Lake Powell, Arizona

We departed for Lake Powell at 9am on Thursday morning. It was all sunshine, tunes on the iPod and mimosas all around...until we discovered the bus driver was taking the LONG way to Lake Powell. Our supposed four hour jaunt ended up taking EIGHT hours! Ack! The good news was that we got to drive through Zion National Park, which was beautiful, but let's just say that I had to go to my happy place more than once toward the seventh and eighth hour of the journey.

When we arrived at Lake Powell, we were all overjoyed to be able to get off the bus and check into our rooms. Dinner was scheduled shortly after our arrival. We had a choice of a seafood boil or a vegetarian pasta dish. I ended up sampling both, and the pasta was quite tasty. (If you've never had a seafood boil, it's basically seafood, like crab legs and scallops, corn on the cob and potatoes all boiled together and then they dump it out on your table and you eat it with your hands.) I'm not too into seafood, so I was glad for the pasta.

As we were dining and drinking complimentary cocktails, we were serenaded by none other than a Michael McDonald CD. Yes, the WHOLE CD. Our friend Beau was joking that it was Yacht Rock, which I thought he made up, but which turns out to be a real term, as I was later informed. Nonetheless, it was grating, so Beau saved us by retrieving his iPod and playing some non-yacht rock.

After a peaceful slumber, I awoke at 7am (don't ask me why, I'm not usually a morning person) ready to go. So, Aaron and I were at the beach by 8:30am to get the tutorial on the rented jet skis and ski boats. We spent the whole day jet skiing, riding on the houseboat, zooming around on the ski boat and kayaking. But it's all fun and games until someone gets smacked in the face with an innertube while getting pulled behind the ski boat after her new husband hits a big wake! Yes, that someone was me. Thank God for concealer. My eye is still a little bruised.

Saturday was our last full day, so we went out on the houseboat again and also on the ski boat a little bit. The water was much choppier, though, so it wasn't a smooth ride in the ski boat. The houseboat ride was by far superior. We spent the afternoon drinking Miller Lite on the upper deck of the boat and jumping in and out of the hot tub. (Yes, the houseboat had a hot tub. Awwwwww, yeah.) We pulled back into the dock at 6pm for our dinner delivery.

Sunday, we had to leave at 8am (ouch!!) and get back on the bus to drive to the airport in Vegas. This time the drive really was four hours. Then we flew back to beautiful Seattle and drove home from SeaTac, collapsed into bed, exhausted, but happy to be home.