Boats...boats...boats

Yesterday Bill and I got to spend the day together.  He took the day off so that we could go to the boat show together.  We'd gone to Bert's to look at boats the weekend before.  We looked at Yamaha jet boats and figured we'd probably go that route.  They said most of their boats were out at the boat show.  Then a few people told Bill that you can get some good deals at the boat show so we decided to go check it out.

We had lunch together before heading in.  We ended up being there for nearly 7 hours!  Much longer than we'd expected.  We looked at the EbbTide deck boats first and found one we really liked.  We were pretty sold on it and figured that'd be what we got.  We went to sit down and talk it over for awhile and decided to go back and make it a done deal.  Along the way back over there, we stopped to look at some of the expensive branded boats.  We were surprised at the cost, in that it was lower than we'd thought.   Talking to the salespeople was good too as we were able to gather more information.  It was also good to really compare the boats.  Of course there were some things we liked better on one boat and other things we liked better on another.  We ended up looking at ShockWave, Essex and Chapparal.  Chapparal was out because they were located in Ventura and knew that'd be too much trouble for service.  ShockWave was in Ontario and was okay, but a smaller company.  We spoke with the owner there.  So it really came down to Essex or EbbTide.  After going between the two, we decided there were several reasons why the EbbTide was better for our family.  The bimini top was nicer and worked much better with the wakeboard tower.  The finishing touches just seemed better on the EbbTide as well.  And then there's the price tag, it was a good $25k less than the Essex.  So while Bill said it was like comparing the Ferrari to the Accord, we decided our first venture into boating should be with an Accord.

He is going to call today to put down a payment and we should be able to take delivery soon.  I think this will be a fun and exciting new way for our family to have some fun together.  Now to start researching what lakes to go to and where to stay!  I'll keep you posted.