kerplunk!

I'm not sure if I mentioned it last week (oh, I DID) but I really, really, really loved kayaking. I'm not going to lie, I've been researching and dreaming about buying one of my own. (Mike: "And then we'll have to buy a house on a lake. Where does it end?") But I'm also not totally without reason; I know that I should have more experience before I make a big commitment like that. Luckily for me, Mike was curious enough to want to try it too, so we expressed our patriotism this year not with fireworks but with a couple of hours at Chain o' Lakes State Park. (Incidentally, I think Chain o' Lakes has risen right to the top of my state parks rankings, though I really can't speak for Mike or the boys.)

We got up very early Monday morning ("WAY too early. Why do you do this to us?" -- Mike and the boys) and headed to the park to rent some kayaks ... only to discover that the kayaks they have are these weird ocean kayaks that have holes in them so you SIT in the water the whole time. Yuck! Mike and I passed on those, and opted instead for Nu-Canoes, sort of a cross between a canoe and a kayak, that seat two people. Henry went with me, and Max went with Mike, but Liam insisted that he didn't mind a wet butt, so he got a kayak, and off we went.

First we crossed Sand Lake, then we went all the way down the channel to Weber Lake. It was quiet and peaceful, and so much fun. Henry got a smaller paddle of his own, and he alternated between paddling and resting. Liam went way ahead (despite our warnings not to, naturally) because he's an expert now or something. Mike took a little while to get used to the paddling, but he and Max worked well together and had no problem keeping up. After Weber Lake, we headed along the channel to Mud Lake ... but then we ran into a huge, smelly algae bloom. We tried to keep going, but eventually it just got too gross, so we retraced our path back to Sand Lake.

At that point, we decided to take a little stretch and bathroom break, so we headed to the boat launch. Henry was feeling brave, so he decided to give the kayak a try, and wouldn't you know it, he took right to it! He was happily paddling away all by himself, and we were all very impressed.

The plan was to get back in our respective seats and take a different channel to Bowen Lake, but once we tried to implement that plan, everything turned sideways with a quickness. I mean that both literally and figuratively. Henry pitched a fit because he wanted to keep going in the kayak (despite having JUST complained seconds before that his arms were tired) instead of getting in the Nu-Canoe. We finally got him to sit down, and Liam was holding the canoe for me to get in, but Henry was still ranting, so we weren't as careful as we should have been. Liam thought I was fully seated, so he let go, not realizing that I was still in the motion of sitting down ... so I went right over the side. Oops. I was totally soaked, but the bigger issue was that my phone also went for a swim.

As you can imagine, all water activity came to an abrupt end at that point. We returned our boats and paddles and life jackets, then rushed back to the van, where I had the extremely uncomfortable experience of trying to change out of wet clothes in the back of the van. Thank goodness for tinted windows! Once we were all dry and back on the road, I finally realized that I should power the phone off and wrap it in a towel (I had, of course, already dried the surface). I did a little on-the-fly research using Mike's phone, so our next stop was Menard's, where we bought DampRid, a commercial desiccant. The one that seemed best was "fresh scent," and WOW was it fresh! So the phone went between two packs of this stuff, then got sealed in a plastic bag for 24 hours, and it seems to be working fine again -- praise all available deities. And before you tell me how dumb it was to have my phone on me, allow me to present the following pieces of clarifying information: 1. I had already ordered a waterproof case AND a float strap, they just hadn't arrived yet. 2. I had plastic baggies in my pocket, but I just hadn't put the phone back in after the bathroom break/kayak crisis. 3. I KNOW. believe me, I know.