Floating...

The second day Mikael and Katarina were here it was going to be a really hot day so we went floating down the Elk river! There are many different locations where you can rent canoes or kayaks for a day of fun. You get to choose your own time frame and then the people from the rental place come pick you up down the river. We got ours at Kozy Kamp and paid 40 USD / Kayak for an 8 miles float. We didn't really know what to expect since we had the small girls with us, but we hoped they'd do good and not get bored after 30 min. Just in case we told the manager that we might give them a call if we needed to retreat....

We brought fishing equipment, plenty of water, and a cooler with snacks like fruit and nuts ( we did forget alot of it in the car though...) and sandwiches. And of course sunscreen, and hats! We figured we were going to make it in about 5 h with alot of stops along the way. We also had one life-jacket for Jamie. ( The rest of us got from the rental company).

We left around 11 o'clock and the sun was already burning so it was very nice to go out in the water and swim... Elk River has very clear water with bottom and alot of different fish. ( Pearch, Sunfish, Suckers, Carp, Bass...) and of course also other animals..turtles..snakes..spiders. Even though I had my doubts about this trip together with the girls, we had an amazing, wonderful day! All of us enjoyed it very much! It was so relaxing to just float down the river. Natalie was in Mikael and Katarina's kayak the whole day, and Jamie just enjoyed it without trying to escape the boat or get bored. We did stop for swimming and fishing alot so I guess that was very necessary for Jamie to stay patient.Mikael got lucky a few times and actually caught 2 fish!

But of course..this day also included some extra drama ( or excitement)...When were halfway we got surprised by a smaller rain/storm with some extra dark gray clouds. We left the water in a hurry and searched for protection ( or mostly to get away from the water just in case of thunder..) up on the riverbank. The wind and rain got heavier (extreme with swedish measurements..) so at least I started to get real worried for what the dark clouds were gonna bring..( you can't really deny that we are in the tornado valley..) Jared was of course calm and played with Jamie in the rain... Mikael looked around the area and found an abandon barn a little bit up the road so while the wind and rain increased we ran up there to try to get out of the storm. Luckily we never got any thunder and lightning.. After 20 min or so in the barn we could get out again. It was a good thing that we found a place under roof because both girls were really wet and even if it was around 35 degrees C outside you can always start to freeze, so they got dry clothes and warmed up quickly again...puh  I can say I wasn't really scared but the adrenalin started to pump a little extra because I know what dangerous weather conditions can roll in very fast...  Anyway a short while after this little unplanned break we got sunshine and clear blue sky again!

We reached our goal around 5.30 p.m so all in all it took around 6 h. We were all very satisfied with the day and this is something I really recommend for everyone to do if you have the possibility. It's a good activity for all ages and since it's downstream the bodywork you do is minimal. I'm sure this is something we will do soon again!

Here are some pictures that Katarina took. I will put up more later...