Another memorable trip to Seattle

After going to Vancouver last week I got the chance to pop down to Seattle for a couple of days. I experienced Paseo for the first time and really loved it, ordering their popular pork roast and feeling very tempted to go for another one the very next day. It's always good to stay in the Mercer Island house and probably a bit more relaxing this time without the kids but the one memorable experience of the weekend was our (failed) boat excursion on Saturday. It's been a very long time since I've been out on Lake Washington with the boat (or any boat for that matter) and because it's been so long it brought back the memories of our rookie boating days back in 1993 when we bought that '73 or '74 Stingray and had some not so fond memories due to a few rookie mistakes that we made (of course that also brings back the memories of the Beazer boat ploughing into the back of our van but another story I guess). This time, almost immediately after taking the wheel, backing the boat out in rough conditions and feeling like an experienced boater again, I ran into some MAJOR problems with the engine not starting. We paddled around aimlessly in the dock and bumped up against other boats as a result. After all these years I thought surely us Schneiders were better boaters than this. Unfortunately we never did get the boat going and had to abort. So it did raise the question - were we really just looking like rookies out there or has the Mariner engine that has served us so well for so long finally given in? Who knows but either way we made it to Ivars in the end by car and ultimately had another great visit to Seattle so thanks Mom and Dad for your good hospitality again.