Waking up early. Check. Getting up early. FAIL. The Boys needed to go out at 6 this morning. Man, it’s chilly at 6 am. Bill took them out – it takes me a lot longer to find my glasses and put on some clothes – and Merlin was in a rush. He came back in and I asked if he wanted to get up or come back to bed. He opted to come back to bed – eh, getting up early is relative – and we went back to sleep till about 9. We took the boys out for a bit and then came back to get changed and to pack lunch for the day.
We went to the visitor center and rented a tandem kayak for half a day and after the required cheesy video and instruction, we were off on the Snake River around 11:20.
(Note, I'm still smiling - it was early).
We’ve done some canoeing but never kayaking, and after a dozen or so practice maneuvers, we were slicing along through the water at a pretty good clip. Then, we got tired. At that moment, all I could think was “Holy cow, this is going to kill my arms tomorrow”.
I’m sure I wasn’t using the appropriate technique – I instinctively pull with my control hand instead of punching with my guide hand – but even still, this is not something you just go out and do for four hours when you’re not used to it. I have no idea how far we went, but we were fighting the wind and the current a fair amount of time. This apparently, is when all the fun is had, and when all the tiring takes place.
Bill and I have come to the conclusion that we are easily bored and if we’re not going fast, we’re not entertained. This goes back to that “relaxing” thing from earlier posts. Still haven’t gotten very good at that. Anyway, chopping through the whitecaps on the water = fun; sitting on calm water = boring.
While we are always open to trying new things, we apparently like it when the new things have motors and go really fast. Thus our giggly enjoyment of riding jet skis with a full open throttle verses the excruciating boredom of calmly kayaking along a river. Again, when the wind picked up and waves splashed over the bow of the kayak and into my lap, I was having fun. When we were just “relaxing” (aka I have to take a break because my shoulder and arm muscles are on fire), the fun factor dropped exponentially. Also, just sitting there made me conscious of the fact that I was being cooked by the sun. When you’re trying to keep the boat from flipping because the waves pick up and jet skis and speedboats are creating a fair amount of wake, well, there’s no time to think about your sunburn, or the fact that your butt and back hurt from sitting in those little, wretched, plastic kayak seats, or that you’re not going to be able to lift your arms the next morning. Again, action = fun. Inaction = not fun.
(Note, no longer smiling - it was much later)
We did enjoy our lunch break…
(this one’s for you, Calloway)
...and some of the sights we were able to see from the river's perspective...
...but we realized that 4 hours was way too long to spend in the water sans motor so we hightailed it back to the dock almost a full hour before our time was up. We were both turning a lovely shade of cooked lobster...
I clearly did not do a sufficient job of spreading sun screen on my knees. OWWW.
We came back and treated ourselves to 1000 milligrams of Vitamin I and chilled the rest of the afternoon. It was hot, we were burnt, and we wanted to make sure we would recover for the mountain bike ride we had planned for the next day.
What do you do when you have several hours of daylight left, it’s scorching hot in the sun (or seems that way when you’re sunburned), and you don’t want to be outside? You download Season 2 of Stargate SG1 and watch a bunch of episodes. (Thank you Kerry Chin for encouraging our cheesy SciFi series addictions). ;->
Around 8:30 pm, we considered going to the Ranger Program highlighting the history of the Oregon Trail but said, “eh, let’s do another episode”. After all, Captain Carter had become host to a Goa’uld – MUST SEE WHAT HAPPENS… :P
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