Seattle with Darren

"okay... we should be on the boat by 11:00AM so that we have plenty of time to get to Blake Island and back," so said Darren last night while planning for our long awaited sailing trip. Unfortunately for Darren, he doesn't understand that when one travels with a recently released resident and an 18-month old, time frames such as "we should be at the boat by 11:00"are rarely "hit."

Thankfully Darren is a patient man, and didn't even flinch when Ella and Anna rolled out of bed at 10:00 (time we were supposed to leave), and his patience stayed strong through a long breakfast of pancakes, fresh fruit, coffee, sausage, and fishies (for Ella). This meant that the boat didn't officially leave dock until 1:30. However, we were thankfully loaded down with beer, wine, lunch meats, bread, and fishies (for Ella). We also brought along a caseload of Wiggles videos just in case Ella wasn't as "into" sailing as we were. (Too bad we didn't bring along a caseload of batteries for the DVD player)

The first part of our trip took us through the Locks that separate Lake Union and Puget Sound...

Waiting for the boats to go in the Locks

Waiting to go...

Leaving the Locks

After the Locks we proceeded into Puget sound and headed south towards Blake Island... Rainier was in the distance, downtown Seattle to the east, and a great wind pushing us towards our destination.

Seattle in the distance

Rainier

Ella helping with the sailing

It took us about 3 hours to get to Blake Island, where we ate lunch and explored the island for about an hour... Below are some pics of how Darren and i spent our time "exploring" the island:

While Ella and Anna enjoyed the view:

We left Blake Island around 6:00 with Darren making this prediction: "With the wind behind us, we'll make much better time..." Unfortunately... it didn't work out that well, so we had to entertain ourselves with libations and Wiggles:

... and didn't get in until sunset:

Thankfully Darren is a great captain and we made it through the locks unscathed (at night), but we were treated to a "show" of a speedboat dude getting sideways in the Lock and ramming his boat into the side of the Lock... poor guy!

Also, at about 8:00 while we were sailing (with motor... Darren's "tailwind" didn't work out) towards the Locks, Anna from down below with Ella could be heard saying "I really want Indian food." Unfortunately we were all very hungry, and this statement left the 3 of us longing for Samosas, Tandori Chicken, and Naan for the last 2 hours of our trip.

We made it back to the dock by 10:00, and I have to admit that Ella did an outstanding job on her first sailing excursion... 9 hours on a small boat with an oversized life jacket, no where to run, and no batteries in the DVD player could have been a nightmare, but she seemed to be having a great time.

Thanks to Darren for all his captaining and being our Seattle tour guide