Father's Day
For Father's Day we joined friends, Paul and Meredith on on a canoe trip down the Russian River. They chose an outfitter that had wide, stable, inflatable canoes with plenty of room for us and Alina. Alina took the life vest much more easily than I expected and even with temperatures in teh upper 90's she seemed comfortable all day. We started out paddling/floating down the calm waters. I was in the front, Tatyana in the back and Alina was just in front of her in the middle. Somehow Alina got it in her head that there were alligators in the river, not scary ones, but perhaps like she had seeen in some of her books. So every oddly shapped river rock, or a branch sticking out became an "alligator"
We would collect rocks for Alina to throw into the water and stop on the occasional sandbar to play in the water and walk around before collecting more rocks for the next float. We lingered after a picnic lunch until we discovered that it was getting late in the afternoon and we hadn't really made much headway. So from then on it was paddling like we meant it. The canoes were heavy and a bit ungainly. Only at the end did we figure it might be better for one person to paddle from teh rear, with occasional help rather than both of us trying to keep sync. Slow spins mid-river were not uncommon. But there were no disasters, the girls had a great time and Alina conked out on the drive back. A great Father's Day present with my two favorite ladies.
