Summer: Thurs. 7/9 (NH)
River rafting day! The rafting outfitter we use made some changes to accommodate covid concerns, including driving each group to the starting point individually, so we never had to be around other people. We wore masks in the van, which was suffocatingly hot but we are good humans and wore them anyway. And then once we were in our raft, we were alone and free.
We changed things a little this year and went in the afternoon instead of the morning, which was great--it was so blazingly hot today that it was even more fun than usual to pull the raft over and take swims in the river. The kids did their favorite thing, which is hang off the back of the raft while Andrew and I row it. This works much better when there's a reasonable current; today, there was very little current, so it was like pulling dead weight. We had to keep asking them to get back in and row. They also brought their goggles with them, and when we stopped the raft they swam around, trying to spot crayfish on the river bottom.
The river was really shallow in places, so we had to get out and pull the raft along.
Once we got to the exit point, we swam for a little while--it was a calm part of the river so the kids took their life jackets off and were swimming underwater, looking for stones and creatures. We couldn't stay as long as we would've liked, because by that point it was 5:30pm and we really needed to get home to Farrah.
On the way home, we stopped and picked up pizzas. And Farrah was fine, very happy to see us. It was the longest we've ever left her without having a dog walker come. We felt guilty. I gave her some steak for dinner.
There's always a sense of accomplishment after our river rafting day. It's not a huge adventure, as far as outdoor adventurousness goes, but we all look forward to this excursion every year. I'm glad we made it happen even in this crazy time.
We changed things a little this year and went in the afternoon instead of the morning, which was great--it was so blazingly hot today that it was even more fun than usual to pull the raft over and take swims in the river. The kids did their favorite thing, which is hang off the back of the raft while Andrew and I row it. This works much better when there's a reasonable current; today, there was very little current, so it was like pulling dead weight. We had to keep asking them to get back in and row. They also brought their goggles with them, and when we stopped the raft they swam around, trying to spot crayfish on the river bottom.
The river was really shallow in places, so we had to get out and pull the raft along.
Once we got to the exit point, we swam for a little while--it was a calm part of the river so the kids took their life jackets off and were swimming underwater, looking for stones and creatures. We couldn't stay as long as we would've liked, because by that point it was 5:30pm and we really needed to get home to Farrah.
On the way home, we stopped and picked up pizzas. And Farrah was fine, very happy to see us. It was the longest we've ever left her without having a dog walker come. We felt guilty. I gave her some steak for dinner.
There's always a sense of accomplishment after our river rafting day. It's not a huge adventure, as far as outdoor adventurousness goes, but we all look forward to this excursion every year. I'm glad we made it happen even in this crazy time.
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