Yes, there was even clowning around at the Elliott Bay Water Taxi’s opening-day celebration at Seacrest earlier this afternoon – there you see the guest clown creating not a balloon animal, but a balloon flower, in about 20 seconds. We showed you the Water Taxi’s first arrival earlier this morning; ahead, more of this afternoon’s festivities, including the crowd, the shuttle, the band, the speech (and remember, rides are free all day long):

That’s a look at Bronwyn Edwards Cryer‘s band and some of the folks who boarded the Water Taxi as the celebration went on — big change from the five who rode its maiden ’08 voyage earlier today, as we showed you this morning. On shore, the shuttle bus pulled up — remember it’s free to all during EBWT season:

And of course, there were speeches, from Argosy Cruises (which staffs the Water Taxi and provides the vessel) CEO Kevin Clark and from King County Councilmember Dow Constantine, who talked about the transformation that Water Taxi operations have undergone over the offseason, behind the scenes:

He also reminded the crowd that the Water Taxi set a ridership record last year and saw some amazing times, including the huge commuter use during the August period we dubbed Freeway Fright ’07 — the I-5 work that at one point was considered a threat to gridlock The Bridge and render our driving lives a living hell; people made alternate plans and the nightmare was averted. What does this year hold? Stay tuned!