. I'm just saying . . . Shauna likes to talk. After a while, because it was getting even chillier and Shobhit and I were long since done with our pita sandwiches, we got up to walk the small park and see the other historical buildings there. There's a lot of rooster and chicken motifs, evidently because the land used to be a poultry farm; there are multiple small statues that feature roosters and chickens. Even the chidlren's playground features a swinging rooster chair, which I climbed into for Shauna to get a picture of me "riding cock." I climbed into it and it leaned over so far that Shobhit was legitimately scared I was going to break it (I wasn't), while Shauna and I laughed so hard we nearly hurt ourselves. She even commented on how long it had been since we laughed that hard together—something we used to do a lot at work.

I got off the cock, then we all walked around the park, which is not just the historical buildings and trolley—it actually features some very pretty scenery. (Still, being such a small park, that photo album is the smallest of the week so far, with only 17 shots.) Soon we said our goodbyes, though, and Shauna and I talked yet again about how we should get together more than once a year, which we say every year and then still only see each other during my Birth Week. At least I still manage to keep making that happen; ever since Shauna started participating in 2006, 2011 is the only year she's ever missed. She's been part of 16 of my Birth Weeks to date. But who knows, maybe this year we'll break the once-a-year pattern, and actually get together again in a couple of months as she suggested.

[posted 8:50 am]