A houseboat trip on Shasta Lake is an adventure you wonât soon forget. Whether youâre planning a week-long vacation with your family or weekend outing with a group of friends, there is lots of fun to be had. Plan for some fun activities you can do during those lazy summer nights and afternoons whenever youâre not skiing, swimming, or hiking.
Stargazing
Shasta Lake has incredible cloudless nights and almost zero light pollution, which provide you with the perfect opportunity to find constellations, planets, galaxies, and other astronomical wonders with a simple pair of binoculars. You might be able to see cloud patterns on Jupiter or topography on the moon. And if youâre lucky, you might even witness a shooting star or a meteor shower. Altogether, there are 88 constellations. Download a stargazing app on your phone (that you can use even if you have no phone service) or bring a library book on astronomy and see how many celestial formations you can find.
Games
No lake vacation is complete without a few old-fashioned table games. Ditch modern technology for an evening and settle down for some competitive rounds of Settlers of Catan, Clue, Scrabble, Monopoly, Apples to Apples, Pictionary, Scattergories, Rook, Chess, or whatever game suits your fancy. You could even do a few wild rounds of Spoons. Bring a collection of games for the gang to choose from.
Theme Nights
A houseboat trip is the perfect time to get dramatic. If you have kids on the boat, this will be loads of fun for them (but of course, adults will love this too). Plan a theme night featuring another cultureâs food, costumes, and music (such as Hawaiian, Mexican, Native American, etc.). Or enact a superhero-themed party where everyone becomes a hero and has to do at least one thing to rescue everyone else from certain destruction. Or plan a âMinute to Win Itâ style contest using common household items. Things will get hilarious so be sure to get some video clips.
Storytime
While houseboats come equipped with entertainment centers, a houseboat vacation is a perfect time to unplug from technology completely. Instead of watching movies, do storytelling. Ask each person to bring a family-friendly book for storytime, then take turns reading the books aloud to the group (or just appoint the most flamboyant storyteller in your group to do the reading). Childrenâs books or short-story collections are excellent for this sort of thing.
A houseboat rental on Shasta Lake affords the perfect opportunity for engaging in timeless activities such as stargazing, table games, dramatic enactments, and storytelling. These types of activities draw in the entire group and build stronger relationships. So, unplug for a while and enjoy some good clean fun with your houseboat crew.
