Sunday, July 01, 2007

Midnight Paddle on the Lake


What a fun night---I love it when the unexpected happens. I was home studying all day (have to do that today, too....ugh) and my husband and his friend climbed Dissapointment Peak in the Tetons. He got back and we hemmmed and hawed about going to a Bluegrass concert at the art museum because I also caught cold yesterday. I HATE being sick more than anything in world, in fact.

Anyway, after a few phone calls to see where our friends would be sitting, a peppermint and rosemary bath where I mostly sat pouting about my cold, and finally getting dressed and out the door, we made it just in time to see the last group, a fairly reknown fiddler from here. She was so cute and had tons of personality, too. Then my husband noticed a guy that we paddled with in the Tetons last October, and I went over say hi. He's pretty amazing to me, because despite being blind, he's an excellent paddler who thinks nothing of carrying his own boat over steep or rocky terrain, hiking around rocks and trees, etc. Okay, so there was the unfortunately incident where my husband walked him straight into a tree, but we won't discuss that any further (thank God it's at the "funny now" stage).


Anyway, I went and said hi to Todd and he asked if I wanted to paddle Gem Lake, about four miles away...tonight? Well, yeah! Of course I do---the news has been reporting a giant full moon for this weekend (not that it mattered either way to Todd, of course), and the chance to do something so fun and unexpected was too much temptation. I ran back to tell my husband and to invite the four friends we were with. Two weren't so sure, but the other two were ready to go load their kayaks. The not-so-sure's hadn't ever paddled before, but we convinced them and ran to get our kayaks: the sea kayaks for our friends and the whitewater boats for us (I hadn't been in that hated whitewater boat since I almost drowned).

After a mad rush to grab boats, floats, paddles, life jackets, and sweaters, we were at the launch ramp exactly at 10:30. Todd and his wife weren't there yet, but we got to meet their friends Jana and Bonnie. Jana's deaf and I got to practice my (really remedial) signing with her. She was a lot of fun and invited me to their ASL study group, which I just might take her up on. I feel like my sign is as bad as my French at this point...wow, use it or lose it, huh?.

Anyway, we jumped in the boats and launched. It was gorgeous, calm, warm, and so much fun for a bunch of people to just suddenly meet and instantly have so much to talk about. Until the cops showed up, of course....the park closes at 11. So, by midnight we were on our way home, somehow feeling like kids again....we almost tried to find an all-night diner for biscuits and gravy!

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