Westworld Alberta

I t's 6 a.m. and our family is stranded, castaways on a remote and rocky shore of Mara Lake, in B.C.'s Shuswap region. Our houseboat has no power. Neither the engine nor the generator will turn over. The radio is dead. There's really only one thing to do: go golfing. Rewind three days and we're back in Calgary, getting ready for our June houseboating trip. Interior B.C.'s sun-baked Shuswap – home to a joint lake system consisting of Shuswap Lake, Seymour Arm, Anstey Arm, Salmon Arm and Mara Lake – has long been known as Canada's houseboating capital. Every summer thousands of lake-deprived Albertans rally the troops and load up rented houseboats in what has to be one of the most relaxing recreational endeavours on water. My wife, Dawn, and I have always wanted to take our s o n s – twins Nelson and Aemon, 8, and Nicky, 5 – on a trip like this. We plan to indulge in all the staple activities of a 36 W e s t w o r l d p34-41_Shuswap.indd 36 >> MAY 2013 family houseboating vacation – beachside barbecuing, sunset swimming, on-deck hot tubbing – and add a little something different to the standard itinerary: golf. Thanks to a couple of lakeside courses, it can easily be done. After packing our car with three days' worth of food, clothes, pop, sunscreen, beer and water toys, we hit the road. The drive takes just over five hours on the Trans-Canada and passes through Banff, Yoho and Mount Revelstoke national parks. Banff's Castle Mountain, its chiselled ramparts streaked with snow, is a highlight. Our three little landlubbers fill almost an entire memory card snapping photos with the family point-and-shoot before we get there. "There" is Sicamous, an hour west of Revelstoke – the epicentre of the houseboating industry, where Twin Anchors Houseboats runs a tight ship. Or, to be more accurate, 80 of them. We pull up at the docks mid-day and are greeted by the super-friendly Ashley, who directs traffic and provides the necessary instructions for arriving guests. "After you park, we'll come with our ATV and load up all your gear – you don't have to worry about a thing," she tells us with an earto-ear smile. "Sweet!" says Nelson. "I don't even have to carry my suitcase." Our vessel for the next three days will be an 18-metre-long, 1,900-square-foot, CruiseCraft IV (top) Houseboaters lounge around a shoreside campfire at dusk; (left) the Penner boys soak in the deck-top hot tub; (opposite right) writer and cap'n Andrew Penner takes the helm of the CruiseCraft IV. (top) Don Weixl, Andrew Penner 13-04-12 1:28 PM

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