So I have long remembered, and long been telling people, that the idea to take one of these "Fremont Happy Hour Brew Cruises" came from Laney. She reminded me last night, though, that it was due to seeing this ship moored at Fisherman's Terminal that she actually gave me the suggestion for this year's overall Birth Week theme, of making it nautical, and riding in boats. How dd I forget that?

As far as I know, I have never been to Fisherman's Terminal, and I still haven't -- because this boat has two different launch points it will sail from, the other being the far more convenient one we sailed from after work yesterday: South Lake Union, right by MOHAI (the Museum of History and Industry). That's a much shorter drive from Laneu's place, and much easier for me to get to from work for me as well. It was kind of like meeting halfway for both of us.

I did not ride my own bike to work yesterday because I knew I would be going directly to South Lake Union after work, and Laney would almost certainly be giving me a ride home. I did, however, ride a Lime e-bike both ways. Biking remains much easier on my foot with the toe infection, and the e-bike made it easier going up Lower Queen Anne toward Mercer before turning to the east toward the south end of the lake.

Anyway, boarding was scheduled for between 4:45 and 5:00, and both Laney and I arrived near the end of that span. We boarded the boat, which had the name Fremont Avenue, and we kind of wasted no time asking questions about the vessel and about the busines.

It was the captain I showed my boarding pass to on my phone, but once onboard, we checked in with a woman named Joanie, who I had been emailing with about booking the 90-minute Happy Hour cruise. We learned that it is a business owned by Joanie, who is not part of but is affiliated with Fremont Brewing but is affiliated with it; and she basically charters that other guy's -- the captain's -- vessel for this seasonal event, which in the summer is daily but this early in the season she could only get enough bookings to do each Friday (which is why Laney and I had to reschedule from next Thursday).

Laney spent a pretty good amount of time talking to the captain about boating after we asked him questions about the vessel, as their common thread was Laney's daughter, Jessica, who works as a Deckhand for UCcruise Adventures, just recently having left for Alaska. Anyway, Laney was assuming this ship, made of steel, was many decades old, but the captain told us it had been constructed in 1985! He bought it several years later in Cleveland, all beat up and witha big hole in the bottom, and he fixed it up and brought it back to Seattle (why Seattle, I didn't catch). It's 50' in length.

And holy shit, did that ninety minutes go fast, because we had a blast -- we both remarked several times what a great idea making this the year's Birth Week theme was, the overall expense notwithstanding. The weather was not very hot, but not especially chilly either; it was partly sunny and we were mostly quite comfortable in our jackets, although at one point I did have to go back inside to get warmer. I got plenty of great pictures, as you can imagine, which can all be viewed on Flickr here.

The route the boat took was a fun one: from the dock at South Lake Union Park, it floated up the east side of the lake past a lot of houseboats; turned to pass under the I-5 and University Bridges (which are seen in the background of the above photo of Laney and me) and then into Portage Bay; passed through Montlake Cut and under the Montlake Bridge; went just a little bit into Lake Washington's Union Bay before coming back through Montlake Cut again; traveled over near but not under the Aurora Bridge (which must mean we passed right by GasWorks Park on the north side of Lake Union, which I totally spaced probably because I was too engaged in conversation); then went south along the west side of the lake back toward South Lake Union Park again.

Laney and I both agreed the $25 per person was a completely reasonable price, totally worth it, especially with it including our first drink, which goes for $6. You see us above with our rose in our hands (they only offered beer or wine), and we each had two more of those $6 cups of wine after that. I got just slightly buzzed, and that was all the alcohol I had all evening. Laney did have a cocktail later. Anyway we're already talking about doing this again, and that Shobhit should come on it with us, and that we might make it an annual springtime thing we do. It could just be one of our monthly Happy Hours we do each spring, I suppose.

Oh and I almost forgot. The boat has to book a minimum of 20 guests to go out; they clearly managed that as that's how many people were just in the upper deck crowd shot I took. Among them was a part of three, a gay couple with two French bulldogs and one of the guys' sister they literally flew out from Denver for this, celebrating a dog's fifth birthday. I guess if you count the dog that's actually a party of five. They had outfits for the dog, and actual gifts in gift bags, and balloons -- the works. We had assumed a whole bunch of the people on the boat were there for this "party," and were kind of surprised it was just the three of them. Still, they were the only ones Laney and I had any real conversation with, besides Joanie and the captain guy, especially the sister, who was very nice and had the demeanor of a very kind person. She once won Madonna tickets in a contest and they wound up in the Golden Circle! I was so jealous.

After we returned, having limited options on the boat (we would have gone for the cheese pizza they usually offer, but this was the year's maiden voyage and Joanie said she only had pepperoni), Laney drove us up to Capitol Hill and we went to dinner at Rooster's Bar & Grill for dinner. I had a roasted vegetable quesadilla that was truly delicious, and that was where Laney had her Manhattan. I did not have a cocktail because I did not want to mix liquor with wine, nor did I want the extra expense. I'm going to be drinking plenty at Jennifer's tonight anyway.

So then Laney was kind of enough still to give me a ride home, as my toe just wouldn't have been able to take walking even that one-mile distance. I was up relatively late just processing and uploading the photos before I went to bed, soon after Shobhit got home from work. He had been annoyed that I was out so much later than initially intended because the cats would now be fed three hours late, and it's like -- big deal. They didn't even seem all that upset about it when I got home.

Anyway. Now I need to start getting ready for today's events, which I won't have a chance to post about until either Monday or Tuesday -- ditto tomorrow's and Monday's events! Suffice it to say, my Birth Week is off to a very good start.

[posted 7:50 am]