Some of the best vacations we took as a family when the kids were small were the simplest and least expensive.
In that list had to be the time spent on a houseboat on a Kentucky Lake! Living just a couple of hours away in southern Indiana, it was just a short ride on I-75 to Laurel or Cumberland Lake in south central Kentucky.
What made it really nice was the fact that my kids and their cousins were about the same age.
We would leave on a Saturday morning and would arrive at the lake by early afternoon, after checking out the boat, loading it with provisions, (including a few libations), it was off to parts unknown.
Nice and quiet, peaceful, no phones ringing or horns blowing.
A whole week without TV or any of the other distractions of modern life.
Once the houseboat was parked , we normally didn't move it very much.
We did learn to start it and drive it a little, otherwiseflushing the toilet and having the lights on in the evening would run the battery down.
My brother-in-law owned a bass boat, which was used all day, fishing in the early morning, and late evening and night.
The days were spent water skiing, the bass boat motor really wasn't powerful enough to ski behind, it worked fine for the kids,but us lard bottom adults had to sit on the side of the houseboat and let the boat pull us up from there.
That fact alone helped ensure that no one ever fell off their skis, if you did your ride was over! Back to the house boat, being towed behindthe bass boat wasn't really a fun experience, especially when the drivertook no pity on the downed skier and kept speeding up! Plenty of steaks and hamburger were brought along just in case the fishing turned sour.
Even when fishing was at it's worst, there were several meals spent enjoying the local cuisine, including trout,catfish, bass, and crappie.
There is nothing better in the world than cooking a home caught meal over an open charcoal fire! Of course the activity is enjoyed even more in the company of a good cold beer.
The kids wore life jackets constantly, in case one of the varmints fell overboard, which never happened, but in case it would have, we had time to fish them out before anything serious could take place.
Comfortable beds were provided, however it didn't take me long to realize the best place to sleep was on top of the boat, under the stars.
It was beautiful! A million stars, and a moon if we were lucky.
Being isolated like we were, there were no lights from distant cities or automobiles to spoil our view of the celestial heavens.
All to quickly, the week would end, it would be time to pack up, and head back up the freeway and dream of next year.