If you ever get the chance to cruise in a Chris Craft, don’t think, just do it.   These boats are more like floating works of art than lake transportation.  Lake Tahoe’s love affair with wooden boats or “Woodies” dates back to the early 1900’s when the Tahoe region turned from Timber to Tourism.  The wooden speed boat was the ultimate toy for the wealthy elite that frequented Lake Tahoe’s shores in the early 1900’s.  Today, they are classics (and still for the wealthy elite, a fully restored Chris Craft can go for 100’s of thousands) and every year Lake Tahoe hosts the Concours d’Elegance wooden boat show.   Buy a ticket and see if you can convince an owner to take you on a joy ride…I did and got my 4th of July pic you see here.  At worst you will get up close and personal with some of the prettiest boats on the planet.   A photographers dream for abstract modernism.