A three hour tour

I got to go on a scenic cruise on Lake Washington last night as part of a conference that I am here in Redmond to attend.

All in all it was quite lovely. Setting sun, glimmering water, tree-lined shore. Seems like it would be an awfully nice place to live, and in fact the boat captain pointed out Bill Gates' house as we passed (there was a 'bouncy-castle' space shuttle inflated in the yard but I missed the explanation for why) and a few other Microsoft VIP's homes.

One thing that I re-discovered is that food on boats is universally and without exception horrible. Last summer on an otherwise really fun Hornblower dinner cruise in San Francisco I had a memorably bad meal that was, in all seriousness, completely uneatable. The pasta may literally have been made of Play-Doh, but not regular Play-Doh, some off-brand kind made in China which is extra toxic.

This boat food was about as good as food served to large quantities of people on a boat can be, at least in my experience. Nonetheless, it is still the kind of food where the only way to feel satisfied is through sheer volume. And that's not actually satisfaction, it's extreme nausea.

I've heard that cruises are known to have great food but they are also known to have that hideous bacteria and lots of people who enjoy cruises on them so I don't think I'll be trying that out any time soon.

One odd thing about last night: I could be wrong, but I am almost positive that the music they were playing on the boat is the same music that they make you listen to while you are on hold waiting for a conference call to start. And I think it had embedded subliminal messages about buying more Chinese Pla-Do.