House boating on the Shuswap (Part 1)

 First of all, did you know that it is called Shuswap? I always thought it was Shushwap. With two H's. The things you learn when you actually travel to a place. I took about 100 pictures so that is why I am breaking this in to two posts. Vacationing on a house boat has been on my bucket list for awhile now so when my Dad and Penny invited us on a house boat we were more then happy to take the time off work and school to go. It did not disappoint. It was one of my favourite family vacations so far. So beautiful, relaxing, and really just heaven in every way possible. We left Sunday morning. A bit of a long drive but the drive was so beautiful and we made good timing.

I guess I should say that we were going with my Dad, his wife Penny, Penny's daughter Alex, my brother Cody, and sister Ginger. We got to Sicamous around supper time and met everybody there to eat. Then we boarded the house boat. We had to stay in the marina until the morning so our first night was at the docks. 

We were sandwiched in between two other boats with very loud people on them, but we enjoyed our evening getting unpacked, visiting, and sitting in the hot tub. The people on the one side of us partied pretty hard and loud until after midnight. Then we got a bit of a wind storm in the early hours of the morning. We kept banging into the other boats and we didn't get much sleep that night. We were so excited to leave the marina and the party people behind the next morning. We decided we would spend the day making our way to the very end of the shuswap, so most of that first day we were travelling on the water. It was a bit windy that day so it actually ended up taking us awhile, but we enjoyed playing games and hanging out on the water. And the views were just incredible.

The kids loved driving the boat. I couldn't believe how much time Hayley would just sit there driving it because it goes pretty slow and is kind of boring, but she loved it. As we were getting closer to the end of the day we were getting pretty antsy to find a place. Originally we were headed right to the last little cove but as time went on we thought we might stop sooner. We couldn't find a spot though and ended up just going to that last little cove. Bug something was the name. It ended up being the perfect spot ever. No one else was around, it had the sandiest beach, and it was nice and protected and peaceful. So perfect and we were glad we made the trek there. The kids swam, we hot tubbed and had a nice beach fire that evening. We also came across a fun little rope swing that the kids loved. As we were sitting in the hot tub we even got a fire works show. There were a bunch of cabins on the other side of the Lake and they were setting them off because it was Labor Day. So fun.

During the night the water was so calm and we were tied up nice and tight. It didn't even feel like we were on a boat and we slept much better. We spent the whole morning and into the afternoon at this nice private little spot. We kayaked, swam, explored the beach and just had the best, most relaxing time.

The boat was the perfect size for us. It slept 17 and there was 11 of us. There were four rooms with double beds on the bottom deck with the living room and kitchen area and two bathrooms. And then the top deck had two bedrooms and a bathroom and a little room where you can drive the boat from but also had a couple pull out beds. The top deck also had a big built in table and a hot tub. It was the perfect amount of space. We all took turns providing meals. And it just all worked out so well. We had so much food. After lunch we headed to our next destination. Or as Hayley would call it our next "destiny." 

To be continued...