Yesterday was the Opening Day of the boating season in Seattle and Uncle Peter invited us to join him on his boat for the festivities (thanks, Uncle Peter!). The weather wasn’t supposed to be that great (partly cloudy and temps in the low-50’s – compared to nearly 70 today!), but it was actually pretty nice, especially when the sun was shining on us. Nick and I even got a little sunburnt, whoops!
Crew team
We woke up early and caught a bus to the University of Washington. From there, we walked down behind Husky Stadium, where Peter took us to the boat on a dingy. The Windermere Cup crew races started at 10am. The Husky Men and Women crew teams both won the Windermere Cup, beating teams from as far away as Argentina.
At noon, the boat parade began, led by a Seattle Fire Department rescue boat that sprayed streams of water into the air. We saw the historic Virginia V steamship, which was built in 1922. We also saw a bunch of small steamboats and amphicars. To advertise the King Tut exhibit that opens in Seattle later this month, there was a giant jackal on a barge. Speaking of barges, there was a band rocking out on a barge that was tacked onto the front of a small tugboat. It was a pretty fun group to watch, in part because there were bikini-clad dancers and someone in a panda costume. 😛
Seattle-decorated boat
The decorated boats were cool, too. There was a Scottish boat, a boat with a volcano on top, and a boat decorated to look like a yellow submarine that played The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.” I think my favorite decorated boat, though, was the Seattle-themed one. It had the Space Needle on its mast, the Pike Place market sign, mountains, UW and WSU cheerleaders on dangling off either side of the boat, people tossing fish like they do at Pike Place Market, and it was towing a little cardboard ferry behind the boat.
We had a great time, ate yummy food, and got to see some neat boats and crew races. Our location wasn’t the best for taking photos, but we still got some pretty good ones. Click the link below to see our photos on Flickr.
Flickr photo set: Opening Day of Boating Season