Waterlogged.

For TWO weekends in a row, I have found myself floating down a river in a boat. Last weekend, it was during our ridiculously program-driven-back-up-planned Snow Retreat--when Bronco and I took 12 of the 76 kids for an Eagle Float on the Skagit River.

The Eagle Float was amazing mostly because it required little to no physical effort and it allowed 80 of us to float down the Skagit River spotting bald eagles (according to one of my girls, we saw 86. i wasn't really looking that close.) We apparently offended one eagle when we mocked him for being a bit on the large side, to which he responded with a loud sqwaaak and flew away.

This past weekend, I went with ten YD friends on a Class II jaunt down the Sauk River. It was only my second time EVER in a hardshell kayak, and the first time is barely above counting because that river was as flat as the 2-liter that's been sitting in my fridge since September. Apparently I was doing well, because the water experts (6 of my 10 friends on the trip are River Guides and 3 of them were under the age of 9 but are practically river guides) kept inquiring as to whether or not I had more experience that I was letting on...um, no, i said. I'm just that good.

What they didn't know is that I'm actually the biggest wuss in the world in high adventure situations, and I really don't like doing anything risky or death-defying. As long as I know I'm safe, I'm fine. So--when you're kayaking next to six professionals, you feel pretty certain that you won't die. And--most importantly, you follow their lead and do what they tell you to do. If they angle their boat to the left, so do you. If they stay on the inside part of the river bend, so do you. If they take the wrong direction and get stranded on the rocks in a shallow part of the river, so do you.

I'm really good about reading the directions. I just bought a new blender and a new toaster, and I always read the instruction manuals, so that I know not to stick my hand in the blender while it's still plugged in--and when there's a chance that I'm going to flip over in my kayak and not know how to roll back over and have to swim down a snowy river in February, I would much rather just do what they tell me to.

Thus--I escaped my river adventure on the Sauk still dry and only slightly freezing and feeling much more daring to learn how to roll my kayak so I can attack some bigger whitewater.

May I say that I love rafting in the winter? Because I do.
May I say that I love having friends who are professional River Guides and spend their winter weekends floating through whitewater? Because I do.