Raystown Lake is a reservoir in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. It is the largest lake that is entirely within the State of Pennsylvania. The original lake was built in 1905 by the Simpson family of Huntingdon as a hydroelectric project on the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River. The current 8,300-acre Raystown Lake was completed in 1973 by the Army Corps of Engineers. The lake was created primarily to control floods, provide electricity, and support recreational activities. Raystown Lake offers two privately managed, full-service marinas which service all Raystown boaters. These are Lake Raystown Resort and Seven Points Marina. From gas to food and everything in between these Marinas can meet almost any need a boater might have while out enjoying the lake.

We rented houseboat Driftwood at Seven Points Marina beforehand, and it took about 5 hours for us to reach Marina from Marlboro, NJ. We met the Karasiks there who rented similar Sea Gull. After short instructions we started to load the houseboat. It was much newer and better equipped than our previous ones in Canada. Old Sea Wolves accepted it without emotions, but Vladimir was very impressed. Soon Olga found the lack of saucepans and especially no teapot and became upset. Finally Natasha wangled full set of kitchenware from the local housekeeper and we got under way very satisfied. Astonished housekeeper waved us from the shore, she could not imagine that 7 people need so many pans and teapot.

The Driftwood departed from the marina and was on its way to explore Raystown Lake. It was the afternoon when we departed so we didn’t have much time to scale the great lake thus, docking at a nearby island. There were no docks as there were in Canada; we would have to find trees to tie to so we could stay there for the night. As we eagerly parked out boat the whole crew could not wait for food, as they had not eaten since the morning. After filling their stomachs to the brim, the crew decided to go for a nice swim before nighttime came upon them. Fortunately, we had a water slide in the back of our boat that we used throughout the whole trip and we enjoyed it greatly. The sun had set and the moon came out as we shouted goodnight across the boat. Eager to explore the immense lake, the crew quickly went to sleep and waited for tomorrow to come.

The sun woke the crew up, peeking through the windows and shining on our faces. The fishermen, Vladimir and Anton were already awake with two fish in their bucket, both caught by Vladimir. Unfortunately, those were the only two fish that they managed to catch through the course of the trip. Olga and Natalya were already making breakfast for us with their excessive amount of pans and teapots. We started to map out Raystown Lake as we decided to go south first, away from the dam. As we made our way to our next landing point, we saw many majestic views of mountains along the horizon and many other extraordinary things. We arrived at our next destination and decided to take a quick swim. It wasn’t until someone pointed out a snake in the water that we all decided to not swim with the snake. George as always brought his hunting rifle and we had fun with that, shooting the snake and at different targets. When we finished with that, it was already nighttime and time to rest for the night. Knowing that they would head back down North to visit the dam tomorrow, everyone went to sleep with great excitement.

The crew arose and before going north to the dam, we decided to stay where we were for half he day. We explored the island and discovered a cliff diving spot where there were deep waters and rocks that we could jump off of. The youngest people went to jump which was Anton, Eugene, and Vladimir also tried one time. After we jumped off of rocks and swam on rubber boats we set off to the dam of Raystown Lake. With half of our day already taken away by the long ride back, we decided to find a good place, eat lunch, and wait there for the night. George took out his rifle and so did the Karasiks and we had shooting practice on a target. We had some fun on the slide again and sailed off in our rubber boats, it was getting dark so we decided to eat dinner and put our tired little brains to sleep and that is exactly what we did.

Morning has occurred and with today being the second to last day, we slowly started making our plans for today. When we planned our houseboat adventure, we knew that there will be firework on June 30th not far from the Lake Raystown Resort and Rt. 994. This place is out of the range where we could get help from our home port, but we desided to risk and spend night there. We had a long journey from the marina so everyone had a chance to drive; even 5-year-old Julia had a chance. With the Karasikis leading or trailing behind, we made our way to the Lake Raystown Resort and set up a place to stay for the night. As we waited for the fireworks to shine we swam and ate dinner with the Karasiks. The first one to hear the noise of the fireworks was the youngest of our crew, Julia. She yelled across the boat that the fireworks have started and we all watched the different shapes and colors in the night sky. With the fireworks still in our head we all went to sleep.

We woke up the next day with a frown on our faces, as this was our last day. The crew slowly and despairingly packed their bags and were ready to give back Driftwood. As we headed to the marina, Vladimir radioed in that we were ready to arrive so a boat swam out and a man hopped in. He safely parked us in the marina. We packed everything in the car and started to say one last goodbye to Raystown Lake. Julia said bye to the absurd amount of fish just off the shore. Vladimir said goodbye to a very big and beautiful boat called 'Unforgettable', and the rest of the crew said farewell to Driftwood. Driving back home with smiles on all of our faces, we dreamed about the next houseboat trip.

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