another boat, salmon, and blue angels

NOTE: This post was originally written on Aug 6th. I had spent an hour uploading photos, writing witty content, and cursing because I could not get the photos to space evenly. After much ado I got everything lined up to my liking and clicked publish. Instead of publishing the post that I had worked so hard on, blogger deleted 99.9% of my post and only the title appeared online. F*#@, F*#@, F*#@!!!!!! So after a bit of a cooling down period and 4 day visit from my sister and a 2 day visit from my mom and auntie I have decided to give it another go. (keeping my fingers crossed) Ever since we moved up here Fiance has been talking about going to be the Blue Angels at Seafair. Fiance will find any reason to see them perform and once flew us down to Dallas for that very reason. In the weeks leading up to Seafair he talked about it more and more and had staked out the location we would be watching them from. It would be crowded but would be good for viewing the show. The week before his birthday I was looking it to whale watching tours and was on the Argosy website and saw that they had a Blue Angels lunch cruise. Taking a boat ride to the middle of Lake Washington to watch the show seemed like a no brainer. So on Saturday we drove up to Kirkland to hop on the boat. We were shown to a nice table near the windows where we ordered a few mojitos and settled in for the 3 hour tour (no Gilligan jokes please). We set sail, sipped our cool drinks in the air conditioned cabin, and watched the speed boat racing to the middle of the lake to find a good viewing spot. Then it was time for lunch which consisted of several types of salads, three cheese ravioli, a chicken marsala-esque dish, and salmon. Yes…that is salmon on my plate. Anyone that knows me knows I am not a fan of salmon. That is usually something I keep to myself; because when you tell someone you don’t like salmon they look at you like you just said “I don’t like getting massages” or “I kick puppies”. I have tried to like salmon. I have had it grilled, smoked, poached, baked, and in sushi (I don’t mind it so much in sushi anymore). Every time Fiance orders it he puts a little on my plate in hopes that maybe just maybe I will like it this time. Nope…too fishy. So as I stood there hovering over the large plate of salmon fillets I decided that I would try it again for the last time. If I did not like it this go around I was done. I took the smallest piece I could find and returned to the table. Fiance was surprised to see that salmon on my plate and held his breath as I took that first bite. This time I did not hate it. Turns out in order for me to like salmon it has to be over cooked and flavorless. But I look at it this way…Fiance ate his steak well done when we met and after 3 years I have him eating it medium rare. So maybe in a few years I will be able to eat a properly cooked piece of salmon. Baby steps. After lunch we went up to the third deck to wait for the show to start. We were surrounded by hundreds of speed boats filled with bathing suit clad, sunburned drunk people. As always the performance started with Fat Albert. We did not get to see the jet -assisted takeoff (JATO) this time, but it was cool to see the C-130T Hercules. Then came the main attraction. (low altitude fly by...temprarily lost partial hearing in left ear from the roar of the engines) I think I got some pretty good shots considering I was standing on a rocking boat after having 4 heavily poured mojitos and a corona. The show lasted about 45 minutes and as soon as it ended all the speed boats turned and raced back to their docks. We returned to our table and had dessert on our way back to the dock. It was a good way to spend the afternoon. I know Fiance is already looking forward to seeing the Blue Angels again soon.