Houseboat Vacation

By the time you read this article, our house boating trip will be over for the summer. The much anticipated, and even more needed, trip will be history. Tonight, doing my article in advance of the Friday deadline, we have the car packed, the last load of laundry in the dryer and our shoes by the front door. And yet I know that as surely as I sit here impatiently waiting our departure time, some 7 hours from now, the week will whiz past us in a blur.
I am thankful this year that we will hear the sounds of a new baby; we will see the loving touches of newlyweds; and we will enjoy the stories of my grandmother who is accompanying us again. There is something magical about family vacations.
We have the Scrabble board tucked carefully in the van, along with dominoes, movies, and decks of cards. The sunscreen and sunburn lotion are on hand, along with the first aid kit, Tums, and numerous cans of Diet Coke.
The first year we went to Dale Hollow, Eric (our youngest) was five months old. He is now 25 with a wife. We have gone to the lake every year with the exception of two years when other major events prohibited the trip. This is our time to rest, relax and enjoy one another’s company.
In thinking back over the last years, we always have to tell our funny tales of things that happened. Although the lake is known as a great place to fish, we have never caught a single fish there, not even a crappie. We have, however, caught a giant turtle, lots of bats, and thousands of bugs that we attract to our porch light.
It has rarely rained on our trips to the lake, only two or three times in all the years we’ve gone. The first year we went, as novice house boaters, we tied the boat sideways on the shore in anticipation of the storm. With heavy winds the boat rocked back and forth and beat up against the edge while the kids, all small, cried in fear. But we got through it with no problems.
On other years we pulled a johnboat behind us that was furnished by the dock. Watching the boat was always a job for the kids, making sure it didn’t get loose. But alas! It generally did get loose. To the ranting of their father, the kids would run to the top of the house boat and watch intently for the tiny boat to appear bouncing up and down in the waves or smashed against the shoreline waiting our return. We always found it unscathed.
The lake holds lots of family heirlooms from our family and I’m sure countless others. Sunglasses, shoes, towels, books, swimsuits, towels, floats, sweaters, towels, glasses, game pieces and did I say towels? I think we’ve lost 25 or 30 at least in the lake. It’s is wonder they haven’t absorbed all the lake water!
The one thing the lake gives us back each year is a sense of how much our family means to us. Our kids have grown up on the water and now our oldest is bringing their own child back again. She is three months old. I hope and pray that this is the beginning of a new and wonderful chapter in our lives. The extra bassinette, scores of baby things and bottles in the fridge is a reminder, and a memory jogger, that live goes on.
Let’s just hope that for the next week, it slows down just a bit so we can all enjoy each memory we gather.