On Friday while I was at the community center with Holly, she mentioned that the Opening of boat season was on Saturday. Always on the lookout for fun weekend activities, I googled it when I got home to see if there were any events that would be of interest to us. I found out that on Saturday there was a boat parade on Lake Union/ Portage Bay in Seattle. We decided to brave the traffic, road closures and uncertain weather and see if we could take Matthew to see some boats. By the time we arrived and found our way to the center of activities, Emily was over-due for a feed (as was I!) and Matthew had fallen asleep and we were driving up and down narrow little streets looking for some place to park that wasn't miles away from a viewing place. And to top it all off, we didn't even know where we were supposed to be to see the actual parade pass by, we just saw some people walking down towards the water front. At this point I told Hilton, we should turn around and go home. Hilton was determined just to give it one more try and turned down this little road right next to a deli and there was a parking spot big enough to fit our lovely mini van which has so many advantages to it, parallel parking not being one of them! Despite being very ready for a feed, Emily was all smiles and we packed up our things for the walk down to what we thought would be a good viewing spot. Matthew didn't even mind being woken up from his sleep when we mentioned the word 'boats'. A quick stop at the deli for freshly made sandwiches for myself and Hilton, two cups of coffee and a bag of chocolate chip cookies made the day look a lot brighter, in my opinion :)

We walked down to a dead end in the road that over-looks a small pier, with a few boats moored and some floating houses. Just 'under' the dead end, down some steps was a small patch of green grass and a bench. We decided to settle and eat instead of wandering around looking for somewhere else. We could see enough boats and the setting was actually quite pretty and we didn't have to deal with crowds and traffic, so it turned out to be a great spot for us. Matthew sat entranced while eating his lunch, watching the boats go by. His favourite was a boat decorated to look like a cow which kept blowing it's horn that sounded like a mooooo. He loved it! When we saw a car boat sailing by, he then had two favourites! The car boat even sailed in close by to the pier for Matthew and Hilton to get a good look at it.
We spent a lovely hour watching the boats, eating lunch and enjoying the cool but dry weather. I am so glad we made the effort to go and that we didn't give up and drive home without seeing any boats. Matthew fell asleep in the car on the way home and then had a long 2.5 hour nap this afternoon.

It's still surprising to us that we live so close to water. Thinking of people sailing on the weekend just for fun, is not something that we're used to but it sure is something lovely to watch. Especially with a very interested little boy!
You can see some pictures of our lovely morning here.