Water Sports

The best part of having an empty nest is when the kids come home to visit. Our son, Dave, arrived last Friday from Philadelphia. It was great to spend time with him before the girls and our son-in-law got home late Saturday night. (Katie, our youngest, flew into Chicago from Boston, and Anne and Jason picked her up.) We had everyone together for only one short day.

Hmm...what to do?

We decided to rent a pontoon boat on Sunday afternoon. We cruised around White Lake, enjoying the sunshine and all-around gorgeous weather. We did a little swimming off the boat after the kids went tubing. Anne and Jason left to go back to Chesterton, Indiana after we got back to shore.

Unfortunately, Dave's visit came to an end on Monday. We got him to the airport Monday afternoon and Katie was left with the old folks. We spent time at the beach on Tuesday. (The guy with the boombox was quite entertaining as he got into the techno music he was listening to.)

Wednesday, we decided to go kayaking on the White River. We rented kayaks at the Happy Mohawk Canoe Livery. We had several options for trips. We chose the 3 hour paddle down stream. The bus would pick us up on the hour at the "trading post".

As we were making our way down the river, I started thinking about what kinds of things they would have at the trading post. I'm always up for a little shopping. I imagined snacks, of course, and maybe moccasins, beaded belts, and other leather crafts. I figured if we had to wait for the bus, we could do some browsing.

After 90 minutes of paddling, with blisters forming on my hands, I eagerly anticipated the trading post. My hopes would be up at every turn in the river, only to be dashed as we came around the bend. Finally, after two hours, we saw the sign. Also, as it was the top of the hour, the bus was there. Of course, that didn't leave much time for the trading post. The couple who was already there said they had just missed the bus from the last hour and had to wait for 55 minutes. I asked them if they went shopping in the trading post. They looked at me quizzically. Then I asked where the trading post was. The bus driver said there was a trading post at this spot years ago (circa 1800's), but it was gone now. I was so disappointed. This was false advertising. They had led us to believe we were going on a kayaking/shopping trip. So much for water sports.