Venche's Birthday!

September 15th was Venche's birthday, and I received an invitation to the dinner and the party, a Pirate Cruise! It meant that I would have to miss Jitterbugs Night Out for the first time since 2004, but it's not everyday you get to hang out with a bunch of sassy pirate wenches... I mean upstanding citizens and fine church-going ladies. Let's face it, on occasion I have been known to enjoy a little pirate action... so with camera in one hand and sword in the other, I was off.

We had dinner at Rick's Boatyard Cafe, outside. The weather was warm, but very very breezy. So windy that when we ordered martini's, they came in full six ounce glasses instead of the traditional martini glass, we were told they didn't want the glasses to blow over. We also found out that our party of twelve ordered food just after a party of forty-five. This combination of warm weather, strong drinks, and late food led to some, um, feelings of very good will.

Bente, your cruise director, invites you aboard for dinner.


Teresa doesn't know about the face being made at her, until now!


The guest of honor and friend.


Who let this guy in?


The other end of the table is always more interesting than the one you are on.

We ended up rushing through dinner because the cruise started at 8:30 and we were still in our street clothes disguises, and had to get back into our normal pirate uniforms. Because of all these factors, I really can't tell you if the food at Rick's was good or not.

I think it tasted as good as it looks...

Jenny in her disguise at left, and as her normal piratey self on the right.

No need to hurry, the cruise didn't start right at 8:30, so we had plenty of time to get there. We paid our doubloons and boarded the River City Star. She was cast off, and we cruised up the river, firing on every merchant ship we saw. Soon we reassembled on the open top deck and watched the far off lightening flare across the sky.

Rob say: "look it's a real eye, the patch is just for fun."


Olin and Viv are up to no good, Robin is the poor pirate in the middle.

This guy had to wait in line for the bathroom too long.

The next deck down had the entertainment, some hired actors dressed up like pirates, not real ones like us. They played music and we danced, goofed off, and watched the silly pirate games.

I'm telling you Rob, I AM a real pirate.


The beautiful birthday pirate queen, and some guy with bad hair.


The pirate witness protection program.


The crew of the Jolly Roger... Arg!


I won this battle for camera supremecy!

The lowest deck was for prisoners.

This is what happens when you steal someone's grog.

Near the end of the cruise, while I was dancing with Jenny, some pirate wench came by me and grabbed my booty... no, I don’t mean my pirate treasure with gold coins, I mean my butt. I think there may have been pirate grog involved. Also, near the end of the cruise, the birthday pirate was grabbed, ::deleted at the request of the victim::, and then one of the pirate actors ::deleted at the request of the victim::, and despite her assertions that ::deleted at the request of the victim::.

::deleted at the request of the victim::


::deleted at the request of the victim::

Finally the rain and the cruise both came to an end. ::sigh:: my pirate days were over... until the following Tuesday when it was talk like a pirate day!