View from the Water

My photographer friend messaged me this morning, saying that the beautiful day called for a picnic. I one-upped him and suggested we picnic on one of the canal boat cruises (food + fun). It worked out that we ended up picnicking on the canal walk and then taking the cruise, so we did get to enjoy lunch outside.

We stopped by Tarrant's for a couple of picnic salads, one Cobb and one Tuna Nicoise. Our picnic basket was a plastic bag, if that tells you something about us (if it doesn't, try reading my tongue-in-cheek picnic piece at my former employer's website, here.) Anticipating a lot of sun on the water, we'd both brought hats and, for a change, he'd remembered his camera.

When I took my first canal cruise a few years ago, I remember being struck by the views from the water, so unlike any other of Tobacco Row and the hills to the west. I'd come back for a second cruise just to take pictures of it all.

So if my untrained eye was impressed with it, surely someone who makes money taking pictures would be. And he was, snapping furiously the whole time. Hell, he was even taking pictures of us while we sat there waiting for the boat (shall I look pensive?).

We enjoyed our shady lunch chatting with the boat captain ("I'm not normal, so I'm going to make this fun!" he promised. Probably just as well that we were only going to be in three feet of water...) and a woman visiting from upstate New York with her speed-skating champion grandson (sunglasses, iPod, sullen).

In fact, it turned out that we were the only local residents on the cruise, accompanied as we were by visitors from England, NC, NY, and and a boisterous group from Philly.

Our captain regaled the guests with stories of Tropical Storm Gaston's fury, the perils of the Mighty James and an encyclopedic listing of long-forgotten cigarette brands. The visitors got the critter sitings they wanted with snapping turtles and great blue herons putting in appearances.

His tangents meandered, but he showed a lot of enthusiasm for the city and its offerings. He warned us that 5:00 is the bewitching hour for Richmond museums to close up, suggesting an early start for museum visiting. "Don't think you can go in at 2:30 and see everything," he warned ominously.

Since the captain knew it wasn't my first cruise, he made a point of asking me when we disembarked if I'd heard anything new this time around. Honestly, I'd been sort of lost inside of my own head enjoying the views for most of his spiel and what I did hear I had heard before, but that wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"I had a great time," I enthused. Which was entirely true, if not exactly the answer to his question.

I'm Trying Out this Perpetual Motion Thing

I feel like the last time I took a breath was yesterday about noon and it's been non-stop ever since. First I went to the Jonny Z Fest over on Shields where I ran into loads of people I knew, either selling their wares or volunteering for art's sake. It was hot as hell and totally worth it. There's so much artistic talent in Richmond and I love seeing so much of it on display. Plus I had the chance to discuss the My Bloody Valentine show with half a dozen concert-goers.

Next up was the reopening of Geometry Park, now re-christened Paradise Park. Colorful paint made a huge difference to this oasis, which I thought always had a hard-edged industrial vibe. The kids' hand prints, leaf prints and mural added a lot to the charm of the new park and the extensive shade was much appreciated. Does anyone not have memories of hanging out here for one reason or another?

Then I took a couple of lobster roll virgins to Black Sheep to be de-flowered. Yes, they were impressed with the hunks of succulent lobster on buttered rolls and now it's their job to help me spread the word. Best of all, it was after 2 by the time we lunched, so the the Black Sheep crowds were gone.

Dinner was at Julep and included plenty of ambiance because of the fact that none of the street lights came on last night. As I sat in the restaurant eating and drinking, it was kind of eerie to observe the growing darkness outside, unaided by any artificial city light. It did make locating my black car more challenging than usual, even with the able assistance of the waiter Ben.

Today began with two friends and a bottle of Horton Sparkling Viognier and ended at Tarrant's with mimosas and lotsa food. One of my friends is moving to San Francisco in a week, so she felt obligated to have an east coast crab cake while she still could. She also provided a hilarious story about a mutual acquaintance which I had never heard before (actually only the participants knew of it) and it was the kind of amazing, "you did what?" story that you think only happens in movies. Melting wax from Michael's is all I'm going to say.

I was all set to take a deep breath when I looked at the clock and realized a friend will be stopping by for wine before we go out...in an hour and a half. Perhaps I should get cleaned up and ready to keep going.