Kayaking.

A few weekends ago, we took an impromptu kayaking trip with some guys from Jasmine's softball team. I had never been legit kayaking.. and didn't really know what to expect. But I CAN tell you, I didn't expect them to just dump us out at the top of the river with zero instruction.

Also, let me mention that this was during the month of monsoons that Georgia was having.. so the river was beyond full. When we crossed the bridge on our way to the kayaking place, and saw the river below, we started wondering what we had gotten ourselves into. And then as we started driving on the winding, muddy roads to get to the kayaking place we reeeally started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into.

But we caught on within no time.
Yeah, we may have fallen out a time or two.. or three...
but it was a blast.

We all just kind of formed a big party barge, 8 people/kayaks across, as we let the river carry us down for the first few miles. Midway through we stopped for lunch, and those boys mean business when they plan a kayaking trip. Portable grill, bratwursts, the whole shabang. I think that may have been the best bratwurst I've ever had.

Then it was back onto the river for the last 7 miles.
We ended up doing 11 miles total, and we literally spent the whole day out there. Arriving at 9:30, and ending around 6:30. We were worn out.

The first half of the river was pretty laid back and easy, but the second half was more fast-paced with the rapids. At one part we went over a waterfall, which was terrifying.. but definitely worth it. ;)

Around the last mile it started raining pretty badly on us, and we came to some fast-paced rapids that were pretty scary. It's like you can't paddle hard enough to get you where you need to go... and I ended up getting dumped out of the kayak in the midst of the rapids. My adrenaline kicked in and I managed to grab my kayak, but I got swept along in the current and it was pretty scary. My legs were slamming against rocks.. and it feels like you're literally helpless when you're in fast-moving water like that. There's nothing you can do to stop yourself. It all ended up being fine after we passed that rough patch, my kayak just suffered some damage-- it filled with water all along that last stretch. And my leg had an awesome battle wound for the books. ;)

We survived our first kayaking trip though, and we can't wait to go back.
And you best beliiiieeeve we devoured some McDonald's Big Macs and french fries after that day on the river. That was some serious work!

And... the waterproof camera survived the trip too. That's a success! I forgot how to operate the old school disposable cameras... they're so much fun to get developed. The pictures are a mystery. ;)