So a few weekends ago we decided to rent an 8 person pontoon boat and take the kids out onto the lovely and always awesome Lake Amistad.
After showing your boating ID card, you head down to the boathouse where a grizzly old boat man will show you to your boat for a three hour tour.Or more. Two hours minimum.
Paige and Josh really liked the look of the fishing pontoon boat. I think they really just wanted to get on those swivel chairs and go around and around and around.I kind of wanted to to.
After getting underway, the kids rushed to the front of the boat and gloried in the fresh breeze, the blue water, and bluer sky.What a rush!
After thirty seconds Josh and Phoebe got bored of the rush and moved on to other diversions. Paige, however, held on to her post and became the look out girl/front-boat driver.Just what Jerry needs; another female not behind the drivers wheel telling him what to do.
Not that I ever do that.
Who me?
Josh took his turn steering the boat while it was at full power. He did a great job. A great job scaring the crap out of Paige at least.I guess her confidence in four year old boy boat drivers is pretty low.
Dad, I told you to go THAT way!!
Phoebe tried steering the boat as well. As she couldn't see over the dash and didn't understand what the heck was going on, Jerry felt the need to keep one hand on the wheel at all times.Therefore, Phoebe spent her entire time "steering" the boat actually trying to push, pull, bite, and wedge Jerry's hand off of the steering wheel. She's nothing if not persistent.
I'll do a proper post on Lake Amistad at a later date, but I will mention here how windy it always is. After all, it is the largest man-made lake in the U.S., is in the middle of the desert, and is surrounded but lots of nothing.The sailors love it.
After driving around for a while, we found a quiet corner to anchor the boat so we could go pee. I mean, so we could go swimming.
Jerry jumped in first, and when the kids balked at jumping the four feet down into the "scary" lake water, I obliged by shoving them in.One day they'll thank me.
The water looks more green in the photos than it really is in person. It's very clear though, clear enough that you can see way past your toes, down to the spooky layer where all of the 300 pound catfish live.We didn't mention anything about 300 pound fish to Paige. She was freaked out enough.
We did spot the ever elusive white moon fish. See it floating just south of the littlest redhead?
Why put on a swimming diaper in the lake when you're just jumping in to go pee anyway?
Back on board, we started cruising around seeing the sights. The kids really enjoyed the goats all along the banks. Some where really, really big and some of their kids were really, really small.And the males had really, really big hang-downs.
Eww. Gross. I'm sorry. (But they were HUGE!!!)
We enjoyed an hour or so ride up the the cliffs at Rough Canyon. It's an area with a public marina and a few Mom and Pop resorts. It was a perfect day out on the lake.
Or was it?
