Oct. 14--Kayaking!

Bob's big summer project this year involved researching and buying some kayaks for us.  He found great deals, but before he bought them, I wanted to know how exactly we were planning on getting 5 kayaks to any body of water, since there is not one out our back door!  Well, Bob is really great at thinking outside the box and engineering solutions no one else has thought of, so he designed this ingenious carrying thing for them that goes on the back of the big van!  He ran his design by the other guys in his office as well, just to get more feedback.

The base is actually a mesh frame that is supposed to be for a motorized wheelchair or something.  That shorter side you see in the picture below is actually a ramp so you could drive the wheelchair off.  So with the bottom and one side already in place, Bob bought long pieces of metal with holes in them (I know there's some name for them but I don't know it, and he's asleep, LOL) to make the rest of the frame.  He puts the kayaks in (all 5 fit, nestled together upright!), and he ties them all in with these racheting tightening orange tie thingies (that's just the technical term--ha!).  The whole contraption works great!

As you can see from the top picture, he bought a variety of sizes--there is one adult one, one "teen" one (that's the slightly darker yellow one on the end), and 3 kid ones.  We figured that would give the greatest amount of flexibility for who he takes. 

This afternoon we went out on the Potomac.  Jonathan, Anna, and Micah went, and I went too, for my very first time!  Bob has taken all the girls, as well as Caleb and Jonathan, out other times, both on the Potomac, as well as on a nearby lake.

It was a gorgeous afternoon for being on the water!  The only little snag was that really we need 2 adult kayaks, LOL.  Bob took the one adult one, and I was in the teen one-but I am really not a teen.  Ha!  So I spent my time feeling VERY unstable, rocking back and forth, watching Anna and Jonathan zip merrily up and down the river.  But I never tipped over!  Micah rode between Bob's legs.  He was not at all sure he really wanted to get in the boat, but once he got out there, he had a grand time.  I told them all that next time I would come, take pictures of them all on the water, and then settle onto one of the park benches overlooking the river and read my book! 

I think we'll be doing a lot more kayaking in the upcoming years!  (I also think we'll be getting another adult kayak, LOL.)