Elk Island adventures
Today my mother and all my sisters and I (a rare occurrence, since our schedules don't often align), and my niece and my sister's dog went out to Elk Island National park, about 45 minutes out of town. We were lucky it was a weekday, as it wasn't nearly as busy as all the other weekends I'd been there.
We rented a kayak from MEC and took my one sister's ex-boyfriend's canoe (hey, he was the one who left it at her house then moved to Utah), and we went out for a day on the lake.
I've been canoeing many a time before (my sister's are quite the outdoorsy type), but I've only been kayaking once before (avec Gee, Canada Day weekend), and even that was in single kayaks. This was a double, and the steering was just wrong. We all tried it, and even though we criticized others over their steering, it was the worst system ever! Breathe in, breathe out... ok, so it wasn't that bad, but it was designed really poorly. I'll leave it at that.
After all that we had a nice picnic, and we had a fun time teaching my baby niece how to hold a stick in her mouth and crawl around around like a dog, while also performing social experiments on her ("To Gabi, the boundaries of the picnic blanket aren't binding, yet she respects them." (You have to say it with an intellectual English accent).
Yes, I know, my family's strange... teehee.
Anyway, all in all it turned out to be a very nice, and relaxing, day!
By the way, that photo is taken from the beach were we spent the day. Unfortunately it's from Google, as we only had the film camera with us. But it looked exactly the same today (beautiful weather, only a little rain on the way home).
P.S. Sorry for all the brackets and commas and run-on sentences. I'm in a "jam-in-everything-related-to-the-topic" mood today.
5 comments:
Sounds like a fun time. I envy you that. I love canoing and I would love to try kayaking.
I would highly recommend kayaking. We decided that in a canoe not only is it harder to move, but you feel a lot more distance from the water than in a kayak. In a kayak you can sit and drift and dip your hand in the water (without tipping the boat :) )!
You're lucky to live in Quebec, there is so much nature there. In Edmonton (and Calgary), although it's only a short drive, most of the nicest places are being overrun with suburbs :( (one of the many downsides to the huge economy boom here).
It can get quite depressing.
Your family sounds like a fun group to take on a picnic! What a lovely day - hope you have more like that.
The place where we rent a cottage each summer has a kayak available, but I was too chicken to try it, as none of us had any experience. My brother has a kayak, however. He bought it from his summer student one year, whom he asked in the job interview "do you have a kayak for sale?" And the student did! Weird brother.
Thanks Barbara, my family is very fun (most of the time, lol)!
Kayaking is actually a lot easier than it looks. I learned this from my first time kayaking (my friends mom just told me get in and them pushed me off shore... fun fun!).
Your brother sounds really cool! And don't worry, I think my family is more strange :P !
Kayaking p0wns all. I'm sorry you got a bad one... In the summer, there is nothing like going out to the middle of a lake and just floating there with a book or something. Aaahh. ^_^
Your family sounds fun though! Insanity is a virtue!
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