Canoe !

Hello all!

Today Lori and I were blessed with wonderful weather and a happy tolerance for each other. Ya! We had a blast today.

Our moring started out with the two of us deciding to partake in a morning run. This is not unusual for Lori, for she often runs in the morning prior to work and chores. Me however, is another story. I hate running in the morning....and reminded Lori about that throughout our run. I need about 2 hours of awake time before I feel capable of accomplishing major goals and athletic adventures. Not Lori. She was pushing the pace, as I was dragging ass. Eventually, my mind felt alive. Then I just wanted the run over with because my body and mind were not synched up together....

After the run, Lori treated us to home-made pancakes. Yum! With good ol Maple syrup. We then decided to go for our inaugural canoe trip on the mighty Hocking River. We inherited my parents 17 foot fiberglass canoe this winter and have been anxious to get it into the water this spring. Lori packed a snack and some water along with our paddles and life-jackets. We threw the canoe on top of the Toyota truck, spotted a place on the map to "put-in" and off we went. Lori and I chose to go up stream first, considering that we might be a little tired on the return trip and would benefit from the downstream current as we became weary. During our upstream trip we spotted waterfowl, butterflies, and some mamal looking creature that was either an otter or a beaver. Lori thought that it was a penguin. I asked her if she had spotted any stingrays as well, but she noted that she had not. We were hoping for river shark, turtles, and catfish. But to no avail... Once we determined a stopping point, we pointed the canoe for land and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, our efforts to find a buried treasure was futile. Although Lori found an old pretty perfume bottle. We ate our snacks, talked politics, and skipped stones.

On our return trip downstream we saw a mama duck and her 10+ ducklings. She must have adopted some baby ducks or ran a Duck-day-care. We were amazed at how many little babies were following her around. As we got closer, they got faster. Those babies can really move when they spot danger.