After lunch we decided that it would be a good time to float the river. The companies on the river wanted $29 a person for a 35-45 minute float which seemed super expensive but one lady told us where we could get in and out so we brought our own tubes and decided to go on our own little adventure. It took us a while to inflate them all.
The water was SO cold! I didn't think about that when we decided to do it. :P
There were many laughs!
And many peaceful parts where we floated and got to enjoy the beautiful scenery.
We tied a bunch of the tubes together.
Peaches tube had a solid bottom so she was out of the water and wasn't cold at all!
And Lou was sitting on me so she was warm other than her feet that were in the water through the plastic mesh bottom. I had goosebumps all over the whole time but she actually kept me really warm. I didn't even realize how cold it was until we got out and I went to take off her life jacket and my fingers would not move. It was crazy. I felt like I had two lumps for hands. They would not cooperate and just bumped into each other. :P It was the weirdest feeling!
All in all I think most of us had a good time BUT it also got a little crazy. The little rapids that looked so tiny were actually really rough because the river was so low. We slammed into countless rocks and actually ended up popping four of the tubes! Mr. D and E had to get out halfway and walk because both their tubes popped. It was actually pretty scary because even though 99% of the river had been 1-3 feet deep this one spot where theirs popped was VERY deep and Mr. D is not a strong swimmer. Thankfully E was able to pull him to shore. At the same time Boo's popped so she got on Peanut's, and Peanut got on Lou's which was just a pool floaty, not an actual tube.
A little further down the river we ran into more rapids and Peanut got slammed into some rocks and scraped up her leg which had just finally healed from VBS. They weren't too bad of cuts but were definitely bleeding so Lou got on with Peaches and Peanut laid across my lap for the rest of the time. After that every time we started to hear water rushing we got nervous about what was coming up next. :P You could hear the rapids a couple hundred feet before you reached them. Ms K's tube popped about 1000 feet before we were done so she had a shorter walk. The trip was supposed to take about 2 hours but it ended up being 2 hours and 45 minutes. Mr. D and E beat us to the car by quite a bit. I guess walking is faster than floating. One cool thing is that we floated right past a humongous bald eagle! He
was probably 12 feet from us! And his partner was up in the tree and
flew down to him after we passed!
But at that point everyone was freezing and ready to be done! Bug was miserable and F was visibly shaking with cold almost the entire time so they have sworn off river floating. :P I actually enjoyed it for the most part other than the giant bruises to the backside. :P It took weeks for them to fade! I think T had the most fun of everyone! He was ready to go again the next day! Haha. We made it back to the house and everyone felt much better once we all got into dry clothes and got some dinner. Ms. K asked T to take a picture and said, "Everyone say 'traumatized by river floating!' " Lol.
Lou was eating dinner and said, "I think my tooth is bleeding!" She went to the bathroom and came back with it in her hand!
After dinner we piled in the cars and headed back down the mountain to another town to watch their fireworks show. It was the first time we've ever taken the girls to one. They all liked it except for Lou. She kept saying, "I want to go to bed!" :P
I thought they did an amazing job! 30 full minutes of explosion after explosion.
Lou actually fell asleep for the last ten minutes and is not in this picture because I was carrying her. At least the rest of us enjoyed it!
Thankfully we were all able to sleep in the next morning. When I woke up she had her head hanging off the bed.
We had a leisurely breakfast and then headed into town for some shopping. We had just been helping F and K with their wedding registry so it was fun to go into a kitchen store and get other ideas for things they needed to add.
E and Peanut happened to be wearing matching shirts that day so I had to get a picture.
The whole town is in a western theme.
Even the post office, banks, and grocery stores look like an old west town.
We ate lunch at a place called Boardwalk Burgers. They had saddle seats around the patio.
And we topped off the fun with ice cream!
This guy was making fresh waffle cones! Peaches thought it was really cool and sat there watching him for a long time.
We did a little more shopping before heading back to our airbnb.
We got changed and headed to the lake. Pictures tomorrow!
