Summer: Tues., 7/3
We were adventurous today and tried something new: rafting down the Connecticut River. We came up with this idea as a way to deal with yet another day of this insane heat wave. This morning we drove into Windsor, VT, to the river outfitter, where we rented our raft and got life jackets. We were driven to the starting point about five miles up the river, and we pushed our raft into the water. We were off.
It was a lot harder work than we'd expected. I, at least, had envisioned a leisurely float. And it was a leisurely float at some points, where the current carried our raft along. At other times, the water was perfectly calm, and we had to heave our raft along with our oars. This was pretty hard, especially in the blazing sun. The girls kind of helped, sometimes, and sometimes they were complete dead weight when they decided to slide off the sides of the raft into the river to float along, holding onto a rope that went along the outer edge of the raft. Having them in the river like this, just holding onto the raft as we went along in the current, seemed marginally safe, though we managed not to lose either child in the river. Greta did let go of the rope for one scary moment, and I had to extend my oar to her, but really she was very close to the raft, and she was wearing a life jacket, and for most of the ride the water was only a couple of feet deep, so...it was all okay.
We pulled off a few times, on the side of the river or on little rocky islands, to swim and rock-hunt and eat snacks. L&G absolutely loved this and didn't want to stop swimming at all. They were having so much fun. They loved the whole day, really: being in the raft, floating beside it, swimming. For the last part of the trip, when we were in water that was only about eight inches deep, they pushed our raft along, scream-laughing the whole time.
The whole trip was a lot of hard physical work but a great success. "I can't believe how fun it was!" Greta remarked. They both loved it. Andrew and I did, too, despite the exertion. It helped that we could dip into the river here and there to cool off.
We'll definitely do this again. We'll be better prepared next time, with bags for the rocks we find and water shoes for me and Andrew. (The girls had them, but we had only flip flops, definitely not very useful in a current.) And maybe long swim shorts, because our thighs all got burnt from sitting and rowing on the sides of the raft.
The end point of this trip is, conveniently, at the Harpoon brewery, so we had a big late lunch and a well-deserved beer in blissful AC. L&G will probably tell anyone who will listen about all the near-misses when they *almost* got swept away in the river.
The day got hotter from there. We played games at home for a while, and Andrew and the girls played frisbee. Then we went out and had ice cream for dinner (it's so. incredibly. hot). I think Lucia ate some salami when we got home. The girls took cool showers. Greta practiced some piano. We read some Pippi.
Now: some white wine with an ice cube, and the fire pit. Only now, after 9pm, has the day begun to cool. Andrew took a lot of great pictures on the river today but I'll have to wait to post them until I get back to NJ.
It was a lot harder work than we'd expected. I, at least, had envisioned a leisurely float. And it was a leisurely float at some points, where the current carried our raft along. At other times, the water was perfectly calm, and we had to heave our raft along with our oars. This was pretty hard, especially in the blazing sun. The girls kind of helped, sometimes, and sometimes they were complete dead weight when they decided to slide off the sides of the raft into the river to float along, holding onto a rope that went along the outer edge of the raft. Having them in the river like this, just holding onto the raft as we went along in the current, seemed marginally safe, though we managed not to lose either child in the river. Greta did let go of the rope for one scary moment, and I had to extend my oar to her, but really she was very close to the raft, and she was wearing a life jacket, and for most of the ride the water was only a couple of feet deep, so...it was all okay.
We pulled off a few times, on the side of the river or on little rocky islands, to swim and rock-hunt and eat snacks. L&G absolutely loved this and didn't want to stop swimming at all. They were having so much fun. They loved the whole day, really: being in the raft, floating beside it, swimming. For the last part of the trip, when we were in water that was only about eight inches deep, they pushed our raft along, scream-laughing the whole time.
The whole trip was a lot of hard physical work but a great success. "I can't believe how fun it was!" Greta remarked. They both loved it. Andrew and I did, too, despite the exertion. It helped that we could dip into the river here and there to cool off.
We'll definitely do this again. We'll be better prepared next time, with bags for the rocks we find and water shoes for me and Andrew. (The girls had them, but we had only flip flops, definitely not very useful in a current.) And maybe long swim shorts, because our thighs all got burnt from sitting and rowing on the sides of the raft.
The end point of this trip is, conveniently, at the Harpoon brewery, so we had a big late lunch and a well-deserved beer in blissful AC. L&G will probably tell anyone who will listen about all the near-misses when they *almost* got swept away in the river.
The day got hotter from there. We played games at home for a while, and Andrew and the girls played frisbee. Then we went out and had ice cream for dinner (it's so. incredibly. hot). I think Lucia ate some salami when we got home. The girls took cool showers. Greta practiced some piano. We read some Pippi.
Now: some white wine with an ice cube, and the fire pit. Only now, after 9pm, has the day begun to cool. Andrew took a lot of great pictures on the river today but I'll have to wait to post them until I get back to NJ.
Comments