Free Saturdays in the summer are hard to come by. With so many things cancelled, we ended up with a free one in July. I realized it on Friday, and saw that the weather was supposed to be hot and beautiful. You can't waste a day like that. We tossed around the idea of doing a couple things and decided on paddling in Island Park like we had a couple years before. But we learned because last time we had to wait around for the rental place to load our kayaks and drive us to the start. This time we borrowed some kayaks and a paddleboard from Jen and just drove two cars so we could do it all ourselves. It was definitely a hot day! But the water makes it feel really nice. It's kind of a hassle blowing up paddleboards. And the parking at the start was horrendous. But we made it fairly early and got going.
We only brought three kids kayaks because we figured Kaden would not be able to paddle himself the whole way. But then he wanted to do it so the other kids had to take turns riding on the paddleboards with Ryan and I. Kaden did so well! I mean, he was a bit slow. And he got tired at times. But he did great.
I remembered to bring some snacks this time, but I didn't want to bother packing a whole lunch. I figured we could find some food when we were done.
I thoroughly enjoyed every minute. It was so beautiful. I didn't even care that it was so crowded. We saw a moose and it's baby. Sadie says she saw a beaver, and there was some sticks piled up right where she saw it so I believe her. There were tons of fish too.
I did pretty well on the paddleboard. There were a couple times where I scraped the rocks on the bottom of the river and it made me stumble. And I was on my knees for some of the time. At the very end Kaden was getting more and more tired and so I hurried to where Kylee was and told her to hop on my board so I could take her back to Kaden and she could help him get to the end. But as I tried to turn sideways to the current, it completely tossed me off. At the very end!! I had kept my shorts dry the whole time! (I hate wet shorts.) And my phone was also in my waistband. So that was a bummer. Luckily my phone is water resistant and it was fine. But I was mad that I was now wet and cold.
It took us a bit longer than I had anticipated between the loading and unloading and picking each other up and what not. We were ready to eat, but Cafe Sabor that is right on the river looked really busy. Even though it was 2:00 which is not a normal meal time. We took a vote and decided we wanted to have burgers at Big Judd's instead, but that meant a longer wait before we could eat. We changed and drove to Ashton and then had to wait at Big Judd's for like 20 minutes before sitting at a table to order. It's annoying because there were a lot of other tables at the restaurant that couldn't be used because of social distancing guidelines. We did eventually get our food at like 4, lol. But it was yummy! And bonus, I called it dinner and didn't have to figure anything else out at home. We also got ice cream of course.
Our neighbors saw us at Big Judd's and said they had been floating as well. They said they did Warm River, though. We are thinking we might try that one next year. I'll have to do some more research. Island Park was just a tad longer than three of my kids would've preferred. And I don't love that it's so shallow in spots that I have to get out and walk with my board lifted so the fin doesn't get stuck. That water is cold and it makes the rocks feel like knives in my feet. But I heard it was a little faster too and I don't want to stress about the current causing problems for our younger kids. We will see!
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