I’m in the middle of Bellingham Bay on a pristine summer evening and my wandering mind is envisioning a beer float — like a root-beer float, but with, uh, beer. Some people like them. This is one of the schooner Zodiac’s Ales N’ Sails dinner cruises, so I suppose it’s natural that I have beer on the brain. And I guess the startlingly near and clear view of snowy Mount Baker added the thought of a giant dollop of French vanilla. Gliding peacefully over saltwater as the sun lowers into the San Juan Islands to the west, the sleek yet stately 160-foot historical sailboat — built in 1924 in East Boothbay, Maine, for the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical heirs — inspires such wandering thoughts. Read full feature here.