Steamboats A'Comin': Spirit of Peoria

What a great civilian event! I had looked forward to this event for a year, and while it had a few bumps, it did not disappoint. My husband is not a reeanctor; he attends certain events to please me, I think, but even he enjoyed the weekend immensely.

The event was organized by Karen Donathen Duffy through her company Grand Civilian Events. It was held in conjunction with the 100th birthday celebration of the Belle of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. We had three boat rides and a ball over the course of the weekend.

Since I had the time, I decided to drive out to the event. I really like road trips and had fun on this one, even with the rain. I left on Wednesday and arrived Thursday afternoon. My husband's flight was delayed several times so he met me at the hotel. There were two event hotels, the Brown and the Galt House; we chose to stay at the Brown as did many of my friends. The Brown is a great hotel and a member of Historic Hotels of America. I really enjoyed my time there. It was built in the 1920s and still had much of that feel. The staff were friendly and helpful. Although it was a mile from the pier it was within a few blocks of the ball location. Additional photos of the Hotel can be found here.

Thursday night was a get together that included some shopping opportunities and a general overview of the weekend plans. The event officially began Friday with a ride on the Spirit of Peoria.

We decided to walk down to the pier this first day, as did others from the hotel. When we arrived at the river, our boat was waiting and the pier was full of reenactors.

 

 And "the dress" made its debut. I didn't have time to redo the bonnet originally planned for this but I think my blue silk drawn bonnet did just fine.

The Spirit of Peoria was a nice boat; I think my favorite of the three we rode over the weekend. We spoke with one of the deck hands and they took five days coming down to the event. He said it was amazing. They slept on the boat for the trip although it does not have cabins.

There was seating outside and inside.

And since it was such a beautiful day we chose to sit out on the deck.

The premise of the trip was a race against the River Queen.

And even though the Peoria is actually powered by her paddle wheel (the River Queen's paddle is just for show)...

we still won the race, who would have thunk :)

Once the ride was over, Steven and I walked back to the hotel and admired some of the architecture on the way.











More pictures here. On to the ball!