After years of reading about renting a houseboat on Crane Lake, we finally did it! The Varela's and Grayden Yoshida joined us, making it 11 people on a 54-foot houseboat. We towed our 18-footer behind, and we ventured out into the Voyageur's National Park - the only park in the U.S. accessible only by boat...
The weather cooperated, for the most part - bright, sunny days, highs in the upper 70s, and very little rain. The wind, though, made for a challenging second day - especially docking our giant houseboat! A sister boat hit rocks harder than we did in another bay, and sank in five feet of water!
The hot tub was only hot for the first day, for some reason - but the boys used it as a pool during the day!
The water temperature was perfect for tubing and skiing, which we did a lot of during the day! We traveled for miles through Crane and Namakan Lakes - finally finding the perfect sand beach on day three - with a secluded, calm bay for lots of tubing.
Food was not a problem, to say the least - the houseboat people stocked plenty of meat and goodies - and the Varela's supplied excellent wine! CC the dog came along, too, and she enjoyed lots of leftover food.
Having our own runabout along was handy for scouting out the best place to land our giant vessel - and to check out the many amazing sights in this park along the Canadian border. Here, we're heading up Grassy Bay to see one of the largest sheer rock faces in Minnesota, at 125 feet.
The water temperature was perfect for tubing and skiing, which we did a lot of during the day! We traveled for miles through Crane and Namakan Lakes - finally finding the perfect sand beach on day three - with a secluded, calm bay for lots of tubing.
