AHOY there fellow Crew Members! Well, once again we managed to finagle a pretty decent houseboat trip despite a few little weather concerns early on. All totaled, we had 24 people on two houseboats ... a full crew for a change!
This year was similar to last year in that we had several NEW members join us. It was a pleausre to have JennB, SteveH, GaryW, CarlaS, MarkY, BeckyT, KateB, LauraP, RichS and KarenS come aboard for the first time! RichS and KarenS get the kudos for farthest traveled (Atlanta) and LauraP gets this year's HB Trooper Award for sleeping in her car Friday night!! It was equally nice to have some of our regulars return after a short hiatus: BobW, ClydeS, DaveS, VernH and TamB
This year's high points, other than just an overall spectacular time, were GaryW's awesome fireworks display (and MarkY helped too) as well as the little birthday celebration we had for DaveS! Thanks to GlenK and TinaM for supplying all the birthday goodies and party favors. Good news TinaM ... I put in a request at the marina to fix "whatever" caused you to lose your balance when carrying the cake. Tim, at the marina, guaranteed me that "whatever" would be fixed for next year!!!! This was also the first year for event T-Shirts. I have always wanted to do them and somehow it being the year 2000 seemed like a good time for it. If there are no major hang-ups with them ... I will budget them in next year as well ... but we will have a design contest with some sort of prize!
As mentioned in the last HB message we did come up just a tad short on the finances but nothing earth shattering. After all the receipts were tallied, there was a deficit of $101.69 which needs to be resolved (at $4 per person). Also, there were a whopping 19 folks who joined in the Friday night meal at a cost of $3.95 per person. We may just have to start counting that meal as a HB meal since so many people are joining in ... but where else can you get a Salmon steaks(?) with baked potatoe, salad and garlic bread for less than $4!!! As I provide each year for the folks who wish to see how their money was spent ... you can view a Financial Summary by clicking on the highlighted phrase.
On the subject of LOST and FOUND ... the unclaimed items I brought home can be viewed by clicking on the highlighted phrase. If the item(s) belong to you, you may pick them up at the Post-HB Happy Hour. If you will not be attending the HH then let me know what item(s) are yours and we can make other arrangements. Also, if you are missing something that is not shown please inform and I will post it. I believe GlenK & TinaM are missing their HB T-Shirts.
Please ... DO NOT FORGET to THANK those individuals who brought their water toys for ALL to enjoy! That would be MarkS with his Ski Nautique, slalom course and ski equipment as well as TomB with his ski equipment ... and, of course, yours truly for the MasterCraft and ski equipment. Also ... a big thank you to JeffK for that stupendous PVC ladder he built which helped us all strain a little less at getting out of the water. Though we did not have anyone on board with a waterbike ... the rental worked out OK as well as the pontoon!
Again, I thank you all for making it a fun and safe trip. I look forward to the Post-HB HH this Friday (11 August) at Forest Park Boat House (do not ask directions for the Forest Park House Boat) to look through all the pictures that were taken. I will begin making the HB2000 On-Line Photo Album so please make two sets of prints or allow me to borrow them for scanning.
