The Boat Ride That Wasn't...

Wednesday was a bit warmer, and sunnier. The kids were dying to take the raft out on the lake, so we loaded it up on to the top of our van and headed to the boat launch. We decided who was going to sit where, how we were going to balance out our weight, and who was going to row (The Boy wanted too) and got ready to push off. The kids and I decided we didn't want our sandals and left them on the shore. My Boy won't take his shoes off unless necessary, and his sandals go in the water on his feet. He doesn't care how it feels having wet shoes on, his "baby soft" feet aren't taking any chances.


The boy people wore their hats (some line I get about "pale northern ancestors") and we all wore life vests. What we didn't know about the boat, until after we pushed off, was that at one time, the left paddle holder broke. Along the way, someone "jerry-rigged" a fix for it, but it didn't work "quite" as good as the normal one. OK, it didn't work good at all. It was hard to get a good rhythm going with the paddles, and difficult to get the boat moving in the direction you wanted to go. We got to almost the end of the cove, and even though I was enjoying the ride, as were the kids.. The Boy got ticked off and decided it wasn't worth it.
We decided to go back to the shore, and I'd give it a whirl. It was a lot harder than any rowing I've ever done.. due to that broken paddle holder. The thing of it was, you couldn't take the other paddle out of it's holder, which would've made it so much easier. Who needs a holder anyhow??? We did a lot of circles, and turning, and got out into the lake, and after some time, decided to head back and just go swimming. Mr. Man was disappointed that we wouldn't get more rafting in during the week, but it was just too frustrating. By then the sun had gone behind clouds and I was to chilled to swim, but the kids did and had a great time in the water.