Going through some of Mom's pictures I ran across this one of Dad and Mom piloting the houseboat on Lake Shasta back in 1966 or 1967. This was our first deluxe vacation where we didn't sleep in a tent. This brought back memories of fishing and motoring around on the lake. I remember us finding a cove that was secluded and us jumping off the houseboat and swimming. My Dad, brother and I making a trip in the towed behind boat up to the end of the Sacramento River till we couldn't go any further due to the rocks, and catching our limit of rainbow trout. I recall traveling back to the houseboat and having my hand in the water and feeling how cold the river water was and when we cross the thermo-plane that was the lake as the temperature was at least 10-15 degrees warmer. There was the time Mom and Dad decided they needed a break from us kids and took the boat to go to a restaurant for dinner after the houseboat was tied up. Us kids got scared to death when we heard something going through the brush (turned out to be a doe) and then having a starving hunting dog show up at the boat. When Mom and Dad got back, the next morning we took the dog to a close by marina and left it with someone to call the animal shelter. I got to drive the boat and remember well when we were out in the middle of the lake and a thunderstorm hit us and the wind and waves giving us a scare. I also recall that we worked like the dickens cleaning the houseboat up as Mom and Dad had put down a cleaning fee of several hundred dollars and they were determined to get it back. The guy who rented out the boat said it was cleaner than he had ever seen it and he wasn't going to have to do any work getting it ready for the next renter except empty the waste tanks. We got our cleaning fee back. I hope my kids have good memories of things we did together like I do of Mom and Dad.
