Sheesh, this weekend! One friend had to bail on plans Friday, and then another had to bail on plans yesterday. It's a good thing I'm so popular I always have backups waiting in the wings.
I don't mean to sound flippant, honestly. In both cases there were fully legitimate and justified reasons for needing to cancel. On Friday, Laney had to back out of joining for the Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition at Pike Place Market because of knee pain. Late yesterday morning, Alexia texted me to ask if maybe Laney could take her ticket to the Argosy Christmas Ship Festival cruise. She hadn't slept well the night before, and even though she seemed to have a good time at Figgy Pudding, she was still grieving the loss of a close friend, on top of still dealing with her boss being mysteriously fired, so I totally got it. She needed to take care of herself.
To Alexia's credit, she told me that if I couldn't find anyone else to go, she would make some coffee and "rally" and "I'm not going to leave you hanging." I would have really felt bad if it came to that, and thankfully, it didn't. Laney was the one who first suggested Laney, and I very nearly went to Laney first to ask. But, then I realized Shobhit got off work at 2:00 and had the rest of the day free, and I figured he would appreciate me asking him first. His response was a not-especially-enthusiastic "Sure" (over text)
but I still got the definitive sense that he appreciated me taking it to him first. He should really be the priority as a general rule under such circumstances, right?
Alexia and I had chosen yesterday's date for the Christmas Ship cruise for no greater reason than it was the best date where we were both available. I'd have preferred another date with a boat launch from a pier in Seattle proper, but this one launched from the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington in Renton—where, as it happens, Danielle lives. Had Shobhit not accepted the offer, it probably would have been a better idea to see if Danielle wanted to go. (She may have been working anyway.) My sense with Laney was, although she might also have accepted, I felt like it was maybe 50/50 as to whether her knee would still disincline her from a major outing, even if this one involved very little walking or even standing, necessarily.
In the end, Laney vs. Danielle was moot, because Shobhit agreed to take Alexia's ticket—with no need to pay her for it—and he actually had a pretty good time.
I was bummed that Alexia couldn't make it, given how much coordinating we did to settle on this date, and how expensive the tickets were ($63 each, which means I'm not especially keen on doing this any more than, say,
once a decade). But, I
had just done a big festive event with her the night before at Figgy Pudding, so that was adequate for one weekend, it's not like I didn't get any quality time with her this weekend. And conversely, getting some quality time with my husband instead is never a bad thing.
Shobhit was shocked by how expensive the tickets were, of course, and immediately declared them not worth that much. I that would still have been his opinion after seeing the hired entertainment on the second deck, an acapella group of four women called PrimeTime Quartet, but I think that group did surprise him. He was genuinely impressed by them.
Every once in a while, Shobhit has a brief burst of random generosity that is really surprising. During the performance, Shobhit found PrimeTime Quartet on Facebook, and even
posted a comment on their recent post about this event:
enjoying your wonderful singing on the cruise. Awesome. Big crowd by the shore around the bonfire. So many boats around us listening to you.
This is, indeed, how most of these Christmas Ship cruises work: the boat launches from one dock, either on Puget Sound (as was the cast the last time I did this, with Susan Dennis
in 2012) or on Lake Washington (as was the case yesterday), sails to another shore just a few miles away, and then has the hired entertainment amplified for people gathered on shore to watch the decorated boats and listen to the music. In yesterday's case, Seattle Parks & Recreation hosted a public bonfire on the shore at Seward Park, which our boat sailed to and then stuck around a few hundred yards offshore, with maybe three other smaller, decorated boats sailing nearby. Maybe next year I'll find one of these bonfire events and just go to that; that would be free.
I wasn't especially concerned about the price of the tickets myself, because I have had budget line items from every paycheck since last year, specifically to cover the cost of any major Christmas events I wanted to do. This year the big ones were this, and the Dina Martina show I'll be seeing with Laney in a couple of weeks. Next year I'll save up just as much, and just spend the money on different things. Right now I'm considering a return to WildLanters at Woodland Park Zoo, which I did once before with Alexia in 2021. Those aren't as expensive as the Christmas Ship but are still pretty expensive tickets, expensive enough that I don't aim to do that one every year either. But, next year will be after three years and I may want to go again.
Most of the ninety-minute cruise is just milling about, either on one of the two decks or on the open-air deck on top, which Shobhit and I spent a good amount of time on. We both got an 8oz hot chocolate, neither of which were particularly good (note for future reference: Argosy concessions aren't that great; at least the hot chocolates, and the one popcorn we split, are only four bucks). We went back inside when being out in the middle of the lake rendered it too cold, even with our hats on; the upside was that yesterday was the one day this week that was totally dry, so that part really worked out for us.
The whole experience, I have to say, is definitely improved by the hired singers. Shobhit is convinced the high ticket prices go largely toward paying them, but who knows; I would not expect they get paid a gigantic amount. PrimeTime Quartet is very good but they're still just a small-time local act. I am wondering if by chance they were at Figgy Pudding though—I was kind of delighted to discover that the winners of that competition, Emerald City Voices, are actually the hired talent on the Christmas Ships sailing on December 21. I intend to make a note of that for next year, see which boat they perform on (if they do again), and then perhaps go to the bonfire gathering that ship sails to.
Anyway. Shobhit's somewhat wavering opinions aside, I felt it was absolutely worth it. I might not have felt that way if I had just arbitrarily paid for tickets without them being part of something I had been budgeted for all year, but that being the case really changed it. I had a great time and was really glad I got to go. Although I won't see a need to do it again (at least not actually riding on a boat) for probably another several years.
[posted 12:30 pm]
