This month’s Golden Transfer goes to Metro’s only floating bus, the Elliott Bay Water Taxi, which completed its final run of 2006 just 23 minutes ago. From May 1st until today, the Water Taxi transported a record 118,000 passengers across Elliott Bay. Some of those passengers were repeaters, of course: commuters; frequent beachgoers; and me, a woman who likes to visit her parents.

In addition to being the cheapest scenic boat ride in the city, the Water Taxi is also a useful form of transportation. It provides a short, convenient route between downtown and Seacrest Park in West Seattle. And, in case you’re not headed to (or coming from) Seacrest, you can ride a free Metro shuttle between the park and Alki, the Admiral District, and Alaska Junction.

Taxi!

Waiting in line to get on

Bus Chick and Bus Nerd take one last ride.

Jeremy and Elizabeth at Matador

To celebrate the Water Taxi’s last night in service, we rode over to the west side to meet my parents; my brother, Jeremy; and his girlfriend, Elizabeth, for dinner. We ate at Matador, which I thought was a good choice: Good food. Nice crowd. Decent mojitos. (Note: You can follow red wine with mojitos when you don’t have to worry about driving.)

So thanks EBWT, for enabling so many of my summer adventures: sunset roller blading, Salty’s brunches, fireworks-viewing, and, of course, innumerable parental visits. It’s going to be a long seven months until I can ride again.

Buh bye