A River Rafting Adventure

The first day of our cruise adventure was spent in the beautiful city of Quebec!  It was sunny and warm and lovely.  Unlike most of the rest of the foggy, cloudy rainy cruise.  But that is a tale for another day!  About ten of our group of 36 decided to go River Rafting on the Jacques Cartier River.  It promised a swift flowing river with a few mild rapids.  My in-laws surprisingly wanted to go--they don't swim!  But I was excited for them to be brave and go where they had never gone before!  

The first adventure proved to be in the bathroom where we put on wet suits.  Do you see the lady on the far left in the picture below?   Eva started giggling and was pretty much in hysterics by the time she was dressed.  I don't know about the guys, but the women made a group effort of putting on these neoprene figure flattering costumes.  You put on the pants portion and pull them up as high as you can.  Then your friend helps you by pulling.  I don't really see Les and his friends doing this in the guys bathroom but you never know!  Only one fingernail was broken in the excitement!

Can you believe we posed for this picture?  They aren't quite as unflattering as you'd expect.   But look at my husband.  His suit has wrinkles and looseness in it.  Ummm.  Do you see any in mine?

The scariest part of the whole rafting experience was getting the raft to the 'put-in.' We had to carry a big rubber raft on our heads, down a steep slope fraught with mud holes, snaky roots, big logs and treacherous footing in general.  The raft was quite heavy and I was afraid a few times I was going to fall and hurt myself and others!  And what if I fell against a branch and poked a hole in the raft?  How embarrassing!  Not that it is embarrassing wearing a wet suit and a red helmet and carrying a raft on your head.  No that wasn't embarrassing at all.  I guess that was the point of the scary journey down the hill.  We were to worried about bodily injuries to be concerned about bodily flaws!

The worst rapids in the river were at the very beginning of the trip and they weren't bad at all.  But it was so fun and beautiful even though it wasn't a thrill ride.  We saw a bald eagle and lots of waterfalls!  

That happy group above is gathered around a giant pile of dog doo but they don't know it yet!  And since I'm an information specialist, I marched over to alert them so that no one would step in it.  And they didn't.

But sadly, I did!  Just Molly and me and poop on my shoe!  It was a lovely picture before I discovered the reality!  I'm a farm girl so I knew just what to do to get it off.  Since none of my mom's kitchen knives were handy, I took a little walk, down to the river bank.  

I scuffed my feet in the grass all the way, and then swished the sole of my shoe in the water, then scuffed some more on the gravelly river bank.  Then I hunted for a stick.  Darn those athletic shoes and their intricate sole patterns!

My husband loves me--poopy shoe or not.  However I do notice that he's keeping his feet far from mine!