Sunset Over Ouachita

This weekend we made an impromptu visit to Lake Ouachita. Pronounced "Wash i taw", it is Arkansas largest lake spanning more than 40,000 acres of water. It is known for its scenic beauty, clear waters, and many little islands.

Our friend Russ, let us borrow one of his boats that no one was going to be using for the weekend. We got the boat Friday at lunch, and loaded up the camping stuff Friday evening. Saturday morning we headed to the lake. I picked a campsite, Brady Mountain on the internet, it was only 1 hour 15 minutes away, and we hoped they would have an electric spot available.

Getting ice and gas proved to be a somewhat difficult task, since we are not used to towing a really long boat. We also put a wrong address (thanks to the internet) into the GPS so we ended up in a different part of the lake. Finally we arrived at the campground. They did have a campsite available, YEAH! It was perfect too, we could park the boat right by the campsite. We set up a tent to stake our claim, put the things we would need for the day on the boat, and headed to the boat ramp to launch. We got onto the water before lunchtime. We just hit a few snags along the way. Choices: Did I want to drive the boat, or go park the truck/trailer? Think I'll take my chances with the trailer. (I only ran over a pylon and a curb, pretty good, don't ya think?)

We had an awesome day. The kids warmed up to the boat, we swam in the water, had lunch, and explored the lake. We came back to the campsite and ate hot dogs and smores, and then hit the water for a evening stroll. It was so nice, the sun was not so hot, we had a cool breeze on the boat, and the water was perfect.

Swimming in the lake


Captain Brian

Captain Emily

Sleeping Danielle

Skipping rocks

Sticking your toes in the water

Pull it in just a little farther dad

Emily was the first brave one to sit in the front of the boat

The next morning we made breakfast, I forgot butter, so I made Eddie go over to the neighbors to borrow some. Then we wanted to get out on the lake before it got too hot. We spent the morning on the boat swimming and exploring. We went back to camp for lunch, broke camp, and then headed out for one more spin since we had to take full advantage of all possible boating time.

The geese were checking out the boat

About 4:00pm it was time to go before our boat turned back into a pumpkin, or our kids turned into monsters. The biggest glitch of the weekend came as Eddie tried to load the boat back onto the trailer, by himself as I was dealing with kids, the boat missed the guides and hit the truck. It now has a boo boo on the tailgate.

Despite the mishap, we had a great time. It was an awesome weekend spending time with the kids, it was so peaceful out on the lake away from everything. We were tired and sore when we finally arrived home, and returned the boat, but it was definitely worth it.