A team that The Shadow Lady supports at Microsoft had a dinner cruise, and they invited her to come...  and, since it was an event where "Significant others" could attend, I got to go to... :-)

While I was driving from a client site in Seattle, I noticed a boat that I thought we were going to be on making its way across the Lake... the Olympic Star.... but after looking more closely, it doesn't look like the same boat to me anymore.  It was still an interesting sight heading across the bridge, along with a sea plane coming in for a landing.

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so I used my cell phone's... it did pretty well, considering.

I left for the marina an hour before I was supposed to be there... I was expecting traffic to slow me down.  There WAS traffic, but the speed limits were near normal, and I got there about 45 minutes early.

Since I'd never been there before, I walked around the marina to see what there was to see.

I found a dock larger than the others, and figured this is where the boat would dock.

It was right about then that the wind picked up.

A small bird kept buzzing me... I realized why after another adult bird flew under the dock, and I heard chicks begging for food.  I moved down the dock a bit, and it left me alone.

Two young ducks swam towards me very quickly... I thought they were wanting a hand out, but they were apparently trying to get away from the weather.

 
Right about as the wind was really getting going, a boat pulled into the marina, and with only a few feet to spare, turned, slid sideways, and then parallel parked against another dock lining the marina.

It was pretty impressive.  The guy in white shorts, Dave, was managing the docks, and told me that he was pretty impressed with that guy's shiphandling... he's a local guy who captains a couple of the larger boats, and had just went to the shipyard to pick this boat up for someone at the marina... he'd never drove it before - no one had.  He squeezed it in there by himself - he was the only person on the boat.

Just as the boat was getting tied down, I saw the boat we were going to be on start to come towards the docks.

The 92-foot Olympic Star.

They brought the boat around in a fairly stiff wind, moving at a decent clip.

As they turned, the wind drove the boat sideways, and - with a loud crack - the bow hit the dock.

Shortly after that, one of the deck crew jumped out, and checked the boat and dock.

The captain swung the back of the boat against the dock, and they tied the boat down.

The captain was embarrassed, and was smiling sheepishly, but said that no harm was done.  A rubber bumper strip was pulled away, and there was a dent in the hull... but there were others already there. :-)

The boat wasn't equipped with thrusters, which I thought was pretty suprising.

Once tied and secure, we waited while the crew made ready.

After a bit, the captain came up with a plan to get off the dock, and went over it a couple of times with his crew.

Before too long, we were allowed to board.

Since only a few people were here at that point, I went around the boat and took some pictures.

 
Everyone knew each other, although it seemed to me the spouses and guests didn't.  it was fun talking with everyone.

Once everyone was on board, the captain went over the plan one last time, and made ready to pull off the dock.

 
His plan was to tie down the corner of the boat to the dock, and run the motors in alternate directions, which would pull the bow into the wind, and then he'd motion for the crew to slip the rope, and they'd be underway.

It took a few tries, and he ended up using a fender (the inflatable bumper things) to spring the boat a bit, but eventually, the gap widened...

  ... and finally the call came to slip the ropes, and we were gone.

The boat was much more stable after that.

 
Its been a long time since I've been on the water... it was nice.

We chatted it up with the Microsofties... they asked what I did, and then asked if I used Microsoft products to do it.  :-)

It was turning out to be a pretty nice evening. 

 
We came up on the bridge I'd driven across earlier... it was pretty interesting to go under it... you get a whole different view.

 
There wasn't a whole lot of clearance...

 
We also spent some time looking at the buildings and homes along the  banks of the lake... not the least of which is Bill's 43,000 square-foot home.  Trees have come in, blocking a lot of the view...

The sand on the beach was imported from a beach that his family had as a vacation home when he was a kid.

I took a snap with the manager of the team that invited us... he was a pretty funny guy. 

The food was good - I had a broiled halibut steak.  I enjoyed it.

The desert tray wasn't too bad, either.  There wasn't much left of it when we were done.

 
After dinner, I walked around for a bit, and watched the sunset from the deck.

Around 9pm, we pulled in to a much calmer marina than we had left.

It had been a fun trip around the Lake.

In all, it was a very nice evening, and I'm very thankful that the manager invited his support staff, and their spouses.

 
After saying our good-byes, and thank you's, we made our way to Gar.

I took one last picture as I was leaving.  As it turns out, it was the best one of the night, I think, anyway.  Not bad for a phone cam, anyway!

In all, I had a fun time... thanks to Uncle Bill.

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