A very full, stay-at-home day!

Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing

                                                                                     Henry David Thoreau

The day dawned cooler than it has been for days, with a wonderful breeze.  The house we're renting has a dock with kayaks and a canoe.  Mimi and I went canoeing a few days ago.  Perfect, glassy water on the bay.  We glided along looking at the beautiful homes on the water and searching for Aunt Cal's camp.  Really fun, so we decided to set out this morning with the girls on a canoe/kayak adventure.

Erin was a little uncertain about the whole idea (read here: extremely anxious!), but we finally talked her into the adventure with me at the bow and Alexis at the stern of the canoe, and Mimi in the sit-inside kayak, with Erin balancing precariously in the center, bottom of the canoe!  We paddled off merrily (shakily!).  The wind and waves kicked up, and we had a pretty good rocking, chopping ride, but it was a beautiful morning, and we were together, enjoying the scenery.  By the time we turned around to go back, it was very choppy and as fast as we paddled 10 feet forward, we were pushed 9 feet back.  Mimi was paddling along her merry way (mostly in a hurry to get back to the dock before the total failure of her Sea Bands!), and left us in the dust screaming "Paddle harder!".  Needless to say, this didn't do much for Erin's anxiety about the whole adventure.  After some yelling and frantic struggling, we made it back to the dock.  I'm pretty sure that if I did this for a few more days, I'd have Michelle Obama arms and wear sleeveless everything!

After getting back on dry land (and Mimi retiring to recover from the seasickness), the girls and I went down to the other dock to discuss the possibility of a swim in the bay (if you had seen the eels for sale at the Suds 'N Soda, you might not have jumped right in either.  "We caught them right here in the Bay!"). 

Getting in meant a quick jump off the dock!  Getting out was a little more challenging as we realized the swim step was entirely out of the water when we were not standing on the dock!  I am so happy to say there are no pictures of the process we used to hoist me out, but here is an artist's rendering of the scenario (Alexis in the water below, me on the ladder):

 

Really fun day, capped off by dinner at the River House and martinis on the water!