The kids got up early and went out to the lake to go fishing with Ron and Papa… so Rick and I slept in. Can’t beat that! I got up and had my coffee and bagel while sitting on the porch, trying to identify all the different birds chirping around me.
The kids came back at about 9 am with all sorts of fish stories to tell… Riley caught TWO fish and Violet caught another one! Riley was so excited to tell us all about the fish he caught – first with Ron on the shore, then with Papa on the boat. Both were pretty big fish, too (although, of course Violet insists they were nowhere near the size of *her* fish).
Riley spent the rest of the morning playing Pokemon video games with Noah while Rick, Violet, and I went for a hike up to the top of the rocky hill on the property. When we got up there, the view was incredible – 360 degrees of gorgeous scenery. We could see all the ranch, trees, houses, horses, lakes and streams, and beautiful mountains in the distance. It was awesome. Violet commented that we should have brought a sack lunch to have on the top of the rocks and I totally agreed. But of course, we didn’t, so we headed back down the hill, retracing our steps. Fortunately for us, Violet left us markers on the trail so we could find our way back – four daisies that she had picked along the way. She is such a little adventurer!
Upon returning, I made us some grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and we planned the afternoon. We decided it was a perfect day for river rafting, so we scheduled a family raft trip on the San Juan River that flows through town. The rafts are big – holding as many as 12 people at a time – so we weren’t sure who would be going with us.
When we got there, we saw another family of 7 waiting for the afternoon rafting trip. But there were two boats! Maybe we would be lucky and have our own! After getting suited up with our PFDs and learning all the different techniques for surviving if we were to fall out of the raft, we got to ride a fantastic rainbow-colored school bus, dubbed the “Tube Bus”. Every inch of the bus was covered in some sort of paint or picture or graffiti – things like “raft guides do it in the rapids” and “tu-be or not tu-be… that is the question.” People who have ridden in the bus all seemed to have left their mark somehow – signing their names, adding a doodle, or writing a note. There wasn’t anything offensive, and I didn’t see any profanity at all. It was the perfect distraction whole we rode up to the launch site.
Matt, a young guy with shaggy brown hair and tanned muscles, had just gotten out of the Marine Corps. He moved to Pagosa in April for a change of pace after his years in the military (including several months of deployment to Kuwait and Africa). His goal is to spend the summer rafting and guiding and the winter as a ski bum. After that, he will figure out if he wants to stay here or move on. He loves his job as a river guide, and on his days off he searches for more challenging rapids to ride in his kayak.
He was the perfect guide for us – strong enough to handle the river on his own, so even if the kids didn’t paddle we were just fine. Rick and I helped out a bit, but the ride was definitely easy, and allowed us to have some good conversation with him as we enjoyed our six mile boat trip. The kids were sitting right in the front and they had an awesome time. Every little wave of the rapids elicited screams of glee from the two of them – and they dutifully paddled when instructed.
Papa took photos of us as we passed under the bridge in town, and the rafting photographer caught us as we went over the big wave in town. The pictures were sooo great and I had to buy them. Of course after I had paid the $45 they told me that the CD they put it on wouldn’t run on Windows Vista (huh?). The photographer came back and said she would go ahead and copy it onto another CD that is Vista compatible (perhaps she should have just done that in the first place??) but I would have to pick it up the next day. SIGH.
We did a little shopping and then drove back home to watch the College World Series. Unfortunately our friend’s team didn’t win, but it was still fun to watch… for baseball, anyway. We occupied our time by playing games. Violet and I played Scrabble and Riley and Rick played Go Fish.
We had dinner in town at a Mexican restaurant that served the YUMMIEST margaritas (mmmm…. Mango margarita!) and super good food. The kids drew hysterical pictures on their placemats and we all enjoyed the relaxing meal together.
We came home and planned on playing cards till the wee hours, but apparently the alcohol affected me a bit more than usual because the second we came in, I crashed on the bed, completely exhausted. It was another wonderful day in Pagosa. I still want to live here.
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