The best vacation I’ve ever taken has got to be the lake Powell trip of 2013. It was such a great trip that I remember it as clearly if it were yesterday. It was the best vacation mostly because it was with great people. We had lots of friend’s come I got to bring my best friend Daxton with me he’s pretty much my other half people have told me its weird to see us when were not together because that’s how much time we spend together. We also brought 2 of my dad’s best friends from high school with us and their family’s, it was a blast! Here’s why it has been one of my favorite vacations so far!

We packed the car and left. It as an especially long drive because of how excited we were to get to Arizona, we arrived late in the afternoon. We unpacked the car and loaded everything onto the houseboat it was quite a bit of work because of all the necessities we had to bring with us. But there was a great feeling of accomplishment when we were done. The houseboat was huge its about 75-85 feet long and about 25-35 feet wide, you can expect to see an oversized load sign on it in the morning when we take it out to the lake.

We woke up at the crack of dawn 6:00 AM quite a bit earlier than we were used to it being summer and all, we got off the boat and got onto the shuttle bus that was waiting for us. They hooked up the houseboat to a semi truck and started the long journey of 10 minutes to the marina where they put houseboats into the water. Its always fun to see them putting something so big into the water once it was in the water we all boarded the ski boat we brought with us and headed out to meet the guy who helped us drive the houseboat out of the marina. We all got off the ski boat and boarded the houseboat and then Neil (my dads friend from high school) took the driver back to the shuttle.

When Neil arrived back to the houseboat with the ski boat we hooked the boat to the houseboat and started the real journey of getting the
houseboat to the beach where we wanted to park it. It was a 4-hour boat drive to the beach it was mostly so long because the houseboat’s top speed is about 15-16 MPH but it was still fun to see all the scenery and the beautiful red rock cliffs that make lake Powell so magical. Once we got about a mile away my dad decided Dax and me should go to the beach and save it for the houseboat, so we lowered the jet ski into the water jumped on and started to head to the canyon where the best beaches were. There is a special way we know which canyon is which and I would tell you but then id have to kill you and we wouldn’t want that now would we. So we found the canyon using our secret methods and started looking for a beach we found a great-secluded beach away from everything else and left some stuff there to claim it. We drove back to the houseboat and guided them to the beach we docked the houseboat and the jet ski and ski boat on either side of it. Then went exploring and swam a little before it got dark then we settled into bed.

The next morning we went on a morning hike and saw some amazing, stunning views from the cliffs. When we got back to the houseboat we ate breakfast and got into the ski boat to head out and do some wakeboarding and wake surfing, it was really fun and exciting to get back on a wakeboard. When we got back to the houseboat me and Daxton decided we wanted to go cliff jumping so we stole the jet ski and left on our quest for the perfect cliff one that was really big yet easy to access we didn’t have to go very far before we found one it was perfect. So me and Daxton would dare each other to do stuff like I would dare him to “gainer” (throw him self foreword while back flipping) off the cliff and he would dare me to front flip 360 it this kept us quite entertained until we went back for dinner. We ate and went upstairs on the houseboat to set up our beds once it was all set up we laid down and looked up at all the beautiful stars above and wondered at how amazing the universe is.

The next day was Sunday my family chooses to keep Sunday special in the sense that we like to observe the beauty around us, not just goof around. So on Sunday we went to rainbow bridge, its amazing to see what beautiful creations are in this world and what the world has to offer, it was really awesome to see all the beauty for a change instead of
just messing around and not really noticing the beautiful world around us.

The next day me and Daxton took the jet ski out for a spin really early when the water was as smooth as glass it was amazing to push the jet ski to is limits and see how fast it would go with the both of us on the Jet ski there was about 300 pounds on it and we were still able to get the jet ski up to about 75-80 MPH which you could say is pretty dang fast. It was awesome! After our outing on the jet ski we went back to the houseboat and decided to go for a hike we hiked about half a mile when we found the biggest tumble weed in the history of the world we took it back to the beach and left it there. For the rest of the day we did the usual lake Powell stuff cliff jumping, wakeboarding, wake surfing, and an adventure into some un explored canyons on the jet ski it was quite the day and went it was dark I had the great idea to go light the tumble weed on fire, so me and Daxton went out with a grill lighter and lit it up. It was the craziest thing of my life it went up so fast and was so hot that I climbed up an almost vertical wall of rock and messed up my arm on a rock I know what you’re thinking “It cant have been that hot” but I assure you it was that hot I was amazed by the sheer heat emulating from the monster tumble weed and I’m surprised I stull had hair on my head after that experience but I wouldn’t change a single thing it was awesome.

The next day we packed up all our stuff from the beach loaded the houseboat and set off for the marina. We were there right on time at 11:00 for them to bring it onto the trailer for the semi to take it back to the yard we followed it back to the yard in the shuttle and packed all our stuff from the house boat into the suburban. Then we said our goodbyes to our friends and headed home. It was really bitter sweet because I didn’t want to leave but I also wanted to be home. It was one of the greatest vacations ever and I’m glad I got to spend it with my friends and family I love them so much and I always will.