Paddling the time away

(Image taken by previous owner)

Haven't posted in awhile, but just thought I'd share in my latest passion. My family and I just bought ourselves a canoe! (See photo of it above)



It started off with Jennifer deciding she was going to take an introduction to canoeing class being offered through the red cross. I thought it was a little silly at the time. I mean how hard can it be, just get in and paddle right?

Well, she had a ball in the three hour class and signed up for the 2 and a half day class. We talked about how fun it would be to get the whole family out on the water, but she said wouldn't feel comfortable about it unless I take the class as well. So I figured, what the heck, and signed up for it on a different earlier weekend (we couldn't take it together as 17 hours is a long time to get a baby sitter for).

Let me tell you, I really had a blast in the class, and I had no idea just how much there is to it (at least if you do it right). Saturday I was S-Curving all over the lake, trying to figure out the 13 or 14 different strokes, but by Sunday I was keeping us in a pretty nice straight line and found myself getting really addicted to it. That, and the instructors were really fun people and much to my surprise taught the classes on a completely volunteer basis.

One of the instructors, Kurt (who when I first met him had a hilarious shirt on with a depiction of two people paddling with the words "Paddle faster, I hear banjos" (Google the movie Deliverance if you don't get it)), had a used canoe that he was looking to sell. So the other day we took it out for a test spin and bought it on the spot.

So we're now the proud owners of a 16 foot Wenonah Aurora canoe. We took Megan out on it last night (with her very own kid sized paddle), and we all had a great time paddling around as the sun set. Lots of fun, and I look forward to lots of adventures in that canoe!

For anyone interested in canoeing in the Sacramento area, the Sierra Chapter of the Red Cross has very good and very reasonably priced classes that go all the way up to white water level. The volunteers that teach the classes are very knowledgeable and very fun at the same time.
http://www.sacsierraredcross.org/Education/catalog.aspx?c=540