Adventure calls! We took Jeff's birthday present - a 15-foot canoe bought off Craigslist for $200 - out for its first spin today in the Santa Cruz Harbor. At first, Jeff wanted to take it in Vasona Lake by biking the canoe there on the Los Gatos Creek Trail, an access point to which our house is directly across from. Bike a canoe? Yes, I can see why you have that questioning look on your face.
Jeff, being a little crazy an engineer, decided it would be cool to build a bike "trailer" for the canoe, so that he could tow the canoe behind the bike and access the water right from our house. The idea is to put the kids right in the canoe (they will hold on, right?) and head on out for an adventure. He has really enjoyed building this thing - Ben has assisted too (Dad, are you welding? Let me get my safety glasses on and help!). He has toured the neighborhood by bike/canoe with Ben and Lily in tow, to much thumbs-uping and laughing by our neighbors. It is a pretty cool thing. The folks at Burning Man would be proud.
But, thinking better of this plan for our first trip out, we called our friends, Raj and Kathy, who live in Santa Cruz and also own a canoe. We met them down at the Santa Cruz Harbor (where Kathy and their son, Jaz, met us via bike - no they were no towing their canoe! Raj and their daughter, Chloe, drove it down) and promptly hit the water. It was a good thing we did this little trip with experienced friends, as we learned a lot (Note 1: Things to Buy: 3 (to reduce fighting) small wooden paddles for the kids, cushions for the kids to sit on in the bottom of the boat. Note 2: Things to Remember: Sit the right way in the boat - we started off sitting towards the bow, or whatever - we were backwards and the weight was all off.)
Ava lasted about 10 minutes - another good thing about being in the harbor, as I got out with her and we walked along the trail next to the harbor and met up with them for coffee, chocolate milk and cookies.
Fun - yes! Exhausting - yes! Lily didn't last long in the 30 minute car ride home.
