A New Experience

At the forest preserve where we like to go biking, there is a place to rent canoes and kayaks. Though I did not expect that we would ever go canoeing there as a family.

I had canoed as a young adult and my experiences then led me to believe that all couples should go canoeing together as it is the ultimate test of compatibility and tolerance. Alas, my wife and I never went canoeing, and as we are already married, why risk such a test? ;)

I also did not think that my son would particularly want to go canoeing. After all, Kai is scared of many things that he has not tried before. And though the canoe appears benign enough, you can never tell with him.

So I was surprised last weekend when we were over there bicycling that he said he wanted to go canoeing. We did not have time then, but told him we would come back again.

And that’s what we did on Saturday.

The waters are that of the Skokie Lagoons, a place that is perfect for beginners, or for families who have boys who are anxious about everything. The waters are very calm, and it could not have been easier to navigate around. It was quite a contrast from the canoeing I had done on rivers.

Kai enjoyed it.

Though he kept asking me the time. The rental was for a one hour minimum, though you could stay as long as you want with every 15 minutes prorated. But Kai kept worrying that we would go longer than an hour, no matter how much we told him that it was okay if we did.

We made it back in about an hour. I could have stayed out there longer as it was such a beautiful fall day. But better to cut it short and still have smiles on our faces than to risk staying out too long.

As a family, we had passed the canoeing compatibility test.

Tommorrow: First time out on Kai's new bike