8 Hours at Lake City Pub
Yes, you read that right… Saturday we spent nearly 8 fantastic hours hanging out at Lake City Pub. It was well worth every minute, and went by in the quickest blink of an eye!
Okay, well we had an afternoon party we planned there. Our daughter (yes, the same videographer and blog editor) just graduated with her master’s degree! We were thrilled to get to celebrate this accomplishment, and all three of us believe there is only one right way to party… At Lake City Pub of course with Billy Stoops performing! So that is what we planned.
Just in case you haven’t paid attention on any other posts about Lake City Pub, the owner, Lauren, and her staff are simply fantastic! Lauren mentioned that she would do some decorations and I (Zeek) told her we wanted some balloons and flowers… But otherwise, weren’t picky. Denice brought some cute burlap champagne bottle bags and confetti with grad caps. When we arrived, our little bag of decor just went under the table. We were BLOWN AWAY by the gorgeous spread we walked into!
The balloons and flowers alone were more than we expected! Add in everything else on the table and Lexi’s favorite saying up on the tv screen and we really couldn’t have been more impressed.
And of course, we had our favorite person there to provide entertainment (if you’ve been to one of Billy’s shows, you know it is all kinds of entertainment!). Billy is more like family at this point, and it was great to spend time with him and his brother Stephen before people started arriving and throughout the afternoon. He kept everyone having a great time from Lexi’s friends to my in-laws; it is pretty impossible to not have a good time when Billy is around! And, with the great music, we got a few fun dances in in between chatting with folks!
Throughout the evening, the Lake City Pub folks brought out appetizers including little shrimp cocktails (the whole family loves seafood!), a gorgeous spring veggie and hummus platter, and patty melt sliders (one of my - Zeek- favorites anywhere I go)! The spread was fantastic, both to look at and eat, and folks enjoyed it with drinks and meals while hanging out inside and on the patio.
They also helped us organize a beautiful champagne toast where we got to toast to Lexi and her fantastic accomplishment. Their ease of helping to facilitate all of this smoothly and with no stress on our part was amazing to watch, and even more so to get to experience.
We all had a great time! Seeing our favorite Lake City Pub folks, Lexi’s friends, and our family (blood or not) was such a treat! We just enjoy bringing good folks together to have a good time.
Really 2:30 to 6:00pm flew by in the blink of an eye… That is how you know you are having a good time! And it may or may not have been intentional that we got to spend early Saturday afternoon throwing a party, because that meant we were already settled in when the scheduled Live Music Saturday entertainment started showing up. Some of the party folks hung around with us for a bit to hear Kim&Brian, the evening’s entertainment. They brought a great vibe to the place, and clearly were enjoying themselves on stage as their upbeat excitement to be performing was contagious! Their sound was fantastic, and it was a great performance. We were so excited that round 2 was shaping up to be a great part of the day as well!
After the rest of the party filtered out, we had to get in a couple more dances! Kim&Brian’s music was incredibly fun to dance to! To see the rest of our dancing at Lake City Pub to Kim&Brian, be sure to check out our YouTube playlist!
We ordered some more drinks and food. Afterall, we had been there long enough for not just lunch, but also dinner! Before we knew it, they were thanking the bar for listening and breaking down their setup. The kitchen did a last call for food, and we closed out our tab, which was going on nearly 8 hours old at this point… 2:30pm to nearly 10pm! But it truly did go by in the blink of an eye! We had a great day of friends, food, and fun!
We had to take a little time to reflect on the craziness of it all… Not even meaning the 10-hour day at Lake City Pub… But rather the craziness of the events that led up to holding this party in mid-June of 2022. It was only October of 2021 that we stumbled upon some great live music at Patterson Cellars in Leavenworth on vacation. We had to say hi to the musician afterwards, only to find out he lived around Tacoma and frequently performed much closer to home for us. In case it isn’t obvious yet that was the one and only Billy Stoops. We pretty quickly became something between super fans and groupies, depending on how you want to define it, and started showing up to as many shows as we could!
Only 5 months later we found ourselves eagerly anticipating one of his upcoming shows celebrating his birthday! It was being held at a spot we hadn’t gotten to before… Lake City Pub. Immediately we were in love with the place! Now, we walk in and feel like we’ve walked in our own home. The whole staff feel like family and treat us like it. And of course, Billy is family to us now. It is beyond crazy to realize what we’ve developed in less than a year, and how grateful we are for all parts of it; the great times we’ve had, the places we’ve been and the people we’ve met, the chance to document it in this blog, and for all of you who enjoy tuning in to hear about our crazy life! We hope it inspires you to take the dive and just start showing up to fun things you love. You never know what might come of it!