I had another quite-long day yesterday—not quite as long as the Amtrak day trip on Thursday, which stretched over 20 hours, but still plenty long on its own, stretching over 18 hours. The difference is that yesterday I had time in the morning to write a (comparatively) much shorter post about Friday evening's Light Rail ride with Alexia, whereas I'd had no time to write anything on Thursday, having written up the draft of my post about Wednesday the night before. So, I guess for a fairer comparison, I was actually out of the house on Birth Week outings for 15 and a half hours on Thursday, and for about 12 hours yesterday. Still a long time either way.

Yesterday, though, I also did two separate Birth Week outings, or at least did a Birth Week thing with two separate groups of people. First was the requisite annual Birth Week Bike Ride with Dad, and I got out of bed at 6:11 just so I would barely have enough time to write the blog post about the previous day before getting ready, and then I was headed south to Olympia, in Shobhit's car (Shobhit bussed to work; it was the only day this week I needed to borrow his car without him), at 9:00, getting there around 10:00.

I took a minute to get my bike out of the trunk and reattach the front wheel—getting it in there was more of a challenge than usual, as our trunk is currently packed with far too many tote bags and tote blankets—and then I just sat inside and hung out with Dad and Sherri for a bit. They had a guy over who is steadily working on remodeling the downstairs bathroom and small passageway between the living room and family room, both of which look fantastic.

It was just about 11 a.m. once Dad had both of our bikes hung on the rack behind his car, and then it took about an hour and fifteen minutes. Dad wore his mask in the car, so I did too; I'd have been fine not doing so, knowing we both had the same variant of covid and both had just recovered—granted, Dad said he did a home test two days prior and was still positive, with a very faint second line, but he had just tested again and it finally came back negative. I took my own home test again myself on Friday afternoon, finally for the first time since recovering, and I was also negative. The point is, at the present moment, it was virtually impossible for us to be in any danger from each other. Dad just didn't like being in the tighter, enclosed space in the car and so he wore a mask. Of course, none of us wore masks in the house, and he seems to think the rooms being larger in the house would make a difference, and they would not at all, if we were both pre-infection but one of us had been exposed. His approach to precautions is far more about what just makes him comfortable than about scientific data. But, that's fine. Of course, we wound up riding home in the car without our masks on anyway.

Neither Dad nor I had done any long distance riding since the last Birth Week Bike Ride we did, at Cape Disappointment State Park a year ago. This meant that our ride yesterday that turned out to be all of eight miles round trip, maybe a little more with a couple brief detours (probably closer to eight and a half miles), was just enough, and much more would have likely been exhausting. We drove to the Willapa Hills Trail trailhead in South Bend, and rode the four miles or so to Raymond and back.

I always felt like this bike ride, in spite of being on bikes rather than on a train, still fit well into my "trains and railroads" Birth Week theme for 2022, because the trail is one of many bike paths that used to be railroads. So this was neither a train or even a railroad, but it used to be! And I love the concept, as it makes what otherwise would just be old, abandoned railroads useful in a new way.

And then, to my utter delight, when we took a small detour to check out a boardwalk on the Willapa River (which the trail runs alongside for much of the way), we found ourselves right by a giant painted wall mural of an old logging steam locomotive train. Perfect photo opportunity, especially to use as my "Birth Week Train #13 for social media posts! I propped my phone on top of the bike helmet Dad let me borrow (because like an idiot I completely spaced bringing mine, having been too preoccupied with just getting my bike in the trunk; thankfully Dad had a spare), and even put Dad's phone under one side to level it. It was set like that on the ground in a grassy area across the street, just far away enough to get the full length of the painted train in the shot. So, this would have been the first train of the week that I could neither move, be ridden or be touched, but at least it was a physical representation of some sort that I could use for my photos. It's still a train!

Anyway, we started our bike ride at about a quarter after 12:00, and were back by around 1:30, so the bike ride took all of another hour and 15 minutes or so. Then, Dad said there was a nearby coffee shop that he and Sherri always stop at whenever they drive by there and asked if I wanted to go get a hot drink there, and I said sure. It was indeed a very cute place, called Elixir Coffee Shop in South Bend, with a spectacular view right on the banks of the Willapa River. Dad got a coffee and I got a chai tea latte; and when he asked if I wanted a cookie I saw they had peanut butter chocolate chip and got very excited. We both got one, and Dad even got one to go for Sherri. That wound up being my lunch; I wasn't able to eat until after I got home at 9:00 last night. Thankfully he still had half a burrito from Chipotle still left from his own dinner that I could eat.

It was close to 3:45 by the time we got back to Dad and Sherri's house in Olympia, and I hung out for another hour or so, before they needed to leave for a pizza dinner at Brandi and Nick's new house. Dad invited me to come with them for just a bit before I headed out, but I wound up declining as I didn't want to get there just to turn right around and leave again. So, I just left a little earlier than planned, and killed a bit of time by going to get gas at the Costco in Federal Way on my way to my next stop.

So, the next stop, and how it fit into my Birth Week, takes a bit of explaining. It's also a bit of a stretch, but, whatever.

It almost seems a miracle that I now have twenty years represented with Gabriel during my Birth Week, him now being only one of two consistently part of my Birth Week for that many years. The other one, of course, is Danielle, but Danielle has always been easier to plan with, as opposed to Gabriel, who spent many years openly contemptuous of my "Birth Week" as a very concept. Conversely, he also never wants to be left out, so I kind of can't win. In any case, it seems often the case that getting together with him during my Birth Week barely comes together, often at the last minute—as it did yesterday. I texted him on Tuesday, and then again yesterday morning, about my plan to be at Auburn Environmental Park, at about 6:00 on my way back from Olympia yesterday. It's just under ten miles due east of where he lives, which was part of why I chose it. I chose 6:00 because the hours posted online said it closes at 7:00, although once I got there I realize there's nothing that could really enforce those hours, so, whatever.

Anyway, here's where it's a stretch as far as being part of my Birth Week theme, because a wetlands park with a quarter-mile boardwalk trail clearly has nothing to do with trains or railroads. Well, I had spent a lot of time trying to find a park in Federal Way that was situated next to railroad tracks, and I could find none—I literally scanned over Google Maps, and the closest I could find was this Auburn Environmental Park, because railroad tracks run nearly right alongside the park, to the east. While I was waiting for Gabriel and Lea to arrive, I walked the third of a mile over to the railroad tracks, where I took the selfie you see above. There you have it, a railroad! Even though it had nothing more to do with this Birth Week outing than just running past it. There were these dragonfly tower sculptures on either side of them, though, so I got a couple cool pictures of those. What I really hoped for was a train to pass by that I could get a selfie with it in the background, but, alas, no train passed by during the time I was over there, which was for all of maybe ten minutes.

I had finally just called Gabriel on the phone while in the car with Dad on the way back from South Bend, and he said he just hadn't had a chance yet to talk with Lea; they had a lot going on, although that was hardly surprising; they always do. He said he would get back to me, and I said, "Well, I'll be there at six." I wasn't trying to pissy, just letting him know that I was going whether he joined me or not. "Just waltzing Matilda, by yourself?" he said. Yep. I then said, "I just think the place sounds interesting." He agreed, and said it was odd that there was a place so close to him that had so much to do with birding that he did not know about.

Well, I was already on my way to Federal Way when I got a text from Lea at 5:10 that they needed to drop Tess off at Stephanie's and then they would meet me at the park at 6:15. This was a big part of how I had enough time to meander over to the railroad tracks to get a few pictures, which was fine and actually worked out well for me. That said, the GPS was not quite accurate in getting me to the entrance to the park, which is barely noticeable on a stretch of road with not much else on it; I finally figured it out, but later Gabriel had the same problem and I just sent him a dropped pin to use in his Maps app to find me.

The Auburn Environmental Park doesn't even have a standard parking lot—just a small stretch alongside the road, where the sidewalk shifts outward to create space for about four cars to parallel park, one of them an accessible parking spot. There was one car in front of where I parked, so there was just the one last spot for Gabriel and Lea to park behind me.

I saw them put their masks on before they even got out of the car, so again, I put mine on too—and we all kept them on the whole time we walked around together, even though it was hardly necessary given we were all outside. (Plus, my having just recovered from covid, it could easily be argued that I am currently less of a threat than I have ever been. Combine that with being outside, and there's really nothing at all to worry about.) Gabriel suddenly ran back to the car to get his binoculars, and I asked Lea of the masks were because of my having just had covid, an she said that she doesn't always wear one outside if there's no one else around, but will typically put one on if around a lot of people and/or if Gabriel is wearing one. And Gabriel wears his mask anywhere in public. It does occur to me just now that we did pass a few strangers on the boardwalk in that park, and his mask wearing almost certainly has a lot more to do with being around strangers than with being around me. That said, when they arrived, Lea did ask if she could get a hug, and I was like, "If you're okay with it!" Gabriel joked that she now had my "covid cooties," and so she jumped on his back. When we said our goodbyes later, Gabriel said, "I'm not going to hug you," and I was just like, "I know." He used to hug me every time we saw each other, but with covid a thing, I kind of wonder if he'll ever hug me again. Maybe, if we ever get to a point where there is no longer measurable community spread of this virus. And will that ever truly happen? The Biden Administration just announced they are preparing for a surge this fall that could infect 100 million Americans. By then we'll probably be fighting an entirely new variant and I'll be just as susceptible to new infection as I was before getting it this time. Fun times!

Okay, back to the Auburn Environmental Park. Gabriel was not aware of the park itself, but he was intimately aware of the area and its environmental history—a far larger area, he said, used to be wetlands, including the space nearby that was developed into what was then called "SuperMall of the Great Northwest" (apparently now officially just called "The Outlet Collection Seattle") in 1995. According to Gabriel, conservationists were upset by the development of so much wetland, and so this park was a pathetic consolation, a small bit of conservation—even though it's sandwiched between a very busy highway (with so much noise pollution any of the animals there cannot hear each other) and a railroad. It covers about 120 acres of space, but the boardwalk trail is just under a quarter mile in length, so it took us very little time to walk it—we really took our time and were done within half an hour.

Gabriel did give me a birthday card, though. Or rather, a Christmas card. He totally copied what I had done for his birthday last month, basically returning the $5 I had sent him.

Anyway, when we were done at Auburn Environmental Park, Gabriel said he wanted to take me to a similar, but better place, and had me follow them in my car. This was actually in Federal Way Proper, another, far larger wetlands park I am finding it impossible to remember the name of so I always have to refer to the photo I took of the sign to remember it's called West Hylebos Wetlands. Apparently Gabriel used to go there when he was a teenager. Evidently it's about the same size as Auburn Environmental Park, 120 acres, the key difference being that this one has over a mile of boardwalk trails, in much thicker, taller old-growth forest, and offers far prettier views. I had to agree with Gabriel that this park was better than the Auburn one in every way.

It just wasn't anywhere around any trains or railroads. But, as Lea said, "Boardwalks are the railroads of feet!" That cracked me up so much I had to write it down.

So. For my outings with Gabriel and Lea, I took 3 photos at the railroad; 14 at Auburn Environmental Park; and 22 shots at West Hylebos Wetlands Park, totalling 39 shots for the full photo album on Flickr. (Compare to the 34 shots for the Willapa Hills Trail photo album—23 of them actually taken on the trail—and I had a total of 73 photos for the day.)

After I finally got home, I had my half of the aforementioned burrito, then Shobhit convinced me to watch some TV with him, so we watched one episode each of Moon Knight on Disney+ and Ozark on Netflix, but I still uploaded my photos and tagged them on Flickr before bed, which was why I was still up until past midnight. I didn't get out of bed until around 7:30 this morning, Shobhit made us French toast before he went to work, and now it's nearly 11:00 a.m. and I've spent the rest of the morning just working on this post. I haven't even gotten into the shower yet, and I have plenty I still want to do today. I think I might do some nude vacuuming first.

[posted 10:53 am]