Rolling Down The River

A little known fact about Jake and I is that we had never dared to leave our children to take a trip, however short, by ourselves.  I am not proud of it.  It’s one of the very few ways in which I have allowed having a child with special needs to limit scope of our lives.  We try, to the best of our abilities, to live a very normal, productive, enjoyable, and fulfilling life, but leaving the kids for longer than just a date night has always been hard for me.

So it’s been 8 years since we took a trip without kids.  And this summer, I decided… it was time.  I lined up two of the best babysitters that anyone could imagine having for their kids, Brittany and Brooke, and with them both staying with my kids together, I was confident enough to take the plunge.  One of the favorite trips that Jake and I ever took was a 2 day whitewater rafting trip down the Kern River in CA. 

In 2005, our friend was a river guide at Whitewater Voyages, and took us on one of the most unforgettable adventures of our lives.  Fast forward nine years, and we were more than ready to return.

We did the same 2 day Lower Kern trip that we had taken the first time, and although the trip was by no means identical, we had an equally amazing experience.  I’ll spare you the full 5 star Yelp review, but you can check it out here if you’re wondering. 

We did the trip in I-K inflatable canoes, that is, with only Jake and I in our boat.  We managed pretty well all things considered, and we never flipped once.  One of our river guides even tried to recruit us to become river guides, which I took as the highest of complements!  I love rafting this river!

Miles and miles of this gorgeousness.

And we got our adventure fix.  Raising children is a wonderful adventure, but it (hopefully) doesn’t entail too much adrenaline.  Sometimes, you need to look elsewhere to get that feeling again.

 

Jake and I swam a few rapids just for fun.  I only got banged up the first time.  I had to make a few adjustments in my floating technique so I could hope to be able to sit again.

  

I love camping.  I have never had a bad camping trip.  But this one was definitely one of, if not the best of them all. 

 

This is where we slept.  I fell asleep to the sound of water rushing downstream.

 

This is only a glimpse of what we ate, while sitting beside the campfire.  Tri tip, salmon, chicken, sautéed vegetables, loaded salad, corn, garlic bread, fruit, and cheesecake!  And we didn’t spend a minute cooking or washing a single dish.  We felt so spoiled!

Literally, our view from our sleeping bags.  The largest moon of the summer shone over the river and us all night long.  If you know me, you know how I feel about moonlight.  I’m obsessed.  This blew me away.

 

I will always remember this trip.  It was exciting and enchanting, romantic and thrilling, exhausting and relaxing all at once.  It was worth the eight year wait.  And I can’t wait to take the kids!