What I find most amazing about my now eleven times on the Seattle Great Wheel, is that even after going the eleventh time yesterday, I have ridden it with a different person each time.

Let's go through the list!

1. Sunday July 1, 2012: with Susan, 2 days after Grand Opening
2. Sunday August 19, 2012: with Tristen
3. Saturday October 20, 2012: with Jennifer
4. Tuesday November 6, 2012: with Kelley
5. Sunday December 30, 2012: with Shobhit
6. Wednesday August 21, 2013: with Becca
7. Tuesday, April 29, 2014: with Auntie Rose
8. Friday, January 15, 2016: with Shobhit and Laney
9. Saturday, August 15, 2020: with Alexia
10. Friday, March 29, 2024: with Barbara
11. Friday, February 14. 2025: with Shobhit, Danielle, and Jeanna

And now, some notes:

Shobhit is the only person I have ridden the Seattle Great Wheel multiple times with—yesterday was the third—but I have still ridden it with someone different each time I have been on it, as the second and third times I went with Shobhit, he was joining me and other people: first with Laney (2016), then with Danielle and Jeanna (2025). The first time was with him alone (2012), which was itself my fifth time on the Wheel, that being the number of times I went on it in the first year it opened.

Since 2002 and until 2016, I was hosting a solo weekend visit each summer with one of my brother's five kids, between the year they turned 10 and the year they turned 17. In the end I took two of Christopher's kids on the Seattle Great Wheel: Becca (2013, although this actually constituted her 9th visit, when she came to hang out for a day while she happened to be visiting Seattle—her eight years I hosted had technically finished in 2012), and Tristen (2012, when he was 12).

All the people I rode with have either been family or close friends, with one exception: Kelley (2012) was a work contact, who worked at distributor UNFI in California but happened to be visiting Seattle. We hung out a bit and I took her to the Seattle Great Wheel.

Only two people really freaked out being on the Wheel: Laney (2016) and Barbara (2024). Barbara refused to say she had fun riding it but was actually pretty okay; she handled it fine and I think she did enjoy the views. Laney, on the other hand, clearly made a mistake in thinking she could handle it, and actually spent much of the ride with her eyes closed.

Probably the most different experience on the Wheel was with Alexia (2020), as it was only five months into the pandemic, businesses had only recently begun to reopen, and we had to ride it with masks on.

As I said before, I rode it five times in the first year it opened (2012), I was so thrilled by it; then I rode it once each year the next two years (2013 and 2014); once more two years after that (2016); then the novelty had finally worn off enough that I waited four years after that (2020), and four years again after that (2024). I wouldn't necessarily have opted to ride it an eleventh time only a year again after that, but sometimes these things happen circumstantially: Jeanna wanted to make a day of "seeing the sights" and doing touristy things in Seattle; Danielle had asked if Shobhit and I wanted to come hang out with them; and the Seattle Great Wheel was on Jeanna's list, as she had never been on it.

Jeanna and Danielle have been friends for nearly as long as Danielle and I have—Jeanna guessed they must have met when they were about 15. That would be 33 years ago. Danielle and I met when we were 11, which was 37 years ago. It was in Spokane in both cases, albeit invery different circumstances. Danielle's mom, Gail, and my mom were friends before Danielle and I became friends. I don't remember the circumstances with Jeanna; suffice it to say she's also a very old friend from Spokane. Jeanna is originally from Alabama and still has a very noticeable Southern accent. We once got into a bit of a debate on Facebook when she insisted Alabama is actually "less racist" than northern states. She has since abandoned all social media, a move I always find fascinating (and in some ways I envy). She told me last night it was largely because her dad started posting too much about how Obama was "the worst president in history" (hmm: Alabama, hmm . . .) and Jeanna said, "I needed to be able to look at him from across a table."

Anyway, Danielle had told me she and Jeanna would be at the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum at Seattle Center about the time I got off work at 4:30. Shobhit and I made a plan for him to walk to my office where we would meet when I got off work, and we would walk up to Seattle Center to meet them. Danielle said they would be finishing up by that time, but we had to wait a little while: once I texted her that we were in the museum gift shop, Danielle texted back they'd "be out in a minute." Then she followed up with, "A Danielle minute. If you truly know me." I knew what that meant.

We hung out in the gift shop about fifteen minutes. Finally Shobhit suggested we go over to the Armory, so I texted Danielle that was where we were headed. It was probably another ten minutes before Danielle and Jeanna were done at the museum and were finally walking toward the Armory. Which was fine, really. We spotted them near the Pacific Science Center when we walked out of the Armory entrance again.

We saw Jeanna take a puff off of what was probably a vape. She later said she uses it all day. "Honey people are alive because of this," she later told Shobhit. Still, within minutes of walking up to them, they were so overly relaxed and giggly, I said, "Are you guys stoned?" They both immediately burst into laughter. We quickly learned that Jeanna had brought what she termed "a tea bag" of mushrooms which they had shared. Jeanna said they had "microdosed" but I have no idea if that's technically true; that phrase to me brings to mind pharmaceutical precision, which was clearly not happening here.

Jeanna was actually by far the more sober of the two. I won't say Danielle was wasted, but she did seem pretty baked most of our visit, and some of her antics were similar enough to the two trips we took together in 2019 (at her friend's wedding in Syracuse, and later on our trip to Las Vegas) when she did get wasted that I felt slightly uncomfortable. This wasn't nearly as bad as either of those other times, but I did find it a little tedious, and it's good that she was with Jeanna who was both totally patient with her and, probably more critically, had gotten high with her. Honestly, had I known beforehand that they would be high while hanging out in Seattle yesterday, I'd have declined the offer and spent my Valentine's Day doing something else. On the other hand, I should note that once all was said and done, I still had a good time and I'm glad we went.

Shobhit did not want me to plan anything special for Valentine's Day this year, which would cost a lot of money, which made it easier to just spend the evening hanging out with a couple of friends sightseeing. I asked if Jeanna wanted to see the Olympic Sculpture Park and so we walked down there first, and then we walked the waterfront down to the Seattle Great Wheel—they had parked at the Pike Place Market parking garage, which is not far from there. I bought Shobhit's and my tickets to the Wheel and that cost me $53, which was more than I would have hoped to spend but was easily absorbed by my budget and was likely still less than if we had gone out for a Valentine's Day dinner. Danielle and Jeanna had already eaten not long before, and Danialle actually took out a to-go box and ate some leftovers while we were in the gondola.

It was slightly rainy last night, never bad or more than a sprinkle, but enough to make everything wet. This was actually my first time on the Seattle Great Wheel looking through glass covered on droplets of water. This actually made for some cool photos, and I got a 30-shot photo album out of the day, although admittedly only 19 of those were actually of or on the Seattle Great Wheel itself. Some of them were at the Olympic Sculpture Park, and a few inside Miner's Landing at Pier 57, which you have to walk through in order to exit.

Shobhit and I walked them back to their car at the garage, and then Shobhit and I walked through the Market and up to 4th and Pike to catch a bus home. We watched two episodes of season 4 of Being Human, and also spent some time reading lines for the short film he's shooting in Olympia today. I'm going to visit Dad and Sherri while he's doing that.

[posted 8:30am]