Summer Dreaming #Slice – 10 of 31

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We have hit that point in the year where we in the Minnich household start daydreaming of summer vacation.

We’ve booked our house for the beach.

The guys booked their campsite. (I’ll let them rough it alone this time.)

I’m just waiting for plans to be made for a summer reunion at my grandmother’s house in Ohio.

AllWrite and BEA are scheduled on my calendar, as is the Young Writer’s Academy (more on these trips later).

We’ve made our list of awesome things we want to do.

(My favorite things involve getting the most Nerdy sunburn possible – a book-shaped patch of white across my chest and neck where the book falls after I fall asleep on the floaty chair in the pool. Okay…the sunburn isn’t fun, but the sleeping in that floaty chair, dreaming about whatever book I have had my nose in – that’s the good part.)

On that list of awesome things was to go kayaking again. We went for the first time last summer when we went to the beach – we had a wonderful time paddling along the Eastern Shore near Cape Charles, Virginia. The water was calm, the paddling wasn’t too difficult, and the view was spectacular. It reminded me of canoe camp trips and rowing in college. My son and I went out in our friends’ kayak on the river later in the summer. Same calm. Same gorgeous view. 

The thing about it is that none of it felt like work. It didn’t feel like exercise. It just felt…good. It wasn’t a “hafta” activity. It was done for the joy of doing it.

So kayaking was definitely part of the plan. And since a co-worker of my husband’s is a serious kayaker – she went on an intense multi-week trip through the Grand Canyon last summer – she gave us some advice: take a couple of classes with some experienced kayakers from the Canoe Club of Greater Harrisburg. We’d get a chance to practice tipping our kayaks and doing some “wet exits” in a controlled (read: indoor pool with lifeguards present) environment.

So that’s what we did today. I’ll admit – the view in the pool isn’t nearly as pretty or as calming, but it is sure a lot warmer than it would be if we were outside. (The weather is a beautiful sunny 61 degrees, but I’m sure that the outdoor bodies of water aren’t really warm enough for my liking just yet.) I was charmed to see my son catch on to navigating his own kayak so quickly. It almost looked like second nature! Me? Yeah…I realized there are a lot of things that need to get adjusted on kayaks that never need to be bothered with on canoes – and that when I figure out exactly where all they need to be adjusted, flipping myself back over will probably be a whole lot easier. (The first time I was in too loose and inadvertently did a wet exit. The second time I was in too tight and my feet fell asleep so I pushed too hard and did a wet exit (by accident). Let’s just say that I have gotten really good at getting OUT of a kayak in the water. As long as I’m just aiming to paddle around, I’m good. Just don’t make me flip. Good thing we’re not planning on doing any white-water kayaking…)

So we had our first step towards our summer today. I think between that and the gorgeous weather, we all feel a bit rejuvenated.