Celebrating Seattle’s floating bus

Today, bus nerd and I attended the big Water Taxi celebration. Apparently, so did everyone else in Seattle.

12:30 ride from Pier 55:

First ride of 2007

Celebration at Seacrest:

Seacrest celebration!

2:00 Seacrest boarding:

2:00 boarding

Coolest parts of the day:
• The view from the deck of the taxi. (Our city is sexy, no?)
• The view from inside the taxi. We even saw a sea lion:

A sea lion on a buoy

• Free drinks on the ride west. Both were non-alcoholic, juice-and-syrup concoctions: a Seacrest Sunrise and a Dow Constantini. (Apparently, Dow Constantine is a big Water Taxi booster. Last summer, he had ads all over the boat.)
• Prizes! I won an Argosy lakes cruise for two. (That’s two in a row. When’s the next transit fest?)
• Hanging out with my dad and my brother Joel. They both came to the park, ate fish and chips (not provided by the transit fest), and hung out in the warm(ish) weather. My dad even accompanied us on our boat ride back downtown, taking the opportunity to regale us with stories of his 30 years as a Coast Guard reservist.

Uncoolest parts of the day:
• Free balloons at Seacrest. Every kid in the vicinity (and there were many) had at least one, and there was a clown making balloon animals on demand. Have I mentioned my fear of balloons?
• Crowds. There was a great turnout for the opening day celebration, and the EBWT was a victim of its own success. The boat we rode to Seacrest was completely full–so full that some people couldn’t find seats. By the time we got to Seacrest (at around 12:45), all of the refreshments–even the coffee–had been consumed. On the way back, there wasn’t enough room on the boat we wanted to take, so we had to stand in line for an hour to wait for the next one. (We couldn’t leave to go do something else, or we would have lost our place.)

Long line

My dad had the same problem trying to get back from downtown. All in all, we spent a lot of time waiting. I’m hoping that folks who were trying to the Water Taxi for the first time don’t think it’s usually like that. It’s not.
• Missing Mom. It was the first time I’d ridden my favorite boat without the promise of seeing her on the other side.