I can't even explain how perfect this day was. Sometimes things are better when you have pretty low expectations for them. We went to the REI Paddle Demo yesterday at Vancouver Lake with my friend Maureen who also has 4 children. It sounded OK when the guy at REI told us about it, but we thought it might be too crowded and I thought that somehow Irelin would be to young to go on a boat. Wow was I wrong.
We got to the beautiful lake on a crazy perfect weather day. As we were standing in the "we won't sue you" form line we notice you can see Mt. St Helens and Mt Hood on the other side of the motor boat free lake. We wait just long enough for the kids to get a short swim in and then we all got fitted for life jackets and paddles. After they give a short demo on how to use a paddle they set us free on a shore lined with at least 60 paddle boats. Single kayaks, double kayaks, canoes, sea kayaks, paddle boards, boats I don't know the name of, but I tried anyway. So family friendly, Quade and Avery could use a boat on their own as long as we stayed close.
I'm almost afraid to tell anyone because I don't want it to be overcrowded next year, but, you wont tell anyone, right?
