Upper and Lower James PFD for Caissa, Tru and Noah

Ah, boater lingo...PFD stands for two things in the boating world: 1) personal floatation device (very important on the river) and 2) personal first descent.  For this blog entry, I am referring to the second definition.  Caissa, Truett and Noah all had their personal first descents on the Lower James in the corn raft this weekend.

Here are Caissa and Noah headed down the stairs at Pony Pasture...geared up and ready to boat.
It was a very good trip.  Although I was convinced the weather wasn't going to cooperate (it was 76 degrees at the put-in).  The kids were slightly chilly until we got to Choo-choo rapid and the sun made an appearance.

Caissa at the entrance to Choo-Choo rapid

The edward (it's too big to be an eddie) at Choo-Choo.

Of course the Amtrak train went over it while we had lunch and there was waving and honking of the horn.  Cai and Tru even swam a little bit, but I forbid our traditional bare-butt run of the rapid (sans boat) because it was still really chilly.

On down the river, we decided to run the lower James in addition to the upper (everyone was having a good day and everyone was in good humour).

Doug looking fly with the overcast sky

Skies clearing as we set up for the downtown run

We made a pretty clean run of First Break and then eddied out to shift gear and kids.  The bigger rapids were after the wave train at First Break.  We attached cam straps to the thwarts so that Tru and Noah could sit in the bottom of the boat and hold on to the straps.  Caissa and I were the power and Doug was the "raft guide" steering us in the lines.  We made it through Corner Rapid, Flipper, Stripper, and Hollywood with hardly any trouble.  We waved at people on the Belle Island bridge and got set up for the last major rapids.  We did pretty well at Fish Ladder and S-turn, and Pipeline was fun and splashy.  Unfortunately, that's were our luck ran out.  After Pipeline we tried for a line that was too narrow for us and got wedged pretty good on a rock.  I got out and Doug got out and after a bunch of pushing and grunting, got the raft, only to not be able to paddle to the other side of the river to make the next line for the takeout.  We ended up having to go around an island and paddle back across the river, but in the lee of the island, the current wasn't as strong as it was above it 

The picture of them at the take-out from the previous blog is us after we carried the raft up and started deflating it (and before we got everything loaded and changed out. 

We were very lucky to have an invite for Vietnamese at Mekong from Jeff Smith.  It was really superb food and Mekong also specializes in a huge selection of Belgium beers.  I had a lovely "dessert" beer (raspberry) and Doug had some sort of coffee beer (that was delicious).  Hats off to Jeff and family for such an awesome meal and company.

We're back home now (for the moment).  We have four days until we leave for the lower Yough on Friday.  Should be interesting to do the turn around.  On a happy note, Doug and I are getting better at loading and unloading the raft.

See you on the river,

Santha

For my father...

I got a call the other day that started off..."You haven't updated your blog in a while, so I thought I would call and check on you."  I am such a daddy's girl.

Anyway, no planning for Iceland on this one.  We're boating this weekend and next weekend.  These posts are going to be about boating.

Got to the upper put-in around 1130 today with help from DJ Jazzy Jeff Smith (who invited us to a super boffo party last night with tons of kids and food and games!)  So, picnic party last night and then boating the Upper James today.  We had a great time and I took some pretty decent pictures, but I forgot the cord to upload everything with. :-/

Nevertheless, here's a picture of everybody playing video games at Uncle Guy's house before we left...

And here's a picture of the babies at the take-out with the deflated raft in the front.

They had a great time.  We had Noah and Truett in the bottom of the boat for most of the lower rapids (Corner, Hollywood, Fish Ladder, Pipeline).  We actually missed the turn for the take-out and had to back paddle a bit, but we made it without too many issues.

I love you, Daddy.  I'll be posting more pictures soon.  

Santha

"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft agley"

How is it best to spend vacation time?  How full to the gills should we be when planning activities?

I guess I kind of always side for the slow down and enjoy side of this debate.  I think Doug feels the same, but I'm still kind of perplexed as to what his real ideas are on this one.

The "fattest man alive's" perplexed face.

I guess maybe the best decision is to split the difference and spend half the time really scooting around and the other half "chillaxing."  I'm pretty sure that FatDoug concurs.

We are considering heading out of Reykjavik on Saturday and driving (link to map)  the 3.5 hours to northern Iceland to do the whitewater rafting trip.  We get the car at 9am (theoretically) and the trip starts at 3pm (getting off the river at 7pm).  The great fat one has written an email to the rafting company to see if it would be okay for us to camp on their land (or if they know of a campground/good wild camping) near the base camp for the whitewater trip.  The idea being we could get there early (around lunch), set up camp, raft, hit up some dinner, and then settle in for a long bright night (our first outdoors in Iceland).

From there, we would get up and do this drive (stopping through Akureyri for lunch/coffee/sight seeing and petrol).

The only problem with this is that if we spend Sunday night in Myvatn, we'll spend most of Monday (six hours of Monday at least) doing this drive.

The great news is that we will be there during the "midnight sun" time of year and won't really have to worry about it getting dark.  Problem with this luxury is that I'm worried we will over do and just get grumpy and tired.

Thank goodness coffee is the national drink of Iceland ;-).

Until next time,
S

Quick UPDATE!!! Heard from the rafting company and they are totally cool with us camping on their property :-).  It won't be a formal campground, but it will be close.

Starting a blog

Well, aren't we pretentious.  So, why blog?

• Inflated sense of self (check).  
• Missing my family and am too lazy to call (check).  
• Want a written record of our travels to Iceland (double check).

All these things are combining to compel me into the world of blogging.  Basically, I just want a written record for myself and my family.  Although, if I am perfectly honest with myself, most of my journals up until this point have not been fit for the eyes of anyone else (it's weird that the majority of my journaling I can look back at and say, "gee golly how self centered and petty").  

Who am I?   I'm Santha (one name, like Cher or Madonna).  Thank my mother and father the hippies for that one.  

This is me with the love of my life, FatDoug.

And as is probably evident from the title, we are planning to go to Iceland in July of this year for our first out of country experience together.  It should be interesting.  I have to say that the planning up until this point has been kind of sporadic and fun.  I'm curious to see how it will intensify in the coming months.  

Anyway, this is for you, Momma and Daddy.  I hope you're happy with yourselves for creating the adventurer in me :p. I love you both.

Oh, and so far, here is our map.  

Iceland for FatDoug and Santha