Our Dinner Cruise Misadventure.

The night started off so well. The weather was beautiful and nearly perfect. The sun was hot and the wind was cool. The dirty Mississippi river was shimmering and the clouds were spectacular...AND we even saw an Eagle sitting high atop a tree. But sadly, that (and the company of my sweetheart of course) was the only enjoyment of the evening.

(if you click on the pictures, they get bigger).

After about a beautiful hour of sitting on the upper deck, dinner was announced. We were STARVING and couldn't wait to eat. However, the excitement over dinner did not last long.

Dinner was a complete joke. Buffet lines with cafeteria-style food pretty much summed up our dinner experience. SO sad. Looking at the price per plate we just assumed that it was going to be served to us - not buffet style (silly us had never been on a dinner cruise before so we didn't know any better...and it wasn't stated on the website, at least not where we could find). Also, we were one of the last tables to be dismissed to get our food, so by the time we went through the buffet line, everything was pretty much picked over and EVERYTHING was cold...so.very.cold. It was a complete joke. The bizarre menu consisted of: baked manicotti, pot roast (the meat looked and tasted like they had opened up 500 banquet frozen dinner meals and plopped them into a pan) with carrots and onions, roasted vegetables, campfire potatoes, caesar salad, breadsticks, dessert and coffee. I wish I had taken a picture of my pitiful plate. By the time we were ready for dessert, that too was already picked over and we were left with the rejects.

We discovered a little too late that the Padelford Riverboats in Saint Paul just weren't for us. So sad. Peter and I couldn't help but laugh at our expensive misadventure as we were driving back home. I felt so bad for my loving and thoughtful husband and kept reassuring him that I had had an enjoyable time. I honestly did. The first part was lovely, the second part was comical - two of my favorite things combined. One of my favorite memories of our time last night was laughing until tears were brimming over on our ride home from our funny cruise. I love sharing fun memories with my sweetheart and this one was surely one of them.

I hear the Minnetonka dinner cruise is better. Maybe someday we'll have to try that one out. Maybe.