Paddling Along

Lunch in a canoe? This is a first!

We decided to adventure out with Jonah in a canoe rented from Laacke & Joy's a couple of weekends ago, uncertain how he would react to being in the boat or if he would behave and sit down during the trip. Our goals were to introduce him to the river, see the city from another perspective, and enjoy a pleasant afternoon, whether that be for 15 minutes or a couple of hours.

We shouldn't have worried. Jonah was a great passenger in the canoe, starting off the trip sitting in front of me in the bow (meaning I could really only row from one side). He enjoyed going under all of the pedestrian, car, and train bridges, calling for "another bridge" as soon as we passed under the previous one. After heading south from Laacke & Joy's, we headed west past the Harley Davidson Museum and tied up next to some fallen trees to eat a picnic lunch. At this point, we moved Jonah to the center of the canoe, where he stayed for the remainder of the trip.

Relaxing in the shade with Daddy.

Checking out the scenery.

After lunch, we headed a bit further west before turning around. We were sensing that Jonah was beginning to get tired (it was approaching or past his regular nap time at this point). He put his head down a few times on the yoke such that we thought he had fallen asleep sitting up, and then he leaned back onto the floor of the canoe as if prepared to take a nap (we helped him out by covering his eyes with his hat):

I just had lunch and I'm out on the water. Isn't a nap in order?

In the end, Jonah didn't fall asleep in the canoe, but it didn't take long at all for him to fall asleep in the car on the way home (all three of us took naps of varying lengths at home). When we asked him later in the evening what he remembered of the trip, he surprised us by noting "dead fish." Dead fish had been rather plentiful at the beginning and end of our journey (north of Knapp), but we hadn't realized that he'd picked up on our conversation about them, which just goes to show that you don't know what sticks out in the mind of a toddler!