I kind of went through PrideFest Capitol Hill yesterday in two waves, first with Shobhit and then with both Shobhit and Laney. Laney had a Pride Place barbecue to attend in her building so she couldn't head out until around 2:45, but Shobhit wanted to head up there shortly after 1:00—the first photo I took of the event, of the surprising number of booths we saw both in the grass at the north end of Cal Anderson Park and along Denny Way at that end of the block, was taken at 1:27.

Capitol Hill PrideFest was officially scheduled from noon to 8 p.m. I knew it wound't exactly be hopping by noon, but Shobhit also did not want to wait until later in the afternoon to head up there. This was somewhat odd to me, because usually he likes to go when things are busiest. But, we took a walk first, running some errands on foot as we did some light shopping at the Central District PCC, then the Safeway on 22nd, and then stopped at Trader Joe's on our way back home. Shobhit had a banana for a snack and changed his clothes before we left again.

I had initially thought that we would just wait until Laney could go, meet at her building, and all of us walk up Broadway together. It was just as well that Shobhit insist we go ourselves first, as he wanted to wait in line at several booths to spin prize wheels. To be fair, we actually got a lot of cool stuff this way, including when I won this awesome T-shirt that may very well be the coolest T-shirt I have ever gotten for free. I really loved it.

The crowd was pretty thick even by then, and so I texted Laney when we were about to reach Republican and would soon be turning around. That was when Laney texted me back, at 2:42, that she would head out as the barbecue was then winding down. We would just text and then meet up once she reached us. And then, when we got to the north end of Broadway, Shobhit decided he wanted to go check out the Pride sales at UnderU4Men, the men's underwear store just off Roy Street, about half a block from where Broadway splits into 10th Ave E to the right where it continues as the arterial, and Broadway E to the left where it becomes a side street and where the store is located.

They were having a little block party of their own, complete with young men standing around and just modeling the underwear. I got a few nice pictures out of that.

Shortly after Shobhit and I started walking back south again, Laney texted that she had reached the event where it started at John Street (on Broadway, anyway; there was also that other section at Denny Way and Cal Anderson Park, which she had bypassed). She suggested we see if we could get an outside table at Deluxe Bar & Grill, which was where she had suggested on Friday that we get drinks yesterday. Shobhit was resistant at first, insisting that it was going to take her 45 minutes just to reach us, which was a bonkers thing to say, it would never take her that long—but, it did seem possible it would take that long to get a table.

In the end, I don't think we waited even ten minutes for a table, largely because Shobhit told the hostess that the third who would be joining us was immunocompromised and would need to sit outside. We were then told we could have the next available table in the outdoor seating, where there couldn't have been more than maybe six tables. We were actually getting seated the moment Laney did actually arrive, only minutes later.

We had been somewhat banking on the Happy Hour menu there, but unsurprisingly they scrapped that for Pride weekend. But, the Deluxe Bar and Grill has such reasonable prices that I still got a stellar Moscow Mule for ten bucks, which is the Happy Hour price for cocktails at a lot of other places! That said, I had budgeted $30 for this, calculating only for myself when I did the budgeting because that's usually the case when I go out with Laney and I didn't know at first if Shobhit would be coming. In the end I spent $55.27 with tip, because Shobhit also got a cocktail (a Pride special espresso flavored one he was very impressed with), and we ordered two sides: tater tots and onion rings. All of it was fantastic. How often are tater tots legit impressive? Well, they are there. Our waitress told us they have very little turnover and have had the same cooks for over twenty years, which I thought was awesome.

As Shobhit and I had made our way up Broadway the first time, I took 24 photos. I took another 5 at DeLuxe Bar & Grill, including the fantastic one of Shobhit and me at the top of this post that I actually handed Laney my phone to take, and then another eight as the three of us walked back south on Broadway together. Laney had very nearly decided to go back home when we were first texting on her way up, it had gotten so insanely crowded, but then redoubled her efforts when I told her we had secured a table.

And, indeed, I was kind of amazed by the attendance yesterday. It was bigger than I have seen PrideFest Capitol Hill in years, since well before covid. It was truly nuts at times. My best guess is that there were two factors to this: 1) It was just further post-covid resurgence as has been going on every year since they finally returned to the live events in 2022; and 2) This year is being treated as special because it's the 50th anniversary of the first Seattle Pride, in 1974—two years before I was born! Organizers have done well at promoting it, I think. More events than usual have been happening through the entire month of June this year.

I will say, just as a side note, the "Capitol Hill Pride March & Rally" people, with whom Shobhit had had to register his campaign booth last year, for the first time this year actually scheduled their stuff on a different weekend, and did it at Cal Anderson Park last weekend. I walked past it on my way through the park last Saturday, and it was predictably pretty pathetic. With the two photos I took of that and one earlier one of a Pride flag I saw from a nearby apartment building balcony, my full PrideFest Capitol Hill 2024 photo album has a respectable total of 43 shots in it, pretty close to the average for this event over the years.

We walked with Laney back through the booths on Denny, so she could say hi to the GenPride table, and then we parted. Shobhit and I went home, I processed photos, and we binge watched episodes 2-10 of season 3 of The Bear on Hulu.

[posted 8:24 am]