For the last couple of years, I’ve been suggesting to Andy that we sell the sea-doo and get a boat instead. As much fun as the sea-doo is, it’s just not that practical, and once you tire of racing around the lake, it doesn’t serve many functional purposes. Try to imagine going on a vacation with your family and two dogs and only having a motorcycle…as opposed to a station wagon or mini van. That’s kind of what having a sea-doo is like. Tons of fun, but not practical.
So, a couple of weeks ago, we went half-sies with Ben on a 1975 Silverline open bow boat. It’s in great condition, and even before going 50/50 is cheaper than the sea-doo and the insurance is a THIRD that of the sea-doo! Sweet, another “freebie”! Guess where we got it? That’s right…good old Craig came through for the Gibsons again! :)
Henry is required by law to wear a lifejacket when in the boat. Poor kid, it looks soooo uncomfortable. But to make his ride a little nicer, we hooked up his portable booster seat so that he can at least have a view.
We’ve tested out the life jacket…since the tag says that it will turn MOST children face up. So, we tossed the kid in the water, and yup, he gets turned face up. Unhappy, but face up.
We’ve taken to going to Lake Nacimiento for an afternoon the last couple of weekends. Having a boat, and living only 1.5 hour from a large lake makes short trips easy. Sometimes all the packing and energy required for full tent camping is more than we have the gumption for.
Henry is fearless. The lake is really low right now, so the kid could literally walk 10 feet out in the water, and still only be up to his knees. That was nice because I could sit in my chair and keep an eye on him without really worrying too much. He must know how to hold his breath because a few times he must have stepped on a rock or something and faceplanted in the water, only to get himself up and continue playing unscathed. Not a whimper or cry.
Originally, I kept his lifejacket on while he played in the water, but found that was actually more dangerous…his sense of balance was off from the bulky vest so he would fall more often, and then he had a harder time pushing himself back up, meaning he needed rescued a few times. So, as counterintuitive as it seemed, no jacket worked SO much better for water play.
He spent the day filling and dumping and refilling his little bucket with sand…
Throwing rocks into the water with his right hand, while tightly clenching shells in his left…here he is handing rocks to Uncle Ben for throwing…
It’s been fun having a boat so far. But I keep telling Andy that the old saying is “The best two days of a boat owner’s life is the day he buys it, and the day he sells it”…so we’ll see how this pans out!
By the way, we have a sea-doo for sale… ;0)
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the portable seat in the boat = brilliant!