Falling into the spirit of the season!

Fall and winter are awesome times to houseboat and this holiday season may be the perfect time to bring your crew together and get away from it all. Holiday season already? Can you feel it coming? It seems like the summer season just began yesterday. Where did the year go?

Discover how the lower sun angle during the day seems to bring the colors alive. See how the stars are coming out at night now like no other time of year. Find the lakes less crowded (less competition for your favorite spot too) and best of all, the water is still warm enough for all of your favorite water sports.

Join us this month as we take a cooler look at "the desert lakes" - Lake Mead, Lake Powell, Lake Mohave and Lake Amistad, and explore the possibilities of fall and winter on the water.

Re-live the story of the lost ring and discover the long quest and romantic victory of one couple's ordeal on the water. (see the video) Break out your cameras, upload those photos, send us your stories and share some of your "ultimate insiders' houseboating tips."

Read our Top-5 list at your own risk (you may get hungry) and warm up to the flavors of the season. There are also some great specials and promotions available. Welcome back to Waterways!

Happy Houseboating!

Special Offers and Fall Houseboat Get-Away Packages

Get on the phone and tell the whole family that the turkey is on the water this year!

It's still not too late to round up your family & friends and take advantage of the
Thanksgiving Special which features
five days for the price of three!

This delicious package even includes a turkey!

(Fair warning, we provide the fully equipped kitchen and the turkey,
you provide the family and the cook.)

Click on in and take a look at all of the tempting special offers and houseboat vacation packages available just in time for Fall and the holidays.

You'll find savings on a wide range of dates, houseboat types and marina locations.

Click here for
Special Offers and Houseboat Vacation Packages

Send in YOUR top photos!

Whether your camera is big or small, simple or complex, why not join in the fun and upload and share some of your favorite vacation memories.

Pick out your favorite houseboating memory.
Action, adventure, people with scenery, houseboating activities, true challenges, friends and family, and just plain old great times are what we are looking for!
(and don't forget the scenic ones too.)

So look through your photos and share your favorites. Go ahead, write your own captions and upload away!

The best shots and captions will be featured on foreverhouseboats.com and who knows, you may even win a Free Early Board prize for your next houseboat rental.

Click here to upload your best photo

Lakes in the desert promise year 'round houseboating fun

Warm up to fall and winter on the scenic desert lakes of Arizona, Nevada and Texas. Discover why long time houseboaters ply these waters year round and why some will tell you that the cold months are the "real gem time to go!" The water is still warm enough to play in during the day with all your favorite watersports and the evening air temps make jumping into the hot tub on the top deck at night extra enticing. (see air/water temp chart below)

Enjoy the intense colors of these desert lakes as they come alive during the fall and winter months. The sun's angle and lower intensity seems to make the colors more vibrant and shadows longer. Watch some spectacular evening sunsets that fade from hues of pink and then gold. Then watch as they take on deep hues of peacock blue before introducing night time skies that seem to light up with stars, planets and meteors.

Spread out and take in all of the open space for you and your crew to enjoy with fewer people sharing these sparkling clear waters. You may even feel like you have your own private lake to enjoy at times. Your biggest problem may be deciding which deserted cove to beach your boat in at night.

Learn more about these desert lakes and the full service marinas that await you by clicking the links below:

The Lost Ring

The story began nine years ago when a close group of friends went on their annual houseboating trip to Lake Oroville in California. They had brought along their newly engaged friends, Joelle and Todd.

Everyone was having a great trip as usual until... One warm day in the sun, the group was playing "keep away." Joelle, the bride to be, threw the ball with such energy that the ring on her finger went with the ball, flew through the air, hit the water, and slowly disappeared into the lake.

Joelle was so dumbstruck with what had just occurred that she couldn't speak! Her fiancée, Todd, thought something had happened to her and kept asking if she was OK. She couldn't get the words to come out of her mouth to tell Todd that she had just literally flung her engagement ring off her finger... into the lake!

The group rented dive equipment and dove for several days in a vain effort to find that special ring. The attempts were futile. Over the subsequent nine years on the annual houseboat trips, the couples' friend, Rick, rented diving equipment, as they had the first year, and looked for the ill fated ring, "more for fun than expecting to actually find it."

However, prior to this year's trip and after reviewing old photos and descriptions of the event, Rick and his friends were determined to seek it out... to find the ring once again. "Just for fun."

The water levels were way down from where they were nine years ago so this time Rick decided to explore the shoreline which was now exposed underneath where they had once floated. He went to the area where he thought they had been, climbed a sheer cliff wall and walked out on the bank with another cliff directly above him. He had a decision to go right or left, he went right and looked down. And there it was, sitting right there on a rock... right in front of him!

Rick was beaming as he held up the newly found diamond engagement ring. The first thing he did was attach it to a key float. He decided that since he would be seeing his friends Joelle and Todd in a couple of weeks in San Francisco for Todd's 40th surprise birthday party, he would present it to the lucky couple at that time.

The return of that special ring, the ring that Todd had proposed to Joelle with, was a tear jerker for everyone at the party. (You can watch the video of the reunion at the YouTube link below.) The happy couple was amazed and thrilled to have a such a wonderful surprise from their dear friend, Rick. It just goes to show that low lake levels, combined with undying friendship, can bring new and interesting discoveries, and much happiness too!

Congrats once again to Todd and Joelle and "good on ya" Rick!

Click here to view the video

Keeping Your Waterways Clean

You will find them out there every fall at Nevada's Callville Bay, Cottonwood Cove, Arizona's Temple Bar and Willow Beach Marinas. Certified divers put on air tanks in an underwater search for flotsam and jetsam (stuff) while their "landlubber" counterparts scour beaches, coves, and shorelines for debris and detritus, anything that should not be there.

And, boy, do they find interesting stuff! "What about a set of dentures or a very old fuel sign from days gone by that offered gasoline for $1.06 a gallon," said Kim Roundtree, Willow Beach General Manager, where they've done the dive cleanups for 6 years. "One year we had a flash flood that washed a whole 6-yard dumpster into the water --- we had to inflate pontoons under it to bring it to the surface, but we got it out."

At Callville Bay Marina, they do their underwater ecology dive in the fall in addition to the Earth Day beach cleanup they do in the spring. "We've done it for 9 years now," said Safety Manager Kimberly Wilson. "Our average removal totals about 7,500 pounds and ranges from the usual beverage cans and soda bottles to things like marine batteries, lost boat parts, and old metal work from who knows what. Our volunteers have also located and retrieved what was left of a burned out boat hull."

At Lake Mohave's Cottonwood Cove Marina, staff and volunteers have worked together to keep waters there clean for twelve years. "It's something we look forward to each fall," said Barbara Hunsaker, who participates in every cleanup... from dry land. "I don't swim, but I pick up a lot of trash along the shore." The Cottonwood effort yields in excess of a ton of trash every year, from watches and wallets to fish poles, landing nets, and boat motors that all went overboard and sunk out of sight.

"Certified divers from local dive shops, clubs, and organizations welcome the opportunity to log more hours in the water," said Darla Cook, Vice President of Public Relations & Special Events. "Divers head underwater throughout the slips where customer boats are moored, bringing trash to the surface where boat volunteers retrieve it, and others clean up beaches and scour coves."

Here are some of the results for the first 10 years of the effort:

And... to top it all off, everyone who helped out got fed too!

We can't thank these tireless volunteers enough. They do a great service for our lakes and help us all keep America's favorite Waterways pristine for all of our vacation getaways. Thanks!