Nice night out in Another Open Diary refugee

This afternoon the thunderstorms rolled through and I was really worried that the cruise was going to be rained out... but they moved on about four o'clock and while the evening was damp, it didn't actually rain after we left. When we got there we had to park at the top of a hill and walk what seemed like an awfully long way down to the bottom and then along a long slippery pier to get to the boat... I'd thought we were early but the boat was more than half full already! I didn't think we'd find anyplace to sit but there was one end table with two seats free, and it was pretty much the ONLY table with enough space for John to fit because they were really crammed together in the cabin, and this one was on the end next to the bar so there wasn't anything behind it. There was an other couple sitting there already, but they decided to go upstairs... the website said that the boat had a cash bar, but we didn't realise that that included non-alcoholic drinks as well (we both assumed that soft drinks and water would be included in the $60 a head ticket!), and they didn't take debit cards... luckily I had enough cash in my purse to buy us a lemonade and a bottle of water. And the engine was awfully noisy when we started out, so when I tried to talk to John he couldn't even hear me, so we sat there in silence until everyone was eating, when the cabin noise dropped by half and conversation became a possibility. Then we talked to the old guy sitting next to us (a WWII vet) and had a nice chat until it was time to go out on deck to watch the fireworks.

Okay, this is an awful lot of 'buts'... but in the end once we got past them all, we had a lovely time. They had a DJ and a dance floor but they kept all that stuff upstairs - you could barely hear them from the cabin, so once we ate all the people who wanted to make noise went upstairs to par-tay, and left the rest of us in peace. The boat trundled along to the bridge and parked with all the rest of the people waiting for the fireworks, and I saw people going out on the bow to watch, so we joined them. I didn't want to even try to tackle the slippery wet outside stairs to get to the top deck, so it was nice to have an outside place that I could go. John went back into the cabin to sit down before the actual fireworks, and I watched them by myself... the view of the the fireworks was GREAT and they weren't nearly as noisy as I'd been worried they would be. When I went back in, he was talking with a lady who'd had a fall and hurt her knee. The boat crew kept her provided with ice packs, but their real concern was that she was going to go home and sue them for damages... John was going to drive the car down to the dock to pick me up when we got back, so we gave her a lift up to her car. And I gave her my cane and told her to keep it because if she's this sore now she's going to be worse tomorrow... I was using my emergency back-up cane tonight (the one that cost $5 on Amazon and that normally lives in the car just in case I forget to take one with me) so I could easily spare it. I'll pick up another folding cane to replace it - maybe a pink one this time. (and I must go online to Amazon and upgrade my review of that cane - I was quite scathing of it because I thought it felt like a kid's toy, but when I walked with it tonight it was actually perfectly good...) :)

We got back from the boat at 10.30 and wanted to go get dessert but just about everything was closed, including the Baskin and Robbins by the house which would have been our first choice for a quick stop... I did a quick search on DH's phone and found that Dennys is open 24 hours and not too far away, so we drove over there, but when we got there we noticed that Coldstone Creamery was still open as well, and DH said he'd rather have that. So I bought us a couple of sundaes, and home we came...