OK, not the Suwanee but a really great spring fed river! Yesterday, we went canoeing and had a blast! All of us! (Except EG, who stayed home with a babysitter.) A friend of ours was going canoeing yesterday and graciously invited us along. And I am so glad we accepted the invitation. We had big fun! And, thanks to my friend because she took pictures.
So, I am going to do my best to do a run down of the highlights. If I didn't just hit the highlights, I would probably write a novel. So, here we go:
The river was spring fed which means three things. First, the water is clear as a window. You can see to the bottom. Second, the water is freezing. Well, 70 degrees which is cold, cold, cold. Third, where the springs feed the river it is this amazing bluish, whitish color.
There was tons of wild life such as great blue herons, turtles of all types, tons of fish, ducks, insects AND we saw at least a half dozen alligators ranging from babies to mamas.
We ate lunch at Big Blue. There was a rope swing, that was a little sketch. My friend's husband actually jumped off of it. I said adventuresome, didn't I?
There was a floating dock, which we were going to eat lunch on. My friend and I, who were going to stay dry (I didn't even have a suit on) were conveniently perched on it just watching the kids play and snorkel in the spring. The kids came up on the dock to take a rest. My friend's husband was paddling around and decided to get on to the dock as well. For some reason, the dock started to sink in one spot. One end was going down into the water and the other end was going straight up in the air. All of us (except hubby) started heading for the water. As I was slipping off the dock, I fought hard to stay on. At some point, as I had the Titanic flitting through my brain, I just decided there was no way I was going to stay on the dock. All of us, except hubby (who jumped into a canoe) went into the very, very cold water! My friend managed to save the camera she had in her hand!! The whole scenario was really pretty funny!
Once we all kind of settled down, we had lunch on the floating dock which we managed to learn to keep upright. As we ate, the kids would jump in and paddle around. Get out of the water and eat and warm up. Then jump in and paddle around some more. It was hard to stay in for any length of time. Some of the kids, when they came out, couldn't stop shivering because they were so cold. But the sun didn't take long to warm them up.
The scenery was incredible. The weather was warm but doable. For me, the biting insects weren't too bad. Can't say the same for hubby. Once again, his ankles were eaten alive.
On the way back, paddling upstream, we took a little side trip to a park that was on the river. It had a little more stable rope swing that the kids begged to go on. We thought what the heck. All of the kids took turns and had a blast. The dads would yell "jump" so no one would come back and smack into the concrete landing.
I was already wet so I thought what the heck. I took a turn on the rope swing. Not once but twice. Very out of character for me. But, they looked like they were having so much fun. And I figured, what was the worse thing that could happen. It really was great fun! Glad I took a chance for once! (Hubby even said he was impressed with me!)
On the half hour trip home, hubby and I talked about the fact that we need to do things like that more often. It was close to home, relatively inexpensive and TONS of fun.
Our friends are adventuresome. And do all kinds of really great stuff. They have a great attitude about doing things they have never done. Making sure their kids have great memories from childhood. So, maybe we will try that attitude out for ourselves. A little at a time . . .
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