— पाँच हजार सात सौ उनसठ —
As I already noted last week it would be, I had a very busy weekend—and none of it involved going to the movies! A pretty unusual weekend in that respect, and
I already posted on Saturday about Friday evening, when Shobhit and I hung out with Danielle and Jeanna for a couple of hours, and we all wound up riding the Seattle Great Wheel—Jeanna's first time on it; Danielle's second time on it but my first time riding with her; Shobhit's third time on it; and my
eleventh time on it, since it opened 13 years ago in 2012.
On Saturday, I spent basically all afternoon just hanging out at Dad and Sherri's house in Olympia. It was not a family gathering or any other major social event, just an opportunity I took to go and see them, since Shobhit was already driving down to work on a short film shoot. We left a bit earlier than was quite necessary, even for getting to Olympia by the targeted time of 12:00—we were there about 11:40. Shobhit came in and visited for just a few minutes before leaving again for his shoot, which took place out by Mud Bay, which is actually close to the Shipwreck Cafe. He got back around 5:30, so it was just around six hours that I hung out down there.
Dad and Sherri had evening plans that Dad had forgotten about when I first proposed I come down and visit, but it still worked out fine. Their plans were at 6:00 and they were just about to leave shortly after Shobhit got back again. Shobhit thought he could be gone as late as 6:00 or 7:00, in which case I would just wait at the house and ready my library book, which Dad was relieved I did not have to do in the end, even though it would have been totally fine. I need to get that book read anyway! It's already overdue.
Their evening event was a local AA fundraiser they were going to with Gina and Beth, who they do a lot of social things with. This seems to be one of the things that gets them out of the house in their retirement years. Dad noted at one point that this is a big reason they do something like go to lunch at the local senior center: it's something to do. The sense I am getting is that they don't miss working at all, but they do sometimes need to make specific efforts in order to fill their time.
In fact, when I got there, Sherri was organizing a box of old holiday and birthday cards. Several were handmade cards I had given both of them. I never assumed they saved any of them, but Sherri did make a suggestion that I put their name on the actual card so it's easier to tell years later who it was for—the cards saved were only the card, and not the envelope they came in.
Somewhat related, though, was this deeply fascinating travel journal Grandma McQuilkin had used in the late nineties. It was printed for 1996 but Grandma crossed out all the dates to make it a 1997 version. This meant it included pretty major events like Grandma and Grandpa's 50th anniversary party in September 1997, although Grandma did not actually write a whole lot about it. I still should have taken photos of those entries; I didn't think to. I only took photos of the
Thanksgiving and
Christmas entries, as I found them either interesting or charming (or both). I will make a note to share those images on those holidays later this year, especially the wonderful shot of them dressed as Santa and Mrs. Claus, something they did every year for many years.
Gina and Beth happened to be nearby and so they stopped by for a few minutes while I was there. Beth accepted anoffer of a slice of pumpkin pie, just as I had shortly before they arrived. I have no idea where it had come from or why they had a pumpkin pie in February, which in retrospect seems kind of odd. Anyway Gina and Beth had one of their dogs with them, Roscoe I think? That dog has some real separation anxiety. It didn't matter which one of them it was, if one of them got up for anything, to use the bathroom or whatever, the dog would whine.
I learned that day that Dad and Sherri are also going to Victoria this year, just much sooner—for their anniversary next month, and both Angel and Gina (and thus Beth too) are going along! I would absolutely have loved to go too, I just wish I had known earlier so I could budget and plan. But, we already have a trip to Victoria on the books in December and don't really need two in one year (and the rest of them are staying two nights in March, rather than just the one night Shobhit and Laney and I will stay in December) and we have too many other trips in the works already. Nevertheless, I'm bummed we can't join them for that. I would have loved to.
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— पाँच हजार सात सौ उनसठ —
So yesterday was another day trip, this time to Port Orchard. Shobhit opted not to join, which I was okay with because I didn't want to deal with him getting bored and pressuring both Tracy and me about leaving before we were ready. I went this time with Tracy, something I coordinated after Tracy told me months ago she thought it would be fun for the two of us to go visit Claudia together. It just took until now to actually make it happen. In the end the thing we had to wait for was for Tracy to finish moving out of her apartment in Seattle and back into her childhood home with her dad in Puyallup. Apparently Tracy's sister Cindy, who had been living with her in the Seattle apartment, did the same.
We took the Bremerton ferry at 12:20, but Tracy came and picked me up at home at 10:45. This was far earlier than needed, but we padded the timing so we could go to PCC. Tracy's not a member ever since she left PCC, but in all her packing she found two different PCC gift cards she wanted to use. One of them turned out to have a $0 balance on it, which resulted in a lot of rigmoarole at a register before that was realized. Even with the delay that caused, we still go to the ferry terminal almost an hour early.
Tracy bought over $200 worth of vitamins. Actually it was over $250 worth but one of her gift cards brought the costs down. I also got her my 15% employee discount, adding my Member Only Offer of a free private label PCC chocolate bar to the transaction. I kept the chocolate bar.
Anyway, with Tracy driving all the way up from Puyallup and also given the fewer fast/passenger-only ferry crossings on Sundays, we needed to drive—something I previously only did when stopping by Claudia's on my way to visit Jennifer for my Birth Week. I also have
a collection of all my photos albums for visits with Claudia since she and Dylan moved to Port Orchard. Most of the time I take the fast ferries, unless it's my Birth Week and I am also on my way to Shelton/Union. In any case, I've now visited her 8 times since she and Dylan moved over there in 2022.
Using the fast ferries still remains preferable. It fascinates me that the foot ferry from Bremerton Terminal across Sinclair Inlet takes all of 12 minutes, whereas actually driving around the inlet takes a minimum of 17. Of course, when I walk I have to add 20 minutes to walk the mile from the Port Orchard ferry dock up to Claudia's house, but whatever. It's still faster since the Fast Ferry to Bremerton is only half an hour whereas the vehicle ferry is a full hour.
So, we got to Bremerton at roughly 1:20, and to a place called Peninsula Beverage Co, which sells the great soft pretzels, in Portl Orchard at about 1:40. More like 1:45, once Tracy found a parking spot that was not paid and we made our way inside.
They had hot buttered rum on their menu but they said I could not have one because their coffee machine was down, which makes no sense.
Tracy had wanted to get lunch as she was hungry; I'd not have bothered going out to eat otherwise. Claudia ordered breakfast potatoes and Tracy had nachos. I had the large soft pretzel all to myself. When I said I was tempted by the Moscow Mule, though, Claudia said there was a place a couple blocks away with a bunch of different flavored Mules on their menu. So after we were done with lunch and we walked the few blocks of downtown Port Orchard, including checking out the
two(!) book stores actually open for business, we went into that Mules place, actually called Brickhouse 714 Bar and Grill. I bought one Raspberry Mule there (it was delicious) and Tracy and Claudia just sat at a table with me while I drank it.
Then, we went up to Claudia's house. She gave Tracy the requisite tour of their giant yard and the always-in-progress yardwork and landscaping work she's doing.
Claudia's dog, Jenny, had recently died. She's understandably devastated and has a difficult time talking about it. Jenny was only four years old. I think Claudia and Dylan gave her a great life while it lasted, though.
Then we went inside and hung out for a few hours. Claudia's obsession with Nicolas Cage came up inevitably, and Claudia really wanted to convince Tracy of his greatness, something I don't think she'll ever be convinced of. Still, when I enthused about how much I love
Raising Arizona, Claudia put that movie on—this was now the second visit in a row where that movie got put on but I was not able to finish it. Tracy can't lock into a movie though (unless she's forced to in a movie theater), and it made sense to keep visiting even while the movie was on. Sometimes Tracy asked questions the movie would have answered had we been able to pay attention. That movie's quirky vibe isn't really something Tracy's ever into though, which she basically said once we got back into her car.
There had been multiple options for a ferry ride back, both from Bremerton or from Southworth (the drive from Port Orchard is comparable either way). In the end we had to go with the 6:40 ferry back from Bremerton as the latest option—I couldn't wait any longer than that. (Tracy, who quit her job in December and is just going to not-work until she can no longer afford it, did say at one point, "Oh right, you have to work tomorrow!) We left Claudia's at 5:50 and were back to the Bremerton terminal with half an hour to spare. We could have gotten there much later. Both directions the ferry was less than half full.
There was a guy on the ferry on the way back to Seattle, pushing a baby in laps around the ferry in a carriage and also wearing a T-shirt that read, CANDY IS BETTER FROM STRANGERS. I
took his photo, although you can't easily read the T shirt, as I had to use extreme zoom. Still I texted it to Claudia and she wrote back,
These are the people picking presidents.
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[posted 12:32pm]