The Single Sister hits the river

The Single Sister got a taste of the good life this weekend.  A little wine and relaxation....on a "boat"...on the Mississippi.  I use the term "boat" loosely here.  This isn't any kind of boat this girl saw in the lakes of northern Minnesota woods growing up.  This was a 50 foot, three bedroom, two bathroom, yacht that you could live comfortably on.  We were trying to determine all weekend if this boat was bigger than our apartment or not.  

I'll back up and give a back story on this "boat".  The Roomie's parents have their friends Jon and Marcia.  I've heard lots about them in the past year but hadn't really met them yet.  And I've also hear about their "boat" and hadn't met it either.  This weekend I did both.  The "boat" had been up near Stillwater for the winter and they were going to bring it down the Mississippi River to southern Minnesota where it will stay the summer.  Jamie and I jumped at the chance to come along to help.  Er...yeah...we just wanted to come along to "help".  Wouldn't want to make Jon and Jamie's dad to have all the fun do all the work. So this is how our weekend played out:

Saturday AM - Left Owatonna for an hour and a half drive to Jamie's parents.

Saturday Midmorning -  Got out of Jamie's car only to jump into her parents car for another ride back north to Stillwater.

Saturday Afternoon - Make it to the boat and spent the next hour or so making sure everything works. Ok, so this was mostly Jon and Rich making sure everything worked.

Saturday Mid-afternoon - We finally pull away from the marina near Stillwater. Jamie's mom and Marcia took the vehicle back south so it was just us and the guys.

For those of you who were in Minnesota on this rainy Saturday, you'll probably recall that it was rather cold and wet.  It was even colder and wetter out on the river.  But I won't complain, it was a blast.  

Jamie and I settled into our sweatshirts, blankets, and beverages (wine for me) and enjoyed the rainy ride.  In the below pictures we are on the top of the boat which is covered and they had it mostly enclosed so rain wasn't falling in.

The Roomie

The Roomie and I

Captian Jon and his...First Mate, Rich.  Correct sailing terminology? 

Around dinner time we anchored and Rich made us tuna and steaks on the grill.  It was fabulous. 

This is still the upper part of the boat where we spent most of the time despite the elements.

There was a full kitchen below (even a dishwasher!) but also this grill and mini fridge upstairs.  

Further downstream we docked in Prescott Wisconsin for the night and decided to hit the town and see what the nightlife was like.  It was actually a hopping little town.  We visited a couple of bars, and played some pool and darts (Rich and I won both games of pool and Jamie won the dart game).

Our view from the dock...of course our view of Wisconsin was a bar...

Jamie and I slept in the "passion pit".  It's the name they give to the front most bedroom on all the boats they've had.  I don't really need to have anymore of a backstory on that one. The sate room was the second bedroom with a bigger bed and there was a third bedroom with two tiny bunks in it.

Sunday morning - We crawled out of bed (some more willingly than others, I won't name names) and it finally had stopped raining so I was able to get some real pictures of this "boat".

View of the back. 

And this is a full side view of the "Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!!" Nice, huh?

The sliding patio doors go to the main level with the living room, kitchen and dinning area. 

You can make out Jon and Jamie on the upper deck where he drove from and where we hung out most of the time.  Under the main level is where the three bedrooms and two bathrooms are.  

While taking pictures from the dock, we noticed this sign. "4 Hour Docking. Max Boat Length 35 Feet"

Ooopps...pretty sure we surpassed both...

Jon's getting ready to shove off...guess I should stop taking pictures and get back on.

Goodbye Prescott Wisconsin.

I guess I should point out here that so far we had actually been on the St. Croix.

In this picture you can see the Mississippi on the left joining the St. Croix on the right.

Jon even let us drive!  See the random hand?  That's Rich...he wasn't feeling so chipper.

That cozy area in front is where Jamie and I spent most of the time covered in blankets.

I learned lots: while going downstream you want to keep the "red nuns" to the left and "black/green cans" to your right (buoys), the Starboard side is the right and Port is the left, how to put out bumpers, and even how to go through a lock and dam.

Here we are leaving the lock just north of Red Wing. 

They put Jamie and I to work holding the ropes.

I think I can honestly say I didn't really know how a lock worked until today.  

Here is the inside of the main level while we were cleaning up.  

Behind Jamie is another area where Jon can drive the boat. He was even telling me he has a remote control where he can steer the boat if he has to be at the front of the bow.

Sunday afternoon - Whew....home at last. We figured it was a full 24 hours on the boat.  (Well minus the few hours at the bars in Wisconsin)

One last look at the beautiful "boat".

We made it. Survived the bars in Wisconsin. Didn't catch hypothermia. We didn't crash the boat, even with Jamie or I driving.  (There was even a moment Jamie and I looked behind us to discover that no one was driving the boat.  Jon had just disappeared!  We weren't too concerned since we were on Lake Pepin at this point and were waaaay far away from anything.)

Sunday evening - Jamie and I drive back to Owatonna.

I had an absolute blast this weekend.  Incredibly relaxing despite feeling so worn out by the time Jamie and I got home.  We figured we didn't really stop moving the entire time.  Thanks Jon and Marcia!

(maybe my facebook updates will make a bit more sense now?  LoL)