I need to do a quick update regarding yesterday and today now, because we're off to Victoria early tomorrow morning, and by the time we're back from that, these days of the weekend previous will already feel like a distant memory.
We met up with Shobhit's cousin Harshal last night. He's a semi-distant relative on his late father's side, the son of a much older paternal cousin. We met up with him a couple of times last summer, first going out for dinner in late June and then having him over for samosas and chai before going out to Discovery Park, on August 1. We took Ivan with us that day, just weeks after he had moved back in with us, and so it was an outing with the four of us. Last summer was the first time I ever met this cousin.
I can't remember who he works for, but he lives in San Jose. He came up to Seattle
this weekend both just to get any excuse to visit Seattle again, as he declares this area is far prettier than the Bay Area (he's right); but also for the college graduation of another cousin of his, on the other side of
his family (so, no relation to Shobhit). He was staying at the house of this other cousin and his wife, who apparently just bought this very nice, very new (built 2020) town home on the southern side of West Seattle. Shobhit and I planned just to pick up Harshal on our way to the Mexican restaurant we found to eat at, but the other cousins kind of insisted we come in briefly to visit, so we did. They have us glasses of water and gave us a tour of the house, which I actually quite enjoyed.
It wasn't long, though, before we were back in the car, headed to dinner. I asked Harshal of he likes Mexican food, and he responded with the most excitement I have ever seen an adult have at the prospect of going out for Mexican: "Oooh, I love it!" he exclaimed. It was kind of interesting seeing him this time, because he felt a lot shyer last year, but didn't seem shy at all now.
We went to the Cactus Restaurant on Alki Beach, getting a table right next to a wide open wall thanks to the garage door windows being pulled all the way up. That made me much less concerned about being in a crowded restaurant without masks. We all three split two dishes, the nachos and the fajitas, and both were excellent. And then, they said because they heard it was our first time there, they even brought us out a complementary flan to share. I don't usually care for flan as I typically don't like its slimy consistency. This was perfection, however; the only stunningly delicious flan I've ever had. We all raved about it and made sure to tell our waiter.
Harshal insisted on buying our dinner, saying it had been his goal ever since he visited us last year. Shobhit usually resists this kind of generosity but accepted it faster than usual, I thought. I never have any problem with it. We thanked him, of course.
Harshal was even thrilled to hear there was a Statue of Liberty near there. It was just a four-minute walk from the restaurant, and I got some nice photos, both of the statue and of the sunset under mostly cloudy skies across the Puget Sound. I have a feeling Harshal kind of expected the Statue of Liberty, which is a far smaller replica, to be a lot bigger than it was. But, oh well.
Harshal was then headed to another friend's house for the evening, and we offered him a ride. At first he asked if he could just ride with us back to Capitol Hill, but the place he was going was basically Magnolia. We just gave him a ride all the way to the next place he was going. It was a nice and pleasant drive up the waterfront on our way there, as Shobhit didn't feel like taking the freeway like Siri suggested.
That brings us to today, which was largely spent preparing and packing for our trip—I went down to the storage unit to get a suitcase and a cooler; I did some packing; I vacuumed; I even walked over to the Central District PCC to get some Deli salads to bring with us tomorrow. But, in the middle of all that was a three-hour detour for Happy Hour at Volunteer Park with Laney.
The weather is really working for me this weekend. There was record rainfall on Thursday; not much rain yesterday but very overcast and occasionally drizzly; rain in the forecast tomorrow—but today? Sunny and 70°! Nice. (The highs in Victoria are all around 58-61° while we're there, so it will hardly be summer weather, but at least there, there is no rain in the forecast for the next four days.)
Laney picked me up in her van, and gave me a ride to the park. I actually had a blanket tote handy this time, but she has an extra folding chair now because she found one on sale for six bucks, so I took her offer to use that instead. I think I may still bring the blanket next time, though, as the blanket offers a lot more flexibility for sitting positions. Still, being in the two chairs made for a nice photo for my requisite monthly "Happy Hour with Laney" shot.
And, it got warm enough that more than once we actually moved our chairs into the shade. We usually sit close to the bathrooms, but we went into the grassy area on the other side of the road through the park, because in the usual area there was a drum circle going on. While they were admittedly quite good, it was also kind of loud.
The park was kind of packed, albeit not so much in the area we found to sit in. But that large grassy area where the drum circle had been—people were sunbathing like they were at the beach. One clearly gay couple with a dog had both stripped down to nothing but swimming briefs. They were quite fit so I'm not complaining.
Laney often wants to call it a day sooner than I would prefer when we do these Happy Hours, but today we hung out for a solid three hours. We've done as many as four hours in the past, but three is plenty, really. We talked a lot about family and friends and death and grieving, and plenty of other things. It was lovely as always, but especially so outside in such nice weather. I am glad I had the wherewithal to put on sunscreen before I left.
She gave me a ride home, and that was when I vacuumed, before watching one more episode of
The Staircase on HBO Max before Shobhit got home from work. After that, I helped him make dinner and then finished up what packing could be done now instead of waiting until morning. I'm hoping to get up early enough to head out by about 7:45.
[posted 10:03 pm]
