Firsts on the Fourth

So Cliff and I lucked out this fourth of July.  Our good friends, Kerry and Todd, asked if we wanted to float with them down the Willamette River.  Heck yes!  Well, I was a little less "heck yes" in the beginning as I'd never been on a raft.  Never ever.  And I was a little hesitant.  With this said, I really want to be more adventurous and Kerry and Todd are pros.  Seriously.  They are former professional river guides with over 30 years experience between them.  Kerry has chatted with me about getting on the river for probably a year now and every time she assures me that I won't get sick.   She understands my crazy and so I trust her.  

They have their own boats (a professional big yellow raft, an inflatable kayak, and apparently a few more than we haven't seen yet).  They have all of the gear: various lifejackets, different types of oars, a trailer, a professional first aid kit, they even have an epipen on board!

We met around 10:30am to load up and get all of us to the river.  Vans, cars, and trailers were all over town to set up the starting point and the shuttle areas.  We put in at one of the local parks (go Clearwater!) and in a short time all of us were off.  It was not only my first time on a raft but also Gretchen's, their 18 month old daughter.  Delly, their almost 3 year old, is already a veteran with multiple trips under her belt.  

The float was beautiful! I was with the crew on the raft (Kerry, Todd, Delly, Gretchen, and Jana) and Cliff was solo in the inflatable kayak.  We were the only ones in sight for 90% of the time on the upper part of our run (we saw two boats of fathers and sons fishing).  We hit a little white water here and there but overall it was really smooth (obviously as otherwise there wouldn't be little kidos in the raft).  I didn't get sick.  I wasn't stressed out.  I even snacked while we were moving down the river.  I actually really loved it. 

We floated for probably around an hour or so before we stopped on a little rock bar for lunch.  There were so many bugs on the rocks.  Well, it turns out they were all just exoskeletons (that would explain why they weren't moving!) but they were still cool.  

        

After lunch, Jana switched into the kayak and Cliff came on over to our floatation device.  About 30 minutes later we were out of snacks (the kids ate them all!) so Gretchen was starting to melt.  Todd went on Gretchen duty and Kerry took the helm for the first time. They promised Cliff that next time he will get a chance to steer the raft.  Awesome.  They also said we could use the inflatable kayak anytime.  So cool!  We are really lucky to have them as friends.  

The end of our trip took us right to downtown Springfield.  We passed under the bridges we travel over everyday to go to work.  There is a huge painting/mural under the bridge that says "READ".  Pretty cool message.  There were also tons of bird's nests.  Little birdies were flying in and out all over the place (see in my craptastic photo below).  We floated past Island Park as the Light of Liberty event was underway (Marty Stewart was the headliner).  When all was said and done, our trip was about 4 hours.  It was easy, relaxing, and something that I would like to do again...often. 

As we were unloading the raft I got stung by my very first bee!  Well, first outside bee.  First alive bee.  My only other sting occurred when I was little and I stepped on a dead one inside our house.  I did awesome.  I calmly asked Cliff to pick it out.  The first aid kit had tweezers so that made it pretty easy.  Todd put an epipen in my hand in case I swelled (to be honest I think we all expected for me to be since I'm the allergy queen).  Then once the stinger was out they even had anti-sting stuff.  I was totally cool.  Bees?  Apparently no big deal.  I feel like a big kid. 

Another great part of the day...we didn't get sunburned!  We lathered on the 50 SPF throughout the trip as we could tell that we were getting baked by the sun.  Cliff rocked the yellow Ducks hat (as we can't find the original green one..hum....) and I got to wear the road trip hat that Pam gave us.  With this said, we both realize that maybe we need better rafting apparel.  Maybe REI will have a sale soon on Chacos and those floppy brimmed river/gardening hats.  Or maybe it is a little too soon to purchase rafting goodies when we have only done it once.  Maybe?  Who cares. 

On the way home we stopped and got burritos and then I immediately went into a sun coma once I hit the couch.  I woke up around 9:00pm in time to catch fireworks on TV (although sadly we missed the ones where Usher choreographed the pyrotechnics).  The fourth had a first for Rudy too.  He was able to lay outside of his crate with us as fireworks were going off all over town.  He is really scared by them but he was able to self sooth enough to kinda chill out on the carpet.  Folks everywhere have been shooting them off this whole week so he has had a little practice for the big night.  Far more successful fourth that the others for him.  Good job Rudy.  It was a great 4th of July.