This Ain’t Your Aunt Annie’s Houseboat

Men yelling, cussing, arms thrashing, chains slithering, sinking quickly with the weight of nearly 100 impaled fish. Alarming adult panic. The first time I witnessed grown men cry. A cousin had lost his grip on the day’s haul. I flashed on this vivid memory of a family vacation while house boating recently on Lake Powell, Arizona.

My memories of house boating in the late 60s in Northern California are like softly faded Polaroids. Back then, family members old and young were crammed on a thirty-foot “houseboat” rented for the day. Green plastic grass, spongy to the sole, and a tin roof seemingly designed to collect heat all day. All on board sweaty and sun-burnt. Dried out tufts of blond hair flying in every direction as we chugged across the lake. Crushed beer cans glinted in the sun as the bees swarmed the Kool-Aid cooler.

Now in late summer 2007, our press group is tucked in Padre Canyon, one of 90 dramatic canyons of Lake Powell. The girls have collected in the Jacuzzi, sipping chilled champagne while the chefs prepare dinner below in the gourmet kitchen. Music from the sound system is bouncing lightly off the cliff walls. To cool off from the heat of the Jacuzzi we take turns plunging down the waterslide from the second-level deck as the sun slips behind the cliffs and the first stars begin to appear. It’s heaven and it’s effortless. This ain’t your Aunt Annie’s houseboat.

On a rare invite our group spent three days checking out Lake Powell highlights with Steve Ward, famous for his knowledge of the lake and the people who have formed a livelihood on it. Our base home, a custom-built seventy-five-foot luxury houseboat, the Odyssey, is anchored on the sandy beach, complete with two deluxe wet bars, a wide screen TV, a home theater system with surround sound and a satellite tracking-system. The kitchen has granite countertops and state-of-the art appliances including a dishwasher, microwave, and air conditioning. Five staterooms, one with a queen-sized bed and a TV. Two bathrooms. This lux experience shatters my reality about houseboats. We are all grown up now!