After Heather and Tim took me out on their boat for my Birth Week near the end of April, she offered to take me out again later this summer, with the hope that Shobhit could join us. She and Tim make lots of weekend plans well in advance, so we settled on July 20 a couple of months ago, with the caviat that Shobhit getting the day off was a bit iffy.

I waited until just a few weeks ago to bring it up to Shobhit -- in fact, only a week or two before this past week at Total Wine & More was to be scheduled for him. In the end, he did manage to get the day off, even after he had gotten Saturday July 6 off as kind of a fluke. He even asked me to see if Heather could do the boating that weekend instead, and I did ask her, but she and Tim were to be out camping that weekend (kind of predictably, as that was technically Fourth of July Weekend), so we stuck with July 20. I was pretty relieved that Shobhit got the day off in the end, and Heather was thrilled.

And now that the day has come and gone, you know what my favorite thing about yesterday was? Shobhit truly had a blast. I can't remember the last time I saw him so happy and having so much fun for such a sustained period of time. We only had about three and a half hours actually on the boat, with the whole outing lasting roughly six hours between us leaving home and arriving back home again. But it's not often you have that much fun for that many hours straight.

Unlike the April outing, when I drove Shobhit's car and parked it at Des Moines Marina so they picked me up there and then dropped me back off there again, this time Shobhit and I took Light Rail down. This was suggested by Heather some time ago, actually: that if we took Light Rail, they would pick us up at Angle Lake Station, currently the southernmost Light Rail station and only a couple of miles from Des Moines Marina, and they would give us a ride on their boat up to downtown Seattle and drop us off there.

I asked Heather what was a good time for us to aim for arriving at Angle Lake, and she suggested 10 am -- which had actually been the time we met last time as well. Thus, taking Light Rail, Shobhit and I left the condo just before 9 am, and we caught Light Rail at Capitol Hill Station at 9:15. Forty-five minutes later, we were at Angle Lake, and Heather and Tim were waiting there for us. Shobhit snoozed a little on the train and I read my library book.

On the drive to the marina, we stopped at a small shop where Heather and Tim got a couple of things and Shobhit bought a bag of shelled peanuts. We also brought a salad I had put together Friday night after I wrote my movie review; a bottle of wine; paper bowls and plastic forks -- as I already told Heather via email on Friday, we wanted to feel like we were contributing something. I mean, I never have any issue accepting people's generosity, but I did feel like it was a bit different this time, given that it was two of us now, and also this time we weren't celebrating my birthday or anything like that.

Speaking of which, when we were in the car, Tim asked me, "Where's your hat?" At first I had no idea what he was talking about, and I was like, "I don't have any hats." Then he mentioned the captain's hat they had gifted me last time. Oh, right! "I didn't even think to bring that!" I said, actually somewhat disappointed in myself for forgetting it.

Anyway, we carried all that stuff on the train in a large tote bag, along with Shobhit's white hoodie. I also brought a jacket, which I was just wearing rather than have it add weight to the bag. I had figured we should bring jackets, even if the weather yesterday was set to be much warmer than it had been back in April; Heather also advised it, although I already knew they also had lots of extra jackets to spare.

We both wound up being very grateful we had brought the jackets, as once we were on their boat but still docked in the marina under cover and therefore in shade, at about 10:30 in the morning no less, it was indeed quite chilly. We only took the jackets off once we were well out into the water and stopped just off the coast of Blake Island.

Blake Island is far smaller than Vason Island just to the south of it (as in, 1,127 acres vs 80.8 square miles of land area, which makes Blake Island one fiftieth the size of Vashon), and yet, Blake Island's south shore looked virtually identical to that of Vashon Island. I mean, these are still all islands in Puget Sound, after all. They're all going to have pretty similar shorelines.

Heather brought vodka and enough ginger beer to make two Moscow Mules, knowing it's one of my favorite cocktails (it's also what she made me in April), and I might have had both, but Shobhit decided to have one before popping opening the wine bottle, so I only got the one Moscow Mule. She even brought copper mugs for them, again just like last time, and you can see them in our hands in the photo at the top of this post.

I suppose it's just as well; I likely would have gotten too drunk on two Moscow Mules instead of just one -- just like last time -- and I got fairly buzzed as it was. I hadn't wanted to mix liquor with wine, but with no more ginger beer to mix with the vodka, and not wanting just to take shots of vodka (which Heather also offered), I settled for a half-mug of wine. Shobhit didn't like the wine, which we had never tried before, very much; I thought it was all right. Tim seemed to like it and so we left it with them. Tim even took a swig right out of the bottle, red wine dripping down the sides of his salt and pepper beard. That was a memorable visual.

And that brings me to . . . peeing. I recall this being a concern of mine or the April outing, but that worked out okay because on that day, we took the boat across the Sound to Gig Harbor and they bought me lunch at a restaurant there. So, I had the restaurant bathroom to use at just the right time.

Yesterday was different, and they had just tied the boat to a buoy of the south coast of Blake Island when I said, "I have a problem. I really need to pee."

Heather knows I'm pee shy, so she and Tim went up to the front of the boat. Shobhit suggested I swing my legs over the side of the boat and pee off the side sitting there, with him holding me steady from behind. He frankly did a shit job of that, though, and when I leaned back into him when I started to lose balance, thank God I was not yet peeing because I would have pissed all over myself -- and then maybe even then fallen into the water, because Shobhit did not have a good hold on me at all.

So, that left the only option, really: the garbage bin they have that has a functional toilet lid. So, I scooted the bin into the space between the front two seats under the small roof of the boat, with the other three sitting on the bow of the boat in front of the windshield, that being the best approximation of privacy I was going to get. A few years ago I saw Tommy post on Twitter about being unable to pee at a Pride event bathroom somewhere, and the guy next to him told him to count backwards from 100 in multiples of seven and it worked. And so I tried that . . . and it got me going. I had to pee again maybe ten or fifteen minutes after that, but I never did again.

It was also while we were there that both Heather and Tim dove into the water. Heather had suggeated bringing swimsuits for this very reason, but she also said the water was 56°, which made me conclude that was an insane idea. Shobhit did wear his swim briefs under his shorts, and even at one point stuck his feet in the water, but it was way too cold for him to go all the way in -- he doesn't really swim anyway. I actually had to clarify the size of the boat in the morning, when he said he "might just sunbathe." I think he was having visions of stretching out on a folding chair on the deck of a yacht. I had to show him photos from April, that their boat is just 23' long counting the engine.

When Heather jumped in, feet first, she had to swim super hard to get back to the boat, and Tim extended a hand for her to grab and he pulled her back up the last final bit. She was swimming incredibly hard, too. She said the current there felt like being in a river. Not long after that, Tim dove in, and he dove hands and head first. He was quite the swimmer though and returned to the boat pretty swiftly.

I also broke out the salad and we all had a bowl; much to my delight, Heather really liked it -- even without any dressing, which I had offered but she declined. "This is like, my jam," she said. She really likes vegetables, apparently.

I don't know how long we were there by Blake Island, half an hour maybe? We then took the boat back across toward West Seattle, floated near Alki Beach for just a few minutes, and then they took us across Elliott Bay to Bell Harbor Marina, which is right by Anthony's on the waterfront. Heather had brought up the possibility of walking up to the Edgewater for lunch, which I was all for, but by the time we reached the arena it was past 2pm, and Tim declared it too late for there to be enough time for lunch. They had dogs at home they needed to get back to, and they still needed to boat all that way back down to Des Moines Marina.

Heather had suggested hanging out for a few minutes at the marina, and I totally would have, but I think there was a slight miscommunication just because I began gathering all of our stuff. I think Shobhit took his cue from that, and he got out of the boat, and so, so did I. Heather gave me a pretty big hug and thanked us for hanging out with them -- that hug, to me, indicated how much she genuinely enjoyed the day as well. She even suggested maybe doing this again later this summer, which Shobhit kind of diplomatically shot down -- he suggested maybe doing it again next summer. He really did have a great time, I think the issue is just requesting the time off, as we already have other weekend plans necessitating his days off next month.

Shobhit and I walked from there up to Victor Steinbrueck Park, where so much of the view is now without huge swaths of the Alaskan Way Viaduct, it's quite different. We stopped at Beecher's for a cheese sample, and then we waited for a #11 back up Capitol Hill.

I had already started getting tired when we were still on the boat, and by the time we were back in the condo, I flopped down on our bed and seriously zonked out, for like two hours. Shobhit fell asleep on the couch and slept for even longer. And after it took nearly three hours for Heather to get back to me when I texted her requesting she send the photos she took of Shobhit and me on the boat with her phone (one of which is seen below), she told me "Oh my gosh, we crashed when we ot home! Just woke up!" and that was at 8:41. At first I thought she was saying they crashed the boat, and then I realized she meant they fell asleep. So this means that once we all got to our respective homes, all four of us zonked out! There must have been something in the air yesterday. Or in the alcohol. Or in the extended exposure to sunshine. Or all three.

In any case, before Heather texted me her set of photos, I had a photo set of 27 shots for the day, which was two fewer than the set I had from April; then, when Heather sent me nine more photos, now yesterday's set has 36 shots, seven more than the April photo album (which might have had more itself, but that was on the same day I also went down to stay the night with Jennifer in Shelton).

The direct link to yesterday's boat outing can be found here. Now I just need to caption them all.

[posted 10:17 am]