Jason’s Birthday and Nikki’s Bash
Friday June 22, 2012 – Turning 31
This morning I’m woken by my mom at 6:30 am “we’re gonna be late”. I push Nikki awake and hop out of bed. Today is my 31st birthday, and other than a few extra hairs in my ears and a small case of moobs I feel pretty good. We rush out of the RV and we’re off for white water kayaking.
We arrive 15 minutes early and the guides look at us like we’re 3 hours early. Let’s just say in this part of Canada it doesn’t work like the states. Before we know it we’re joined by 100+ kids from a nearby high school. Dang! After nearly 2 hours of waiting around we finally gear up and head out….I could have slept in longer or had one of Nikki’s famous breakfasts!
We’ve been white water rafting several times, and we’ve spent many hours in a kayak….but never have we been white water kayaking! Nervous, excited, anxious, I can describe my feelings in a million adjectives. We end up opting out of the tiny kayaks because we’ve never rolled in whitewater, however we’re outfitted with a sport-yak (duckie, etc. it’s a rubber kayak that airs up).
We’re 2 hours northwest of Montreal on the Rouge River. Drop in and you’re greeted with mild rapids and fairly swift water. 10 minutes of warm-up and you’re dropping into the first set of class III rapids. A short paddle down and you’re dropping into washing machine. Both rapids offer excitement, surfing, and in all of our cases a chance to swim (whether you want to or not). 3 hours of paddling and we’re loading up the boats and being carried upriver for lunch followed by round 2.
The New World Centre is the name of the adventure company we went out with. They snap a few pics along the way and video. Of course if you want the footage or images you pay a heafty price for them. Either way it’s loads of fun to see them when you are done!
At the end of the day Nikki had taken a beating: Her shoes we’re sucked up by the forbidden wave, Elizabeth threw her in the air and slammed her into a rock, and washing machine folded over her kayak and smacked her face into her paddle. She sucked it up, spit our pieces of her tooth, and finished the paddle (and that’s why I love this woman!).
We celebrated (illegally) by the car with some homemade antiseptic: Cider from Picton!
Thanks mom for coming out and taking us on the water! One helluva way to celebrate number 31.
