River Rats

On Saturday, we drove to San Marcos for a 5 mile kayaking trip.  This was our third time to kayak the San Marcos River.  However, it was Jonathan's first time to go down solo.

Jonathan did a great job on his own.  He was slow and steady.  We often had to slow down and let him catch  up.  He got himself in a couple of sticky situations, but never got himself in to too much trouble.  He was awesome!

Fred is the best at helping when you are in a jam.  He helped Jonathan out of a couple of jams and I think he yelled out a few instructions to me.  And, then there was the time that he told me that I wanted to make a hard right when I got under the bridge.  I did so and I started twirling.  I dug my paddle in, which caused me to over correct the situation.  All the while the current is swirling me in circles like a toilet bowl.  The next thing I knew, my kayak was upside down.  Thankfully, the only thing I lost was my shirt that I had taken off a few minutes earlier.  I am sorry San Marcos!  I accidentally littered your river with a purple shirt.

I took a million pictures of turtles, because they were everywhere.  And, yes, a million is an exaggeration.  I took about 4 pictures of turtles, but I could of taken more.  They were so cool.  They just sat on logs and rocks sunning themselves.  The life of a turtle must be great.  You just sit on a log catching some sun and when someone approaches that you don't like, you stick your head in your shell and jump in the water.

The weather was absolutely beautiful.  The sun was so nice and sunny and perfect.  The water wasn't too bad.  I wouldn't want to swim in it - my son was really itching to swim.  It was certainly cold, but I didn't think I was going to die every time we had to get wet.  We couldn't ask for better kayaking weather.  This was so much better than kayaking in the dead of summer.  We did end up with sunburns, though.  We need to be more diligent with the sunscreen.  (By more diligent, I mean apply at least one coat - we didn't apply any!)

We had so much fun.  I thought Fred was crazy for suggesting kayaking down the river.  I really thought we were going to die from the cold water.  It turned out to be a great idea.  There weren't too many people on the water.  There were a few tubers and I really do hate that part of the river, but it wasn't so hard since not many people were crazy enough to tube in March!

Great times were had by all despite the missing purple shirt, the sunburns and the blisters!