Lake Pal (Powell for those of you who don't speak Utahn)

We went to Lake Powell with T's extended family.  And it was wonderful.  In school I had friends whose families went to Lake Powell every time there was a three day weekend.  It didn't make sense to me because it was so far away - there are many closer places to go boating.  But now I've been to Lake Powell.  Sign me up.  I'm a believer.

Going in to it, T and I thought we would be staying on the houseboat in the middle of the lake all day.  The packing list said to bring hiking boots, which I did.  But then I left them in the car because if we were going hiking we would have to go back to the marina, right?  We had everything so wrong.

The houseboats were rented for a week and some people stayed the entire time and some of us could only stay for a few days.  T's uncle R, who planned the entire trip, picked us up at Wahweap Marina in the ski boat as he was dropping off T's dad and sister.  We got to chat with them for about ten minutes.  Which was way better than no minutes.

 Not our baby.  It's T's sister's baby.  Also, how short am I in this photo?!  I'm the same height as A!  And she's just a baby!

Then Uncle R drove us out to the houseboats.  And we realized that Lake Powell doesn't look like a regular lake.  It looks like this on a map:

This at the dam:

And this in real life:

 That ridiculously blue sky is gorgeous!

It took us about an hour in the ski boat to get to the houseboats.   I don't know how fast we were going because the speedometer was broken.  Maybe T's dad broke it.  Haha.  (T's dad was attempting to show others where a shallow spot on the lake was and he beached the ski boat and dinged the prop.)

The houseboats docked several places throughout the trip but only in one place while T and I were there.  We were docked in Mountain Sheep Canyon (I think) about 35 miles from the Marina.  It was a really great spot. 

We were on the Finnish American Pirate Ship (houseboat).

 

We had a little room (seriously, it was tiny) in the "dungeon"...

but we slept on the top deck under the stars.  I forgot that there are so many stars in the sky.  We hardly see any in SoCal.  There were a lot of stars, but not as many as the January night we arrived in Wyoming for Cousin C's wedding.  That was the most stars I have ever seen.  Ever.  Anyway, back to Lake Powell.  We had bought sleeping bags, and there were plenty of air mattresses to go around and sleeping outside was the perfect temperature.  The moon was so bright I could almost read my book (Mockingjay!) by it.  The scenery in the morning wasn't too bad either.

And now I understood why I shouldn't have left my hiking boots in the car.  The red rock all around was just begging for us to explore.  Which we did.  In flip flops.

T completely looks like a movie star on a fake movie set here.  But it's all real.  He really is ruggedly handsome. 

(Plus ten if you know where that line came from.)

We did most of our exploring in the morning before it got too hot.  Our last day at Lake Powell we went kayaking in Uncle R and Aunt C's kayaks.  I had never been kayaking before, and we decided not to take the camera in case I tipped.  T taught me stuff as we went.  Neither one of us tipped and we had a wonderful time.  I think it helped that the lake was as smooth as glass because we were in a tiny little side canyon and not in the main channel.  We went up this really narrow canyon where the rock on both sides went 100 feet straight up.  It was awesome.  So we don't have any pictures of us kayaking, but we have these of Uncle S and his son C kayaking.  Just imagine it's us.

The first day, right after we ditched our gear and put on swimsuits, we went tubing with Uncle S's family.  And we forgot the camera.  But it was a most excellent time.  The next day we went out on the ski boat for knee boarding and such with some of the cousins.

T was up first:

Clockwise from bottom left Cousin S, Cousin D, T, and Cousin N (D's wife) 

Cousin S was sometimes a crazy driver. 

The iPhoto on T's lappy has a facial recognition thing that it does.  In this photo it tried to tag T as Jesus. 

Gah!  Sooooo beautiful!

 

 

This is a completely stereotypical Lake Powell picture.  Nice air D!

 T caught D's knee boarding wipe-out.

T's rash guard was awesome.  It was great not to worry (so much) about being sunburned.

Both houseboats and the whole crowd boat'd up to Rainbow Bridge.  We played a fun board game called "Ticket to Ride" on the way over.  But we had to stop playing because the scenery was just too good to miss.

This is like the canyon we kayaked in.  But the kayaking canyon was only about 5 feet wide!  If we would have tipped, it would have been a long swim back to a beach to get back in the kayak.

This was the most common pose (taking pictures) to find Grandpa S in.

We docked...

and took a lovely 2/3 mile hike to the bridge.  I'm glad most of the hike was in the shade because without a breeze from boating it's hot!  It was a pretty mild hike, but I was still very glad that Aunt C let me borrow her other pair of Tivas so I didn't have to hike in my flip flops.

 Grandma C and Grandpa S both hiked all the way to the bridge.

Aunt S with Grandma C

 

Cousin K's Baby E

 Cousin D and his wife N

 I really love this picture of Uncle S's family.

 Aunt C, Grandpa S, Aunt M, Uncle M, Baby E, Grandma C, Aunt S, Cousin R (Baby E's dad)

Aunt N, Cousin C, Uncle S, Cousin M (who is ridiculously gorgeous, by the way)

Uncle M carrying his granddaughter, Baby E.

 I have no idea what is going on here.  All I know is that it is awesome.

Let me just say that Aunt C is amazing.  She planned the activities (including the houseboat Olympics), meals (all SOOOO good!), the chore chart, and brought every supply you could ever think of and was basically the best cruise director Lake Powell has ever seen.  The last night T and I were at Lake Powell the activity was skits.  And they were amazing.

Grandpa S with a hatchet (or was it an axe???) in his homemade manpris (capris for men). 

Love this guy!  Grandpa would start to tell stories and Grandma would interrupt him saying "X, X" because she thought all his stories were X-rated (They weren't.  I promise.).

"Miss Kitty" from the Geritol Club gave quite the show...

Uncle M as Uncle R

 Aunt S as a very convincing Grandpa S

Cousin C as T's dad

A bunch of us had to leave on the same day - Aunt Connie's "spa day." 

Grandpa has some nice ankles!

Uncle R drove us back to the marina in the very full ski boat.

Cap'n R

For part of the way we hauled Cousin D's sailboat behind us.

But that was slowing us down big time, so we ditched them!  Just kidding - we dropped them in a shady spot and Uncle R went back to get them after he took us to the marina.
 
We were so good about sunscreening up and T wearing his rash guard that we didn't get sunburned the whole time until the boat ride back to the marina.  And that's mostly because we sat in the same position for two hours.  I got burned a bit on my arms (not shoulders, arms) and T got burned on the tops of his hands.  But the sunburns were mild and neither of us peeled.

Seriously, it was the perfect time to visit Lake Powell.  It was 89 degrees hot, but not as hot as July or August.  The summer crowds were gone because school had started.  And the water was still warm - a beautiful 75 degrees.  Which is way better than the frigid Pacific.  Getting the water felt so good.  It was cool and refreshing, but never cold.  It didn't take any getting used to or waiting until your body goes numb.  It was wonderful.

 This was the most common pose (reading) to find Grandma C in.  

She finished "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

It was so wonderful to hang out with T's family.  I learned so much about them.  They are an awesome bunch.

I know I'm gushing about everything, but seriously, I cannot wait to go back.  T and I are already making plans.  Who wants go with us next time?  (Grown-ups only.  It really isn't for kids under 10 unless they are immobile babies.  There are too many dangerous things unless you literally watch them every second.)