Houseboat

We had an amazing weekend on Lake Shasta celebrating my 40th birthday.  August 10-13th, we rented a houseboat on the lake and enjoyed the warm weather, boating, relaxing and the Perseids meteor shower.  Captain Brad organized the trip, never easy to do when you have so many people interested in going.  While not all my friends could be there to celebrate we had a well rounded group.

First up, the girls, Natalie, Maria, Criselda, Martha & Lilia

And the boys, Captain Brad, Mike, Michael, Steve, Scott & Brad. Yes, that's two Brad's & two Mikes .

Here' our houseboat.  First impression, cramped quarters, glad we didn't have the full15 people it slept on board, 11-13 is the max I'd want to be comfortable.  The walls are very thin, you can hear everything.  There were only 2 real bedrooms, the rest were separated by drapes or less.  Girls were nervous about the two bathrooms on board.  Rule was when you had to go #2, you yelled turn up the music!

Brad and Natalie, our neighbors across the street brought their boat. While we've seen it in front of their house, it was the first time we'd actually been on it.  What a lot of fun having a boat can be and They were so great to bring it and share with us.  Brad drove everyone through their different water activities, wake boarding, skiing, knee boarding, inner tubing and even surfing.  I can't give them a big enough thanks for all the fun they brought with the boat.

Maria and Lilia enjoying the upper deck of the houseboat.  Lot's of sun, 108 degree heat 

Mike taking a spin at wake boarding.  He picked it up easily.

Criselda stated she had always wanted to try wake boarding and here she got her chance to try it, get up and enjoy it.  Success!

The video above is Maria getting up, and falling on the wake board.

I had never heard of surfing on a lake before.  While Brad's boat had a hard time getting enough of a wake that it could be done without a rope, we were still able to try.  Here's mike getting up on the surf board.  To get this to work properly you need a ballast in the boat, to get it to produce a larger wake and then as you get going you can drop the rope and ride the wave behind.  We watched the Hyperlite guys do it on their boat.

Here's Lilia about to try surfing.  Note there is no boot straps or anything to hold your feet in.  I gave this a shot as well, but I was not successful.

For lunch Brad cooked up a Tri-tip with some sausages.  We ate really well on the trip.  We had pulled pork, beef tenderloin and chicken.  Everyone pitched in on sides and lots of leftovers.  We clearly over packed food and under packed the Mexican beer.

Steve, a friend of Brad and Natalie's from San Jose and Owner of Mel Cotton's sporting good store, brought a floating island along.  This was used both as an extra rest area and pulled behind the boat for a bit.  Brad even spent the last night sleeping on it.

Brand and Natalie's son Brodie is a professional wake board rider for the Hyperlite team.  By coincidence, the Hyperlite team were having their end of year party on Shasta the same time we were there.  They were on the BIG houseboat, the one we originally looked at for our group when we had more people going.  Having them there, we got to see some of their performances, truly amazing stuff.

We raided the Hyperlite Houseboat, so we could climb to the third deck and take a jump into the lake.

While not coordinated, I did jump several times.  Talk about a rush.

On Brad's jumps, he attempted to do a Jack Knife, but instead did a sort of Back Knife.  Ouch!

It may be hard to see here, but on the tube is a photographer, and further back is Brodie, mid-air of a Wake board jump.  Very impressive stuff.

Mike giving Brad a big "I Love You Man!"

Natalie doing some surfing.

Brad chilling between runs down the slide.

And there he goes!

This video shows the brave duo who were the first to go off our boat's slide.  First up is Lilia, followed by Martha.  Martha's didn't quite finish the back flip, so we had to mark her score down a bit.

Much time was spent floating on the lake, hiding from the heat.

Mike and I riding the tube.  Best part was as we were getting whipped outside the wake, my handle broke and I went flying over the top of Mike, hitting him in the head and knocking us both off. 

Here's another view of the incident I described above.  Maria's commentary on the video adds a nice touch, but it's not as funny as it was for Mike and I who lived it.

Captain Brad relaxing on the boat.  Of course on this boat, he was demoted to first mate.

Captain Brad on his Knee board. He kept it old school as no one else rode a knee board.  He also brought a long a single ski that about 5 minutes of use on it.  I think he pulled it down from his trophy room to show off all that he could do.  Of course as soon as it hit the water Brad the excuses lined up on why he couldn't ride it.

Here I am on the tube, waiting for Mike to join.  

Brad driving the speed boat

Steve highlighting the lighter side of life.  He was a lot of fun, until he made the claim that his wife's salsa was better than Maria's.  Now he's blacklisted.  

Brad and I chilling on the top of the boat.  Great place to watch the stars and meteor shower at night.

Brad and Natalie, we had a blast and thanks again.  It was great riding in your boat, watching son Wakeboard and spending the weekend partying with you.  

As Mickey Rourke once said "Too All My Friends..." I had a great time with you and will cherish these memories forever.  So many fun moments and little things that are not caught in the pictures but all add up to a memorable trip.  I've never done a house boat trip before, but I can't wait to do another one.  I'll definitely be more prepared, by bringing even less stuff next time.  Hope everyone who joined me had as good of a time as I did.