Jet lag sparked an early waking, despite a late night chatting with my hosts. I put the time to good use, IM’ing, reading email and blogs. Breakfast at McDonald’s, then the drivers arrived, picked us up, and we jammed ourselves in with all the food, baggage, and minor furniture that were coming with us. The drive was uneventful – I had some landscape pictures, but they’re not very interesting. We arrived at Lake Shasta four hours later, using a single pitstop at a trucker gas station – which oddly enough, did not stock a single granola bar!
Here was my first look at the houseboats ready for the holiday crowd:
and our houseboat in particular:
The houseboat can best be described as a very large, floating, luxury trailer-home. There were plenty of amenities:
The room my friend and I shared:
One of the more cramped rooms near the top of the boat:
And the most unusual room of all; it looks like a regular cabinet, but open it and lo and behold:
Above deck, we had the other piloting station (there was indoors, too), a sink, small stereo (built into the island), and hot tub:
And out aft, we had the water slide:
We were the first group to arrive. The other half of the our crew were not due to arrive until late in the evening. Having the lion’s share of the food and baggage, we tucked it all into the houseboat. It was fascinating how many nooks, crannies, and fold-outs of various sorts there were!
A neighbouring boater had a pair of dogs, one of which was this adorable puppy:
With time to kill, we had a first round of poker with no money on the table, then watched March of the Penguins and Kingdom of Heaven, and then some napping. The others arrived later in the evening, having been delayed by one of them being in a car accident (thankfully no injuries). We had a round of intros, orientation, and they unpacked.
Finally, with all of us together, we started another round of poker before turning in – this time for money:
Incidentally, I did surprisingly well, being the biggest of the last three. We went very late, however, and tired players make for reckless playing. My larger pot couldn’t hold against a pair of players betting it all on cards unseen. At least I came in second. 
