Last Day of Vacation. After trying to cram as much fun as possible into three hectic days, we were ready to relax. We got that on Wednesday, when we decided to go canoeing with Shenandoah River Outfitters. Last year, when we went canoeing in Tennessee, the owners said they thought our kids were old enough to go down the river in their own kayaks. So we thought it would be a good idea to try it here in Shenandoah. However, the lady at this operation highly discouraged that plan. That was okay with me, since it would mean renting 2 canoes instead of 3 kayaks & 1 canoe (quite a bit cheaper). Elisabeth & Matthew were a little disappointed, but in the end it worked out well with Stacy & Matthew Jr in one canoe, while Elisabeth, Rebekah, & I rode in the other canoe. I really liked the way that Shenandoah River Outfitters work. They had us leave our van at the end point, then picked us up and took us to the starting point. When we have canoed before, we have to wait forever before they will get us into the river, and then we have to wait again for them to come pick us up. Here, they had us ready to go 15 minutes after we arrived. Since they had us drive to the end spot, we didn't have to wait at all when we were done. We simply left the canoes at the end and took the paddles back to them in order to get our deposit back.
We started the trip at Bixler's Bridge at about 11:30am. This river was much deeper & wider than the one we went on in Tennessee, so it was probably good that we rented the canoes we did. The wind was strong and whenever you got the canoe slightly off course the wind would blow the canoe around. We may have spent more time going backwards than forwards. Occasionally the wind was so strong that we were actually pushed upstream. Since most of the land around the river is privately owned, there wasn't a good place to stop and eat lunch. We ended up eating lunch in the canoe. There wasn't a great deal of wildlife, but we did see a few turtles and a Great Blue Heron. We ended the trip around 3:30pm at mile marker 8.
Once that was over, we went back to the cabin and played another game of Carcassonne. After dinner we headed to Page Valley Baptist Church. Our vacation was over and tomorrow we would head back home. The weather was perfect all week long, it never rained and it didn't get too hot. We got as much in as we possibly could in the few short days we had, but we didn't get everything that was available. If we ever go back, there are a few places that I would like to visit:
So Thursday we packed up our minivan and made the ~10 hour trip back home. It was an exciting vacation full of activity and excitement. But after all that we did, we were ready to get back to our normal routine (Of course we didn't but that is another story).
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