Friday, July 8, 2016

Lake Cumberland {76 Falls} Houseboat Trip: Part 3

The past few days I've been sharing about our houseboat trip to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky. It was an amazing experience and we had so much fun.  If you missed click below for the other posts. 

Mid week we decided to head down to the famous 76 falls.  This is a popular destination on Lake Cumberland and one we knew we wanted to see.  It was about a 2 hour drive in our houseboat to get there, but we took our time, enjoyed the view and slowly found our way to the south end of the lake.  

The drive was totally worth it when this was our view!  


It was really gorgeous and the falls look pretty small in these pics, but when you swim up to them it is really amazing how big they are.  


We all took turns swimming under the falls and I just kept thinking what an amazing experience that was for the kids. Heck, it was an amazing experience for me!  It was a first for me and I'm sure the kids will be one of the few who can say they swam under a waterfall over summer break.  


It doesn't look like there is a lot of space between the waterfall and the rock wall behind it, but after swimming through we discovered that it was actually about 15 feet from the waterfall to the back wall so that gave us the grand idea to drive our boat behind the falls, but not before telling the kids they were about to get wet!  It was a crazy fun experience and something we will all remember forever! 


For several days we had this cove completely to ourselves.  It was so peaceful, the stars were gorgeous at night and the sound of the waterfall was amazing.  We also got to see our own private fireworks show over the lake!  It was the perfect way to end the evening. 


We enjoyed this special spot for a few days and then as the weekend approached it turned into quite a party spot.  It was great people watching and just as the party was getting going it was time for our party to roll out and head home.  It was certainly a memorable vacation and one that we will be talking about for years to come.  



As promised, I wanted to share some random tips, tricks or advice that we learned along the way in case anyone else is interested in doing this type of vacation.  

*We bought food when we arrived in KY, but in the future I think I would go to Costco and get a lot of things before hand. 
*We bought what we though would be enough food for the week, but ended up needing to restock mid-week.  This actually worked out great because we wouldn't have had much more fridge/freezer space. The marinas had some things, but we had friends coming mid-week, so we sent our list to them and they picked what we needed. 
*If we did this trip again I would pack much lighter.  I brought way too many regular clothes.  We could have gotten by with swimsuits and coverups for the entire week with maybe 1 or two regular outfits.  We lived in our swimsuits from sun up to sun down. 
*There was a TV with DVD player so we brought a lot of DVD's to entertain the kids early in the morning or on a rainy afternoon.  
*Bring lots of bugspray or a bug replant like Thermacell.  The bugs were bad. 
*There were very limited kitchen supplies on the boat.  There were a few pots and pans, but no cookie sheet, no hot pads, and no kitchen towels.  There were plenty of dishes and silverware.  In the future I know to bring things like that. 
*The pillows provided were very thin, so I'm glad we brought ours from home. 
*There is no dishwasher so we used paper plates a lot to cut down on using up our water supply.  
*There is a dryer, but no washing machine.  We used dryer sheets to freshen towels as we dried them.  
*You must bring everything.  Toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, dish soap/sponge, trash bags, etc.  Only the bare minimum is there. 
*We had our kids wear life jackets at all times if the houseboat was moving and they were outside.  If we were parked and they were up top we let them go without if they were just sitting in the hot tub or eating lunch/dinner at the outdoor table.  If they were jumping, sliding, swimming, etc. they had to have their life jackets on.  
*Bring lots of extra stuff to entertain the kids.  Games, puzzles, coloring, etc. 
*Bring outdoor stuff for the kids.  Fishing poles, floats, noodles, water games/toys, etc. 
*Bring stuff to entertain adults at night like games, cards, etc. 
*There were two large coolers on the houseboat already that we used for drinks and ice, but we also brought two large Yeti Coolers that helped to store extra ice.  No ice maker in the freezer. 
*There are no lights on the top deck so after dark it was really dark.  Thankfully, our friend thought to bring Christmas lights and an extension cord, which was the perfect lighting for nighttime.  
*We also brought a few hammocks to hang on the top deck which were used a lot.  
*Extra folding camping/tailgate chairs were nice to have for extra seating. 
*We spent a lot more time hanging out at the houseboat than we though we would.  Originally we had planned to spend all day on the ski boat, but we just did shorter excursions.

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