Boating at Last! (July 24th, 2015)

Yesterday was a lazy day, combined with boat and house maintenance. When you have been away for almost a year you can expect to have a few maintenance issues when you return. Some are planned maintenance and others a little more unexpected. When we took our first showers in the house, we realized that one of the shower heads was almost completely plugged. This is quite common in Lake Havasu City because there are so many minerals in the water. So a trip to Lowes was in order to find a new shower head. The more expected maintenance was changing out the impeller on the boat, which needs to be done about once a year. No big deal to do either of them, but just takes a little time. 

So today now that all of the maintenance is behind us, we finally get to have some fun. We took our time getting around this morning, and then went down by the highway to a Thai restaurant. We were so impressed to find a Thai restaurant in Havasu, and it was pretty darn good, and we were so happy to have found it. We will definitely go back. 

Then after lunch, a mad dash to the lake. It was our first time out in the boat this trip! Everything went smoothly at the boat ramp, and after not having used the boat for almost a year, that's more than you can wish for.

Lake Havasu is an outdoor lovers paradise. In the summer it is the home to all water activities, from boating, to paddle boarding, kayaking, jet skiing and even jet boarding. 

Boats mooring and a paddle boarder on the Channel

In the winter it is known more for it's desert activities like ATV'ing, sand rails and hiking. There are several boat ramps on the lake which all cost a fee. We usually use the boat ramp at Windsor Beach State Park. The fee to load there is $15 per day on Friday and the weekends and $10 on the other days, or you can also buy several different types of annual passes if you are around a lot. Lake Havasu is about 35 miles long and about 5 miles wide on average. One of the things we really like about the lake is that it really doesn't have a speed limit so you get to see some really incredible boats hitting some really crazy speeds.  It is a very busy lake in the summer with visitors coming in from all over the U.S. 

By the time we put the boat in the water the main parking lot at Windsor Beach State Park was full, so I had to park in the overflow parking, but it is very close and easy to get in and out of. The main parking lot has all pull through spaces, and the overflow parking has only back-in spaces.

Today when we left the boat ramp, we headed straight for the channel, where the London Bridge resides. Boats park all along the channel in the summer, and enjoy just hanging out and swimming. Alcohol is allowed on most of the channel, but there is a designated area toward the south end of the channel that is family friendly and alcohol is not allowed.