I love traveling, exploring and adventuring. I just simply enjoy trying new things, being outside, and making the most memories I can with my family. I suffer from extensive cabin fever.
As the kids get older, our summers continue to look a little different every year. Greg and I, obviously, have full time jobs, so for the most part the kids sit around the house all day doing nothing. I leave them chores to do and they have to read and do some online math practice, but for the most part, 15 plays video games and watches YouTube and 12 draws, watches YouTube, and/or facetimes all day with her BFF.
I typically feel horrible about this; like I’m a horrible parent. I know I’m not. Plus, 15 has football every day and soccer twice a week, and 12 has been swimming laps during her 2 week summer dance break. Thankfully the new season of dance started up this week, so she is back at the studio 10+ hours a week!
But, this doesn’t mean that I’m not still always looking for stuff to do to get them out of the house and enjoy their summer which can be a little tricky when it’s 120 degrees. I’m lucky enough to have Fridays off during the summer, well for about 6 or so weeks. This allows me an extra day to fill with something to get the kids out and into the real world. We went to the movies one week, 12 had her Company Showcase dance recital one week, but a little over a week ago, I decided to take them kayaking. No one in our house has ever been kayaking before, so I was so excited that it filled so many of my checkboxes - new, outside, and memory making!
I knew immediately that I wanted to go to Prescott, where it would be at least a little cooler and right now all the wildfires are in other parts of the state, so I was fairly confident that we wouldn’t have to cancel. The one lingering concern was the Tuesday before we went I came down with an absolutely horrible and miserable sinus infection. My ears hurt, my cheeks hurt, my head hurt and oh, my poor nose! I was so congested. Fortunately, I was feeling well enough by Friday, that I knew it wasn’t an issue. I mean, I still sounded like a man, but oh well, makes the video a little more humorous.
I made reservations through Prescott Outdoors. It was super easy and very reasonably priced! Through the website, you have the option to select Watson Lake, Goldwater Lake or Willow Lake. I have never been to Willow Lake, and I was initially thinking that I was going to go with Watson Lake, but in the end, I went with Goldwater Lake because it is in the Bradshaw mountains, and I wanted to be surrounded by trees and forests instead of rocks.
I regret nothing about going to Goldwater Lake. I will say that Watson Lake would have provided us more water surface area to explore. Goldwater Lake is fairly small and contained by a damn and the almost circular scope of the shoreline. But, when we arrived, the Kayak pickup area was very easy to find, which I was thankful for. My only complaint is that I emailed Prescott Outdoors twice, once was a reply to a reminder email they sent me, and I never got a response. So as long as you don’t have any major questions, they are great.
The two people working were super fun, friendly and helpful in getting us in our boats and helping us figure out what we needed to do. We were pretty sure that we would be capsizing most of the time we were out on the water, but they reassured us that tipping over is actually pretty rare in kayaks. I’m happy to report he told the truth! I rode with 12 in a double kayak, allowing 15 to have his own. No one went into the water!
15 picked it up very quickly and began zipping around the lake. I learned quickly that both 12 and I didn’t not need to be paddling at the same time. She got a little frustrated because she is stronger on her right, so we soon were going in a circle since she would alternate the sides of her strokes. Once I helped her refine her strokes and told her to double up on strokes on a particular side if she noticed we were drifting, so got much better and enjoyed it more. I would only paddle if we were trying to catch up with 15, get away from 15 or if 12 got tire
You MUST watch this video! It captures the experience perfectly! :)
It was so relaxing, and it was the best environment to learn about kayaking. We weren’t in the ocean or a huge lake or on the Colorado rapids. Just a small lake that wasn’t even really busy with too many people. There were a few moments when I had to tell 12 to paddle faster because there were some other boats that I wanted to make sure we didn’t collide with, primarily these two different canoes. One had two boys under the age of 10 and the other had two girls also both under the age of ten. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure there is an age restriction for boating alone. Ok, I know there’s not, but it just seemed weird since they had absolutely no idea what they were doing and no concept that there were other people on the lake.
We headed back to the shore at the perfect time. You know, that moment with the YMCA bus pulls up with 15 little kids ready to go boating? We maneuvered around what was sure to turn into some water shenanigans, and headed for the shore. The two people who helped us in spotted us and greeted us as we got close. I’m grateful for that because if they hadn’t been there to help us get out of the kayak, pretty sure we all would have ended up in the lake! And just like that our initial kayaking experience was over.
We have our next excursion booked to kayak in La Jolla, California later this week. So excited to do it again and to have Greg join in on the fun this time. Stay tuned for Kayaking 201!
Finally, we naturally worked up an appetite. And when in Prescott, there is only one place that is a requirement each and every time we visit… Bill’s Pizza! It is the absolute best pizza ever. I even ordered the largest size so there would be leftovers to bring home for Greg. I think he was more disappointment in missing out on the pizza than the kayaking! Just remember, next time you are in Prescott, AZ you must stop and get some pizza!
Lesson Learned:
Just imagine the double sided paddles as spoons. (Don’t know how that was supposed to help, but that’s what the guy at the kayaking place told me). Didn’t really help us row any better, but whatever.
You probably won’t capsize, unless you are a 15 year old who leans his whole body into a turn. Then you might panic and have to shuffle yourself around to save yourself.
If you are in a double kayak, let the other person row! :)
Kayaking can be very peaceful. I can imagine going out on the lake alone and just relaxing and floating around. Enjoying the mountain air, the calming breeze and the paddleboard yoga people.
It is SO much easier than I thought it was going to be. And, I’m totally glad that we chose kayaking over canoe. That just looked really boring.
Exploring and spending time with the kids is the absolute best thing ever. They spend so much time sitting around that it doesn’t matter if we only kayaked for an hour, laughing with them outside, doing something new made 15’s complaints about the long car ride up to Prescott worth it. You know the whole “how much longer?” questions… I’m amazed at how similar a 15 year old is to a 5 year old. But, I wouldn’t trade these moments for anything.
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