Upon arriving at the boat Saturday morning, the owner gave us a tutorial and we did a test run out on the water. Everything went smoothly, so we set our course north to Burlington VT, a cute city on the lake that has a wonderful crepe restaurant! :) As we cruised along, we alternated settling in, reading, playing games, sunning on the roof, lounging on the deck, and general merriment. At one point, we saw a ship coming at us and yelling over a megaphone so that was quite startling until we realized it was just the Coast Guard. They boarded us and did a safety / weapons / legal usage / check, which was nerve-wracking even though we were not doing anything wrong. About 40 minutes later, they finally let us go with a 'pass' and we continued on our merry way. We docked and gussied up a bit for our pit stop, and off we went. As we walked past the Skinny Pancake (our planned crepe stop for Sunday morning), I saw they had poutine and I just had to get some! Happily my friends obliged, and it was absolutely worth the stop - probably the best poutine I've ever had! Unfortunately that meant we were searching for our dinner stop right at prime eating time, and it was unusually busy because their marathon was the next day. One 90 minute wait later, we finally had a yummy (albeit late) dinner at The Farmhouse. Once we'd had our fill, we meandered back to the boat for an early night.
Sunday morning had us awake early and showering in the hot showers at the marina. Fresh and clean, we made our way to the Skinny Pancake right as they opened and indulged in some very delicious and unique crepes! Stuffed to the brim, we set off on a southbound course to Kingsland Bay, a scenic area we had heard would be good for anchoring overnight. It turned out to be a fairly breezy day, so we encountered some wavy waters that had us all preventatively reaching for the Dramamine! :) While underway, we came across a cute restaurant on a dock, so we made a quick stop for lobster poutine, ice cream, a playground, and some fun pictures! A couple hours of beautiful scenery later, we tossed the anchor overboard and were finally all able to sit around and relax and enjoy each other's company with
out worrying about captaining the ship. We gathered some games and beers on the deck, and had a great time basking in the sun and fun. Because of our late snack, we didn't end up grilling our bratwurst dinner until quite late, then stuffed ourselves to the point of sleepiness and crashed quite early yet again. Despite some heavy rain overnight that woke us up, we slept best that night without ambient noises waking us up early.
Monday morning we awoke around 8:30 and had a quick breakfast of oatmeal and fruit before hauling the anchor up and continuing our southbound journey. We happened to locate some journals that the owners left on the boat for renters to leave their stories, and we had some great laughs as we passed the time reading others' experiences. The highlights were kids that had been dragged along by their parents, a group of young adults that didn't all make it back because one girl broke her neck cliff-diving!!, and a group of 10 people that tried to spend a week on such a small craft! We stopped for lunch by a Fort so we could all relax together one last time, and again for dinner on the boat right before returning for our 6 pm deadline.
The boat served us incredibly well on our journey - it had been listed as sleeping 6-8 and we did consider inviting another couple, but 4 people turned out to be just the right amount! Enough space to all move around and have our own bed, without constantly being underfoot of each other. Erich was our captain, Anthony was our first-mate, and Snuggles (yup, my stuffed panda) was our official navigator. We made some really wonderful memories and had wonderfully relaxing long weekend. As always, it was hard to come back to reality after such beautiful weather and fun, but I am so glad we got away for the long weekend!
And this entry wouldn't be complete if I didn't take a minute to reflect on the freedoms I am allowed to enjoy because brave men and women have given their lives to protect our way of life. The blood that was shed on battlefields standing up for democracy and defending against tyranny and terrorism have allowed me the rights we as Americans cherish. May we never forget those who have paid the ultimate price so our own lives are rarely in danger.
I'm very glad you had such a good time and have good friends to share the experience with. You've inspired me to look into renting a houseboat myself.
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