Cinco de barcos

Saturday was opening day. For boating season. With a parade of boats. Presented by the Seattle Yacht Club.

What visuals does that bring to mind? Perfect blond children in sailing outfits? Big yachts with waiters and servants? Formal events on Nantucket?

Well, yes and no. Lots of yachts and photogenic people. But tons o'fun. I guess I didn't really know what a parade of boats looked like. The boats go from Portage Bay (teeny bit east of Lake Union) to Lake Washington through the Ship Canal near UW. They finish by going through a "path" in Lake Washington surrounded by boats (like a parade route).

Kind of like this:

() () () () () () () () ()boats () () () () () () ()
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parade route
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() () () () () () () () () ()boats () () () () () ()

Totally fun. The boats are judged somehow and they all put on some kind of show. Costumes, music, decorated boats, colorful sailboats, lots of lip-synching to the Beatles and Elvis, cute kids, even a few bands on boats.