I also wanted dinner at Lombardi's, which is nearby, so I reserved passage out at 6:30 with a return trip at 9:00, the final sailing. Part of why I chose that time to come back was to see as much of the sunset from there as possible, and also to try to glimpse a cheesy water lantern launching event taking place at the next park over from the ferry dock. We were too early to see the actual launch, but we could hear the silly "inspiring" music and recorded speech snippets. That event was surprisingly crowded as far as we could tell from the boat.
My brother called on Thursday to ask what was up for my birthday. He and my sister-in-law ended up joining us for dinner so they could get out of their neighborhood, lest they be trapped in it once it was barricaded off for a huge neighborhood picnic. They hate all their neighbors and wanted nothing to do with it.
I hoped they'd try to get standby tickets for the boat and join us on the island (reservations have to be made two days in advance) but since it wasn't a sure thing, they decided to just join us for dinner. I'm glad we went as a group, that way we were able to split two appetizers and two desserts, and everyone got their own entree.
2.5 hours at the island sounded like a lot at the time I booked it, but it was nice and seemed even a little short when it came to an end. One family nearby was really quite annoying, but rather than let them ruin my time there, I just let them be a reminder that I've got a pretty great family and life.
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