Canoeing As A Contact Sport

Cristina, Susan, Elizabeth, Leslee, Janna, Dada, Marilyn

One of the advantages of having your children go off and figure out how to be grown ups is the opportunity for us grown ups to occasionally go off and remember how to be children. Florida temperatures have finally stopped rivaling the surface of the sun and the open road was calling SO off we went to Mount Dora – a funky little town about 2 hours northeast of Tampa. We landed at The Historic Lakeside Inn, (established in 1883 and it is entirely possible neither the carpet or plumbing has been updated since) on Friday night, enjoyed poolside cocktails and hors dourves (thank you Marilyn!) and arrived at Juniper Springs late Saturday morning to embark on a healthy 7-mile river run. Inga, park ranger/canoe gatekeeper/sister of Eva Braun, tried her best to discourage the group….
“Ladies, you are aware that this is a very difficult run, yes?”
We laugh at difficult.
“You know there are two places where you must portage your canoe, yes?”
We show her our Body Pump biceps.
“You are aware there is a $5,000 fine if you are discovered with alcohol or disposables allowed on the river, yes?”
OK, now we might be a teensy discouraged but decide wine decants into nicely into water bottles (which Inga sells for $1) and make a note that next time we bring sangria… er... “fruit punch”.
Turns out Inga wasn’t lying.
The current was fast, the run pretty tortuous and it seems Janna and I have an uncanny ability to find EVERY LAST obstacle in the river. It was embarrassing, really… but the real “special” moment came when we actually managed to flip the freaking canoe. Yep… that was mighty special all right. Almost as special as the world class bruises we both earned.
Somewhere, I know Inga is laughing.