A Day on Lake Washington

We "won" a day on Lake Washington at the Helping Hands charity auction last fall. We've never won a live auction item since those usually get bid up too high for us to consider. We paid 250 dollars.

When J spoke to the boat owner to arrange a date, he mentioned the possibility of seeing the Blue Angels from the water. I was so excited! That was something I'd wanted to do for years! We picked August 3rd which worked for all of us. 

We met the owner and his wife at Log Boom Park in Kenmore (near Kenmore Air) which has plenty of parking. We brought along Dawson, C's friend, since the trip was for 4 people and A was away in St. Louis. Here's a funny photo. J took this to text to the owner so he would know what we look like.

First we went along the east side of lake Washington to the 520 bridge. 

Here's a nice house:

Just south of the bridge is Bill Gates' house.

This was our 2nd time seeing that. We first saw it with my parents on an Argosy cruise back in June 2002. I noticed that it has more trees in front of it than back in 2002, better for privacy.

One thing I noticed was that several houses have a funicular (a cable railway) in order to get from their house at the top of the hill, down to the water.

We went further south and then our captain set an anchor. We had to stay 500 feet away from the I 90 bridge. We saw police from 3 different divisions: Seattle police, King County police and the Coast guard.  The boys went out in floats to enjoy the view and cool off. 

I wished that I had worn my swimsuit so I could've done the same. This was where we watched the Blue Angels.

Sometimes they flew directly over us and quite low!

We were treated to an onboard BBQ as part of the experience. We didn't need to bring anything. We were offered the choice of hotdogs or skewers with chicken and vegetables. We also had an appetizer of basil, mozzarella cheese and tomatoes on skewers. 

We saw this boat that was a charter for a group, designed like a pirate boat.

After the show was over, we went along the east side of Lake Washington. Then we went under the 520 bridge 

and headed toward the Montlake cut aka the Montlake bridge which is right next to the UW. Here is the football stadium.

Here is the Montlake Cut.

After that we stopped at Aqua Verde (a Mexican restaurant). It was cool to arrive at a restaurant by boat.

I'd like to come back and eat there. it seems like a fun place with a beautiful view. 

There are a lot of houseboats in Portage Bay (near Aqua Verde).

We went back to the main part of Lake Washington to head back. 

Our caption put his foot to the floor, as it were. One of the kayakers we passed didn't appreciate our speed. He shook his head at us. We returned to Kenmore at 4 pm. 

I should have taken a few more pictures. My contact at Helping Hands wished that I had taken a group photo with our hosts. She could use that for promotion for the next auction. I was concentrating on both being a good guest and enjoying this very special experience. Sometimes it is nice not to take too many photos!

One problem with spending a long time on a smaller boat is there is no bathroom! We did stop at a Aqua Verde in order to use the bathrooms. I bought a drink there since I felt that was the right thing to do since we used their facilities. 

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