If you drove around the little town we now call home, you might notice something about most of the houses. First, there would be a Subaru. I'm totally not kidding here. Pretty much everyone has one and after a month or so of driving ours along the rutted, dusty roads, I understand why. And also why most of them are used. And dirty. Because why drive a nice, new, clean car where it's just going to get muddy and rusty, right?
So. the Subaru we have. But the other thing that almost everyone has tucked under their deck or wedged between the garage and the house or hanging in carport or strapped to the roof of their (Subaru) car, is some kind of canoe or kayak or paddleboard.
Funny story, about the paddleboards, by the way. Paddleboarding is like surfing, on a lake, with a paddle. The first time we saw paddleboarding in action, it was a guy with a huge, frizzy grey beard way across the lake and, due to the sunlight (and us not knowing about paddleboarding in the first place) we couldn't see the board. Just a guy. Walking on water. No joke.
Anyhoo, after almost five weeks of watching everyone else canoe, paddleboard and kayak, we finally, finally found ourselves a nice, used canoe and spent all of Saturday puttering around the lake on it. Bliss. The kids caught a bucket full of fish, I read, Will pried a lot of hooks out of fish mouths (must remember to get barb-less hooks this afternoon) and we only quit because the sun went down.
I know that kayaking is more exciting and paddleboarding seems pretty interesting as well, but I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the canoe. I so vividly remember paddling with my parents through reedy creeks around Lake Coeur d'Alene- the silence, the smoothness of the water, the cattails that I would bring home and let crumble to pieces in my room. It's an all together kind of activity, instead of a solitary one. We can all smoosh into our canoe, along with the dog and a lunch bag and assorted fishing equipment, and still have room for daddy's long legs. There are plans in the works for some canoe camping fun later this summer and much peering at weather reports for the after work hours of the next two weeks to see just how often we can get out on the water. I'm wondering what will get old first, the canoing, or eating sandwiches for dinner night after night so that we can head out to the lake ASAP when daddy comes home. Humm, I might need to come up with some better portable dinners. Any ideas?
