Since my birthday fell on Labor Day this year, Phillip was able to be off for us to do something as a family for the day. We decided on a canoe trip down the Little Miami River. It's about 40 minutes from our house. We did the twelve mile canoe trip. And it was so much fun! The weather was pretty hot in the sun, but very comfortable in the shade. The water of the Little Miami was VERY cold! Well, cold to us anyway...we're used to the warmer waters of South Alabama!
We started canoeing around 12:30 or so. Phillip brought the little grill with some marinading steaks and some 'dogs for us to eat, along with snacks and drinks. We got two canoes--Phillip and Archie were in one and Morgan and I in the other. Archie kept swimming from his canoe to our canoe. Everything was getting pretty wet with all his getting in and out! He also enjoyed hanging on the back of the canoe in the water while Phillip paddled.
The river itself was kind of similar to the Nantahala in Georgia, where Mom and I went white water rafting when I was pregnant with Archie. Except the Little Miami was very shallow. Very. There were places where we couldn't touch the bottom with the paddles, but it didn't seem like many. I don't know if it was shallow because of the drought we're having here or if it is supposed to run shallow. Anyhow...it had lots of rocks on the bottom and the 'sand bars' weren't sandy at all, but comprised of a bunch of rocks. We are used to the Escatawpa River in Mississippi, but this one was a nice change. The rocks everywhere would make for a difficult camp out to do an overnight. Whereas the Escatawpa River has a bajillion camping places because you can camp on the sand bars which are actually made of sand. Not rocks. But the small rapids in the Little Miami River were a blast! We couldn't decide which river we liked canoeing better.
I found a fossil and a very pretty shell that was made of a mother-of-pearl type material. And a bunch of what I guessed were freshwater clams as well. There were very small rapids in the river, which were great fun to go through in the canoe.
It was so shallow that we ran our canoe aground several times. I made Morgan get out and pull the canoe through with me inside. Toward the end, she was done with that and I had to get out and pull!
About half way, we had our steak lunch and a swim. Since we didn't picnic in the shade at lunchtime, we were all pretty hot and ready for a cold dip. And boy did it feel good! We couldn't stay in for long (except for Archie, of course!) but the swim was really nice and refreshing.
We saw some bull frog tadpoles in a muddy place near where we had lunch. A whole bunch of them! We also saw some crawfish! They didn't look like Bayou-type crawfish that we eat in Alabama, but they were definitely crawfish. They were pretty fast too. I've never seen crawfish wild anywhere. And of course and in the pot or on my plate after I've boiled them!
We saw ducks as well. I've never seen ducks just out in the wild before. I always see them at parks or wildlife refuge kinds of places, but never just floating near my canoe. We saw some cute baby ones too. We saw lots of turtles, big and small...and even some soft shell turtles! I had never seen those before! They looked like they had pancakes for shells. Kind of flat.
We arrived soggy and tired back at the canoe place around 6 or 6:30. Definitely a full day! I think everyone had a fabulous time and it was an event to remember. What a great start to my 33'rd year!
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