RAYSTOWN LAKE, Huntingdon County -- It was, to put it mildly, a heart-pounding moment of truth.

We were maybe 150 yards past the last row of boats docked outside Seven Points Marina, heading straight for the open expanses of this spectacularly huge (8,300 acres) and spectacularly deep (200 feet at its northernmost section) man-made body of water. While the kids argued over who'd be first in the deck-top hot tub and I cursed myself for having forgotten to pack blankets, my husband got his last bits of instruction from our friendly deckhand, Mike, on how to pilot the 58-foot houseboat we'd rented for the weekend.

So far, so good.

Then out of nowhere, a small runabout appeared alongside our craft. Before we knew it, Mike had hopped off the houseboat, wished us good luck with a cheery wave of a hand and sped away. And my better half was alone at the steering wheel.

No problem for an experienced boater. My husband, though, had never operated anything larger than a 19-foot SeaRay before that day -- and that was 25 years ago, when we were wild and crazy newlyweds living in Miami. Here he was, driving an entire house. I tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle a scream.

My husband, though, had paid strict to attention to the instructional video he'd had to watch (and then be tested on) at the marina to obtain his temporary Pennsylvania boating safety education certificate, required of all houseboat drivers. And Mike's tutorial had been extremely thorough, if a bit on the quick side. Taking a deep breath, my husband settled into the captain's chair, gazed out at the dark blue water and swore like a sailor.

Our weekend adventure had begun.

Our family over the years has spent countless vacation hours watering our aquatic souls: swimming in the ocean, kayaking and canoeing on local rivers, fishing anywhere it's possible to throw a line in. But we'd never seriously considered a getaway where we'd spend several days (and nights) on the open water.

Some of the hesitation was the cost. Even a landlubber knows it takes a lot of gas to power a houseboat's generator and engine. (And indeed, Mike informed us, running full power burns approximately 1 gallon per hour.) But we also didn't know it was possible to rent one of these oversized boats within easy driving distance of Pittsburgh. The most popular U.S. houseboating waters are Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border, with its 2,000 miles of shoreline, and Lake Cumberland in Kentucky. Hardly your typical weekend jaunt.

This spring, though, we learned you could rent houseboats just three hours away to the east at Raystown Lake, through Seven Points Marina, which has a fleet of 18. Suddenly, it didn't seem like such a crazy idea ... provided someone else (i.e., my husband) did all the skippering.

The fear of piloting is fairly common among first-time houseboaters, says Brady Kay, executive editor of Houseboat magazine, even though most people with good driving skills can handle one with proper instruction. In addition, many marinas (Seven Points included) will navigate the boat out of the harbor for you and pick you up when your trip is over, eliminating the hardest part of houseboating: getting away from the dock and getting back in.

And once you're free on the open water, with no fear of running into anything or anyone? It's pretty darn cool.

Designed to move slowly through the waters (the top speed is about 10 mph), houseboats are usually flat-bottomed, with boxy, RV-like living quarters on top. The smallest boat that Seven Points rents measures 40 feet bow to stern ($900 for four weeknights or a three-day weekend, plus gas), but if you can afford it, it also offers a 60-footer that sleeps 10 and boasts two full baths ($3,300). The price increases with amenities, which include everything from gas grills, fully equipped galleys and air conditioning to spacious top sun decks equipped with sliding boards and four-person hot tubs.

"A lot of people think you have to cram in a minivan and drive across the country to call it a family vacation," says Mr. Kay. "But a houseboat is unique. There's something for everybody."

Exploring Raystown Lake's 30 miles (as the crow flies) of clean, clear water is a big part of any houseboating vacation. And indeed, the first afternoon of our two-day trip, as my husband grew increasingly confident behind the wheel, we did little more than cruise along the shoreline, first north toward Raystown Dam and then south to the James Creek boat launch. Eventually, though, we started to worry about how much fuel our twin 100-gallon gas tanks were burning. (There's one for the engine and another for the generator.) So in preparation for our first night on the water, we tried our hand at parking the boat on shore.

Thankfully, it wasn't as hard as we thought. You simply approach a soft bank with your motors running at a low speed, put the boat into reverse just before you hit land and then jump out and tie the bow to a pair of trees. But it wasn't easy, either, thanks to a stiff breeze that kept threatening to turn the houseboat parallel to shore, putting the propeller into too-shallow water. It took a couple of harrowing tries before we got it right.

As a matter of fact, "harrowing" was the way my husband, who was responsible for all the piloting, described our mini-vacation. We'd picked a particularly windy weekend, and he spent the trip trying to correct and re-correct for wind drift. Someone watching from the shore might have assumed there was a drunk at the wheel. (He wasn't, I promise. But he said he needed a drink after each docking.) He likened the experience to driving a shopping cart with a wonky wheel at IKEA, only much, much bigger.

Knowing how to park a boat is important, though, because most houseboat renters alternate cruising with stationary activities such as swimming and fishing. If you bring along a bike or pair of hiking shoes, you can beach your boat for an afternoon and explore the newly opened Allegrippis Trails bordering the lake (there's a trailhead just past the Seven Points Entrance Station). Our houseboat was large enough that we had room on the top deck for my husband's kayak, which he slid into the water after we'd slipped into a secluded cove around dinner time and tied up for the night. Minutes later, he was gliding across the water, leaving a puff of cigar smoke in his wake.

Raystown Lake is one of the best spots in Pennsylvania to angle for bass, walleye and trout, so we also brought along several fishing rods and a few dozen night crawlers. Yet angling for crappies and blue gill would have to wait, as the kids were itching to try out the boat's sliding board and aforementioned hot tub despite a slight drizzle and lake temperatures in the 60s. Me? I shivered in a sweatshirt.

Later, after hamburgers cooked on the grill, the kids gathered on the top deck for another favorite activity, fishing. "Mom, I want to warn you, worms coming through!" my 15-year-old son shouted, as he trotted through the main cabin with a rod. Happily, the fish were biting, keeping them on deck until the sun went down.

Back inside, without a TV or computer to entertain us, we played Scrabble, noshed on popcorn and Oreos, and listened to oldies on the boat's AM/FM radio. It was after midnight when we retired, relaxed and happy, to our staterooms and cuddies (small cabins under the deck).

Our next full day on the boat offered more of the same. Wanting to surprise the kids, we'd pulled out of the cove fairly early in the morning, while they were still in bed. "We're moving?" one of the girls asked upon rolling out of her cuddy, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. We were. and apparently at a pretty good clip. As we heated our Pop-Tarts in the toaster, a T-shirt my son had left on a chair on deck got caught in the wind and flew into the water.

Mike had cautioned us against tying up to any of the smaller islands, especially those with rocky shores, concerned that if the boat drifted sideways in the wind we might get stuck in too-shallow water and have to buy a new propeller. (He was right. We did. It's now sitting on our back deck as a planter.)

How much gas you burn depends on the weather, the weight on board, how far you travel, and whether or not you keep the generator on when you're docked for the night. We did more sitting than driving during daylight hours and ended up using just under 50 gallons of fuel. Additional cost to the trip: about $124.

Like most weekends where you get to do something new and exciting, something you'd never think of doing on your own, this weekend was over all too soon. But it opened us up to an experience that made us look at water vacations in a new way. As we carried our supplies back to the car, my husband nodded slowly.

"That's it," he said. "We're buying a boat."