Houseboating!

Wow, what a weekend! I went up to Lake Oroville with Brigitte's family to use their houseboat. Now, I've never been on a houseboat before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. For some reason I thought it would be more like camping and less like a house. Boy, was I wrong! It had everything you could want in a house, but on water! Electricity, running faucets, showers, toilets, etc. It was so much fun! We basically spent two days jetskiing, floating on fun little rafts and playing games. The Mitchells (Brig's family) had some friends that came out in their own boat, so they tied up next to us - there were like 20 people in all!

Friday night we got up there fairly late (But early enough for dinner - when Brig told me they don't eat until it gets dark, I got nervous. You know me with food. But it turns out that you lose all track of time and by the time it gets dark it's almost 9pm!), so we didn't get to play in the water. We all hung out that night and played board games with Brigitte's sisters, Amber and Kristine. Tons of fun! I kicked butt at liars dice!

Saturday began with this:

I know, it's a tough life I lead. We floated around on the rafts for a good four or five hours. We were almost attacked by a flock of wild geese (probably because we floated a little too close to their island) and had the best time. Brigitte and her mom made yummy Bahama Mama's, so later in the day we floated with a few of those! I am proud to say that I was the sunscreen Nazi and that I was the only one who didn't end up with a 3rd degree sun burn. I'm a little crispy, but nothing too serious.

After a few hours of floating Brigitte says "Let's take the jet ski out!". Sounded like a good idea. There were four of us, so we decided to go in twos. Amber and Kristine went out first while Brig and I paddled our little rafts out to the five mile an hour buoy to wait for the jet ski hand off. When they came back and we switched off, Brigitte asked if I minded if she drove first. I thought, "Ok, this is my best friend who generally isn't too wild or too crazy. Sure, why not let her drive?" Boy, was I wrong. I thought I was going to die pretty much the whole time we were out there. Amber had let it slip that she and Kristine had the jet ski up to 41 miles per hour on open water. Brigitte had that thing FLYING! We took turns driving and I too drove fast. I figured out that it just seemed a little more scary on the back because you had no control and every time you hit a wave (by the way, we were not dumb enough to hit waves that fast - Brig slowed down for those, thank God) you flew up just a little bit. We had the time of our lives! Here's Brig and I coming back in:
We took the jet ski out again a little later - this time with Brigitte, Amber and I on it. When we came back in the boys on the other houseboat had blown up tons of water balloons and were waiting with a sling shot. So we played about 1/2 an hour of "dodge the water balloons" all the while, collecting the ones that missed us so we could throw them back. It was so much fun!

Here's us post jet ski and post combating:
Now, one funny little story (of many from the weekend): while Brig and I were out floating, waiting for Amber and Kris to come back this boat comes hauling into the 5 mph zone and dumps their skier about 20 feet from us (you'd better believe we glared...). We paddled away only to hear the skiier say this: "Could you open that front locker and hand me my shampoo and conditioner"? She then proceeded to sit on the back of the boat and shampoo her hair. Never in my 12 years of boating have I seen this happen. First things first. I don't think you should really be getting shampoo and conditioner in the lake. I have a feeling the fish don't like it. Secondly, I'm not sure that it really gets your hair clean. Yes, the houseboat used lake water in the shower, but it just seemed really weird for this girl to do this in the middle of the lake. I actually looked over at Brigitte and asked if the girl was going to shave next.

Saturday night we had a feast: BBQ ribs, steak, noodles, rice, Texas toast all followed by Oreos. I fell asleep reading a magazine and when I woke up I had a tiny headache. I had figured that I had too much sun (or stress from fearing for my life) and got ready for bed. About 3am I woke up with a killer migrane. Not a fun way to end the trip. Eventually I went downstairs, took some Tylenol and fell asleep inside with a fan on me (we all slept outside on top of the boat because it was so beautiful out). I was feeling a little better this morning, but not much.

Anyways, the trip was a blast and I had the most fantastic time! Yeah for the Mitchells and their houseboat! Now I'm off to bed to combat this little headache of mine!