ON THE WATER

Me, my brother, and my oldest younger sister in a raft on the water at Meeks Bay, Lake Tahoe back in 1947.

That same summer this sea plane made an emergency landing on the lake at Meeks Bay one morning and we all went down to check it out.  My brother and I are standing by the plane.  Little sis is coming back up the beach toward Dad who was taking the picture.

Later that day Dad took us close up around the plane in/on a kayak.

Rafting down the Truckee River below Tahoe.  The larger blue rafts are rentals - usually with a guide along for good measure.

  The Great Gasquet Raft Race on the middle fork of the Smith River in northern Calif.  Some of the rafts are quite imaginative, others are no more than a single inner-tube.  All for fun.  I don’t know that anyone was/is all that concerned about winning the race?  It’s just a matter of being out there on the water – usually on a hot day, and visiting with friends who might just happen to be towing a 6-pack along behind them in the cold water. J

Our youngest daughter & friends rafting the Trinity River in northern California.  And yes, they had a guide. :)

   Remember San Francisco’s huge “Fleishhacker Pool”?  Sometimes folks were allowed to row boats on it.  They even held boat races on it.

Now, on to bigger floating things.  If you happen to find yourself in San Francisco hop onboard this 99 year old ferry boat now permanently parked at Pier 9.

The “Klamath”, built in 1925, is the floating office space for the Bay Area Council, but it’s free to visit and enjoy the ferry boat’s rooftop garden during weekday business hours and the first Saturday of each month.

In its day it must have carried thousands of commuters to and from the City.

Here’s the “Klamath Queen” – a jet boat which plies the waters of the Klamath River in Del Norte County, Calif. taking passengers up and down the river.  It’s a fun ride and they stop upriver for lunch, and by the time you climb the hundred or so stairs to get from the boat to the café, you are definitely ready for water and food!

The “Delta King” paddle boat on the Sacramento River is a floating-in-place hotel, restaurant, and bar.  We stayed here one night.  Our room was aft on the second level up just behind the paddle wheel.  It had windows all around and a wonderful view of the river.  Unfortunately, it was located on the main deck to and from the shore so we had to keep the blinds on all those windows closed in order to have any privacy!  A bit of a bummer.  The room was nice and comfortably appointed, though.  After dinner we strolled the deck in the twilight watching all the boats going up and down the river with their lights on.  Quite lovely.  We had a rude awakening at 2:00 in the morning, however, when the bar on the upper deck closed and its patrons came noisily down the stairs near our cabin laughing and talking loudly all the way past and around us as they made their way to shore.  Oh well.  I thought it would be something fun and different to do.

 “The Tahoe Queen” takes passengers from the south end of Lake Tahoe up to and into Emerald Bay, around the little island there, and back to home-port.  We took the dinner cruise once.  The evening scenery was lovely, but the seating was crowded and the food, while tasty enough, was in very small portions.  The “filet minion” and “chicken cordon bleu” were each no bigger than a silver dollar.  The “strawberry cheesecake” for dessert was a little square the size of a petit four.  We wouldn’t have gone had the dinner not been included in the package deal for our rented condo apartment.  Oh well.

Onboard the “Island Princess” in Alaska taking pictures of the Hubbard glacier from our cabin deck.

We were leaving Juneau bound for Ketchikan when I spotted these two kayakers alongside our ship and wondered how much of a wake we were going to create for them to deal with?  Hopefully not too bad.

In Ketchikan before I’d left the ship to go shopping I heard some noise ‘next door’ and went to investigate, finding the ship parked behind us was holding a lifeboat drill.

There are smaller boats plying the waters here and there, of course.  This pretty blue and white speed boat pulling two skiers on Lake Tahoe off Bliss St. Park beach belonged to the family of a fellow I made sure to befriend that summer of 1960. J

Then there’s me a good many years later riding a SeaDoo at Meeks Bay.

Our youngest daughter learned to water ski on Pine Mountain Lake when we lived there.

We also belonged to a sailing club on Pine Mountain Lake called “The Windjammers”.  It was a fun group.  We held serious and fun races and boat parades to begin and end the season as well as joining the 4^th of July water parade, and all sorts of other fun stuff.

And then there are these guys (and gals):

Ducks and geese on Willow Springs Pond in Soulsbyville, Calif.  They’re both on & in the water with their feet!  Once upon a time this pretty pond was kept clean and tidy to serve as a place for those living in the surrounding subdivision to go swimming.  There was a nice sandy beach area with a small playground set up for youngsters.  Sadly, for some reason, the project to keep the pond clean was abandoned and it went to the birds. 

:-> 

La Nightingail

P.S.

Celebrating 56 years together today! xo