mary shelley: unexpected hero

last night, victoria invited me out to discovery park for a bonfire. i was kind of not into doing anything that involved me wearing anything other than pajamas, but i said yes anyways, and agreed to meet her around 6:45-7ish. we met up and drove to pick up morgan from downtown, and then we drove to discovery park, watching the last vestiges of the sunset along the way. we parked and met up with sam and george (victoria's couchsurfer from amsterdam) who had been there all day. the sky was that perfect twilight/dusk color as we were walking. we all went for a beer run, and picked up some munchies and supplies along the way, crucial things like hot dogs, marshmallows, skewers, and jiffy pop.

we got back to the park, and started the trek to the hangout spot that they had been prepping all day. the guys kept telling us about this "little bluff" that we had to climb down, and victoria and i kept joking about building up the bluff in our minds to be a sheer 90 degree cliff, so that when we got there, it wouldn't be as bad as we imagined. it wasn't too bad, but still took a good while of clambering, trudging, and sliding down to get to the beach, lugging the provisions, the victuals, what have you. the only thing was that it was super dark, and even though the moonlight was fairly strong, it was mostly covered by the surrounding foliage. we forgot to bring a flashlight, so we used morgan's bike light and mary shelley to help us navigate. i am truly, truly grateful for mary shelley...who knew that her power LED light and quacking would come in so handy?? :D

we finally made it down to the beach, and the guys showed us their handiwork - a chair, two benches, a table, and a windwall, all constructed of driftwood, a little cave/hut, and of course, a firepit. it was PERFECT. the tide was out, revealing this huge stretch of round, wave-polished rocks peppering the shore. the guys had already collected a pile of huge shells, but i picked one big, smooth, white clam shell up just for good measure. george started the fire up with an unfortunate copy of the stranger, and soon enough, we had a good crackling fire, open beers, and hot dogs on skewers. halfway through, we spotted the rope swing hanging from a nearby tree, and i hopped on with great enthusiasm. victoria pushed me a little, and it didn't take too long before the swing was going high and fast...towards the tree trunk! luckily, i only had one beer and one hot dog...otherwise, that swing would have been a terrible idea.

the park was closing at 11, so we decided to leave around then...after we'd eaten/drank our fill of hot dogs, popcorn, beer, and marshmallows, the fire put out with sand and piss, we packed our crap up, and made our way back up the "bluff". we didn't get out of the park until about 11:30, but luckily, we caught the guard just as they were closing the gate, so we didn't have to scale anything. we left the park and drove out to a point near the seattle center so that george could take pictures of the city, and then we drove back.

i think i'll never forget that night, something i almost missed out on. plowing through the sand, the reverberating quack of mary shelley, the sound of the water, the crunch of broken shells under my feet, the smell of the night, the stars, victoria's fluorescent legs, george's glasses glinting in the firelight, morgan coughing/hacking up something nearby, and sam's amused, half-lidded stare. i want to keep the memory of it all behind my eyelids.