The Crown Princess

If you walked down Bank Street in New London on Saturday morning, you would have seen this:

Off in the distance . . .

. . . this giant cruise boat . . .

. . . The Crown Princess, docked in our fair city for the day . . .

. . . which spewed out 3,000 unsuspecting passengers onto the streets.

Some seemed slightly confused about it all . . .

. . . but New London's finest helped show them the way.

Of course I wasn't walking down Bank Street in New London on Saturday morning; Mistah was. I was walking down Pequot Avenue later in the day, and saw that giant boat in the distance.

The boat was due to leave New London at 4 p.m., and I knew there was only one thing to do at a time like this.

That's right. Happy Hour.

I packed up the Westy with drinks and snacks and a book and a tripod and waited for my peeps.

Mistah arrived with layers, which I'd forgotten. His layers.

And Eileen arrived with wine, which I'd forgotten. Sigh. At least I remembered the Westy.

We had a great vantage point . . .

. . . and we weren't the only ones waiting for the Big Event. This guy was waiting, showing off his giant camera . . .

. . . and Ledgie was waiting . . .

. . . as patient as ever.

We, too, were a study in patience, because we were having fun. Happy Hour, afterall.

And then all of a sudden, back there behind New London Light . . .

. . . way over there on the left, we got our first glimpse of her.

The giant boat, steaming down the Thames River toward the Long Island Sound.

She absolutely dwarfed everything in her path.

She looked so entirely out of place; I kept thinking about people who hadn't heard about the hoopla, who were at the beach and looked up and saw Titanic sailing by.

I love the little tug boat showing Crown Princess the way.

Finally, the moment we'd all been waiting for, the cruise ship approached Ledge Light.

Look out Ledgie!

You're going to get eaten alive!

A ferry caught up to her and buzzed right by.

I like to think the ferry boat passengers and the cruise boat passengers waved cordially and jovially to eachother.

Oh, there's Ledgie, with the back-ass side of the Princess.

Not even phased by all the drama and excitement.

Neither were these two. I think I may have been the only one phased by all the drama and excitement.

And just like that, the Crown Princess got to the end of the River . . .

. . . took a left, and headed for Newport . . .

. . . and Boston, and the Canadian Maritimes.

And just like that, everything was back to normal in New London. The ferries kept ferrying . . .

. . . and New London Light became the tallest structure around again . . .

. . . and Ledgie continued standing strong and true at the mouth of the Thames River, guarding our fair shores.

It's almost like it never happened.

Did it happen?