Whenever I recall my vacation up to my grandpa’s house boat, I remember all the happy childhood memories that we shared together. During the summer, after my last year of elementary school, my family and I decided to go on a vacation to visit my grandparents, who live on a houseboat in Stockton, CA. This was my first trip further than 100 miles from home. I was very excited and I was sure I was going to come home with new experiences and stories to share.
We woke up almost every morning before dawn to get our gear and tackle box ready to go for a long day of fishing. I remember my grandpa telling me that if you go out to the lake early the fish will bite because they haven’t had anything to fill their bellies with. We would head to the bait store, right down the street, and buy some fresh bait. We would get some earthworms and some pieces of cut up fish. I remember looking at the worms and seeing them wriggle around, felling bad that they were going to be hooked and eaten by a huge monster and they could do nothing about it, but that did not stop me from stabbing those suckers with the hook once the time came. The cut up fish that we purchased were mackerel, which was used for luring in the big fish.
As we would head out to the lake I remember always working the fish finder. I didn’t really know how to use it but the screen would have pictures of fish on it, and when it did it was supposed to mean that there were fish underneath the boat. I would always shout out loud and get excited when the fish appeared on the screen. There weren’t many other fishermen out in the lake besides my grandpa and me that early in the morning. The lake was very calm, and fog filled the air.
There were no sounds at all but the rocking of the boat back and forth. It was kind of an eerie feeling, like all eyes of the world were on us. Sometimes when the fish were not biting well, we would bait the hooks and then my grandpa would spray them with WD-40. He said that the smell of it attracted the fish to the bait, and he was sure right.
The fish loved the intense, sweet, intoxicating smell of the meat. After about thirty seconds that I dropped the bait in a fish would snag it. Lots of the times they would just rip the bait right off the hook. It was almost like they were addicted to the smell, and would do anything for it.
We would sometimes fish for most of they day and come back with nothing, but sometimes we would fish for only an hour and come back with dozens of fish. Catching the fish was exciting, but just going on the trips out to the lake thrilled me a lot. In the mornings when we ate breakfast on the dock, geese with their babies would always flock over and want food. It was the same geese every time.
They would come demand food, and would honk continuously until you put some food in their mouth to shut it up. This was a typical problem for my grandpa so he had a way to take care of it. He had stocks of old bread that you can buy at the market for very cheap. For a loaf of it, it is only about ten cents, so he would stock up on it and feed the geese about a loaf each day. It kept the geese quiet and it also gave us something fun to do while we ate.
The geese came back so often that we ended up naming them all, even the babies. They all had distinct colors so we could tell them apart pretty easily. Sometimes the big ones would even find a way up onto the dock. They would get very close sometimes and take the food right out of your hand. It reminded me of a petting zoo full of only geese and ducks. It seemed like they would be careful not to bite your hand, like a trained animal.
They probably knew that if they bit the hand that fed them they weren’t going to get any more food. Swimming in the lake was always a good way to cool off when it got hot. Some days would get so hot that it felt like the sun was toasting my skin. When the sun was out it would sometimes be so bright, that when I was in the water the sun’s reflection would blind me and eventually give me a nice red sunburn. Even when it wasn’t hot I would sometimes find myself swimming in the murky water. The water had lots of algae and other small plants so it had an olive green color to it.
Sometimes in the morning it would be really hard for me to get up, and before I would take a shower, I would just jump in the lake to wake me up. That worked as one really good wake up call. I would swim with my brother and we would race across the side of the wooden dock from end to end. We would also swim after the geese in the water that were trying to get some food from us, and scare them away. I remember feeling the slimy mud go between my toes when the water would get too shallow and my feet would touch. I didn’t like it at all when my feet touched because I was always frightened I would step on something lurking in the water and it would bite my toes, like maybe a turtle hiding under the mud.
Rafting off the back of my grandpa’s speedboat was the most exciting and memorable thing that we did at the lake. It was little blue boat with jagged red stripes going down the side. The bottom was stained with the olive green color and the paint was peeling from the water. It was about ten years old but it was a high quality boat when it was purchased.
We would go out to the middle of the lake and tie an inner tube raft to the back of the boat and get swung around, bouncing over the wakes in the water and catching air. Some of the water coming off the back of the boat would splash you in the face and feel like hail falling from the sky. I saw much of the lake on the back of the raft. The people, plants, and animals would pass by so fast you could barley make out any detail.
If you lost your grip of the handles and slid off, you skidded across the water for about thirty feet before you even got wet. Sometimes it would feel like I was getting punched in the stomach and it would knock the wind out of me. I could just remember hearing a big swoosh and getting a bunch a water up my nose. Sometimes my grandpa would even let me drive the boat when my brother was on the back, and of course I wanted to make it more challenging for him.
I would push the boat to the max, spinning and swerving everywhere. One time I got a little to close to the reeds and my brother went flying in there on the raft, he didn’t fall off but he sure got whipped and scratched up though. His entire upper body looked like he got slapped by a belt with nails on it about 20 times. Wildlife and small animals could be found everywhere.
I remember throwing rocks into the reeds and seeing dozens of fat frogs hop out. Those frogs must have had a large variety of food because they were huge. They had long, thick back legs that would let them leap over great distances. They would hop out of the reeds for just a second and then hop right back in. I would always try and catch them as they hopped out. I would rarely succeed though, because they were coated with the green slime from the water.
One day when I went to go catch frogs with my brother, we came upon a nest of geese eggs. There was no mother around so I went in for a closer look. The nest was full of feathers, sticks, leaves, and bugs. There were a lot of eggs and I was curious to whom they belonged to. I remember picking up one of the eggs to examine it closer, I then heard a loud ruffle and saw the mother goose spring towards me. Dropping the egg, I ran off and watched as the goose went back to her nest to check what had happened.
It was shuffling through the eggs and checking to see if they were alright. I watched it as it slowly used its beak and nudged the egg that I had dropped back with the others. I was glad that the egg was ok but also mad that the goose tried to attack me. Having a mother of my own though, I can relate to how a mother feels when her children are in danger. That was the scariest moment of my trip. I don’t know how the goose missed me but I am glad it did.
I loved to watch the sunset. Watching the birds hover inches above the water as they flew towards the sun; seeing beavers swim through the water, diving in and coming up with fish in their mouths. I remember lounging in a pool chair and throwing bread crumbs into the calm water to see the fish come up to get a snack. The red sun would glimmer on the water and look like a light show. I saw some of the most beautiful sunsets I can remember with my grandpa.
I remember watching my grandpa skin our catch from earlier that day, and throwing the leftovers in the water, and seeing all the fish, small and big, come pick at the bobbing carcass. My grandpa would throw the fish on the barbeque and grill it up right there. I remember how I used to love the smell of the smoke from the fish. My grandma made a great tartar sauce that went perfectly with the taste of the fish. It was so tender it basically fell apart in your mouth. It was the best tasting fish I have ever had.
As I look back on my first trip to my grandparent’s house boat, I can remember all of the fun things that my family and I did together. I realize that this was more than just a vacation, it was a chapter in my life, that gave me new experiences and made me see things in a new way. I now have many happy childhood memories that I shared with my grandpa that will stay with me for the rest of my life. My grandpa, that is now passed away, was my favorite relative because he was a very good person with good morals. I loved being with him, and looked up to him. I shared one of the happiest times of my childhood with him, and now that I look back and reflect on the things that we did, I see that that one vacation was also one of the greatest influences on my life..