Cause This is Ladie’s Night

Wednesday February 13, 2013

Finally a night away from the boat!  I had been telling Yu that we all needed to get together to go out again sometime, but with Frank plagued by pneumonia and and Matt just plain worn out from boat work, us girls seemed to be the only excited ones about this project.  So we decided, who needs the boys?, we’re going to have a ladies night!

Leaving early enough to still take advantage of happy hour specials we began our night at J.P. Henley’s, famous for having over 100 beers on tap.  Wanting to try something new, I went with Spaten, but now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure I’ve had that before.  Guess that happens when you’re a member of the Old Chicago World Beer Tour.  We only stayed for the one drink as we were also turning this into a bar hop, trying to fit in as many happy hour locations as we could.  We probably should have started much earlier….

Next stop on the way was Cellar 6, a very trendy bar down one of the cobblestone streets in the historic downtown area.  Going inside to order drinks, we took advantage of their happy hour martinis, and once I saw sake shots on the menu we had to have those as well.  They were out of the warm sake, but did have a nice fruity chilled version, which I think went down better than the more traditional drink would have anyway.  Since it was a warm night, we moved out to the street with our martinis, grabbing a table next to a heat lamp.  The rain that had been threatening us all day was thankfully holding off, and we enjoyed the warm night air, talking about boats and future plans for travel.  I must have been in this life for way too long now if you take out the guys and the girls are still sitting there talking boats.  At least this boat talk was more along the lines of “We’re so close to getting in the water, and these are the only things left we need to do!”.

When we finished our martinis we wanted to end our night at Scarlet’s for $0.50 wings and oysters, but just after we walked in and sat down we found that just a few weeks ago they had changed the hours on that special from ending at 9 pm to now ending at 7 pm.  So much for that.  As good as they sounded, they didn’t sound full price good, so we moved on to Mojo’s, a barbeque place that Matt and I keep hearing about but had never been to.  Inside we browsed the menu for food and drinks, and once I found they offered a Dark & Stormy made with Kraken, well, I had to have it.  Sipping on my Dark & Stormy I talked to Yu a little more about her fashion design career, time spent at Parson’s School of Design, and her friendship with Tim Gunn and their shared stage fright.  The food at Mojo’s really hit the spot after having had a few pre-dinner cocktails, and I think I ate my Ruben sandwich in three bites.  After eating we were picked up by Frank who brought us back to the boat to hang out before he made his way out to a movie, but not before picking me up a Lime-a-Rita from the store.  I haven’t had one since my last night racing on Island Dream, and it tasted just as good as I remembered.  More girl chat ensued on Moitessier, until we were so tired that we were falling asleep in the salon.  It was my first girls night in over six months, but it was just as fun as I remembered them to be.  I’ll have to make sure to schedule more in my future.