Canalside & The Liberty Hound

On a Friday evening. We wanted to go down earlier in the week. First we planned for Tuesday and then Wednesday but both times the weather didn't cooperate. It was cloudy and cool both days and we wanted sunny and warm. Today was sunny and warm but it was also a Friday. We got down there around 4 pm and we could see it was crowded everywhere on the waterfront. A lot of people had the same idea.

We originally planned to walk around Canalside and hang out for an hour before going to dinner at the Liberty Hound but when we going by the restaurant was saw that it was very crowded. It was packed. We went in to see if we could get a table on the patio in the shade and luckily we did. The inside dining room had plenty of empty tables but the patio was full but fortunately there was an ongoing turnover of tables.

We got a nice table overlooking the water and the ships. We got a couple of beers. Becky got an NA and I got a Flower Power IPA from Ithaca Brewery on tap. Then we ordered dinner. Becky got a Shrimp Po' Boy with fries and I got Fish Tacos with chips. 

The food was very good as usual and the service was great. The restaurant kept getting filled up as the tables cleared. We probably could have gone in there at 5 at got a table but it wasn't very clear at the time that we could have. People were constantly coming and going.

After dinner, and we ate it all, we walked down the wharf boardwalk to the other end of Canalside then we turned around and went the other way. The place was really jumping and the tour boats were crowded. We don't usually go down to the waterfront on Friday or Saturday evenings. We couldn't believe how many people were up and down the waterfront. We walked up towards the ships and beyond. When we were passing by the Liberty Hound and the ships we saw that the party on the Little Rock was starting. While we were having dinner we saw that people were starting to go up on to the party deck of the ship where they hold events but it was quiet. Now it was getting loud and people were singing. It turns out there was a big fundraising event for the Naval Park that was just getting underway. It would have been distracting having a dinner overlooking all of that.

We walked on up to the restaurants at the other end. Sully's Harbor Bar was very crowded. We thought we would get a seat somewhere and have a second beer but not only was it crowded but there were no seats left under any kind of umbrella. We moved on and enjoyed our walk along the waterfront.

We left a little after 6 pm so we spent two hours down there. We would have stayed longer if it wasn't so crowded. We plan to go again next week when Karen is in town but we will make sure we go on a weekday evening.