Canoe Trip on the narrows of the Harpeth River

Wednesday turned out to be a perfect day to pack up the kids and head to Foggy Bottom Canoe rentals for a trip down the Harpeth River. Arianne and I felt brave taking 5 kids in 2 canoes without the men. It was a happy 40 minute drive to the canoe rental. From there, they load us & our gear into a van to take us to the Harpeth. On the drive in the van, we passed an old country cemetry. Rachel asked what it was and after I told her it was a cemetry, she asked, "Where's Michael Jackson?" We remembered that children with snacks are much happier than children without food, so we packed up the coolers and goodies. Sure enough, they ate whenever they sat down in the canoe. I suppose that's because whenever we'd stop at a "beach" (aka, rocky space of shore) they just wanted to float, jump and play in the river. At one stop there was a gigantic fallen tree in the water. They jumped off that tree trunk a thousand times.

Here's David thinking hard about the jump. Sure enough he went head-under water and was very proud of himself. This morning, he whispered to me while snuggling in bed, "Mommy, I can really swim now. I'm a swimmer boy."
Eli and Noah were willing and very able to be front paddlers but later decided they wanted a canoe to themselves. Wanting to try it herself, Noah shared his paddle with Rachel for a short time. She thoroughly enjoyed it, as shown in the picture where she's striking a pose!It didn't take long for the kids to realize that they could ALL be one canoe without the mommies. They zig-zagged down the river and it was very hysterical to watch. Eli and Noah were paddling to constantly correct their direction. Rachel, David & Erika were pointing at interesting things along the riverbank, asking the boys to go this way or that. At one point we overheard Noah say to Eli, "I don't think they know how hard this is."

Suddenly, the kids realized that they could float in the water alongside the canoe. Then, Noah & Eli wanted to float. So, next thing we know, Arianne & I have their canoe tied to the back of ours and we're paddling 2 canoes and dragging 5 kids down the river. Now that, was a workout!

The kids found crabs, snails and shells in the water. We saw a large family of ducks and a little-too-big-for-comfort river snake sunbathing on a large rock in the middle of the water. We pointed out the snake to the kids and talked about it. Think they were scared? No...about 30 seconds later Rachel asked if we could stop and swim again.

We took a 7-mile trip that the outfitter said was a 2-3 hour journey. We put into the river at 11:45am and were finished at 4:30pm. I guess we wanted the adventure to last - it was a great day.