Well, it sounded like a good idea...

   I am beginning to think that life should come with a "Do you want to reconsider that?"button.

   Such as the time we decided to redo the entire outside of our home while remodeling the kitchen... Seemed like a good idea at the time.
And yes, it all worked out in the end.

Might have been handy to have one of those buttons around then. 

Just Saying...

   This button could not only be applied to the larger projects in life, but also to the smaller stuff...

   Like recently when we picked a beautiful weekend to go camping. We went biking, picking berries, aaannnndddd...

Canoeing!

Seems like a harmless enough decision from the picture.

Okay, one of us looks happy with the choice.

   What the picture doesn't tell you is that it was a little windy. Well, to be honest, quite a bit windy. And the water was high. So high that there were buoys to let boaters know where to go and where NOT to go due to flooding. Then there was the issue of a current. Did I mention that the water was a bit choppy?

   But we had a water map (of sorts) to tell us how to get to the river from the inlet where we rented the boats. All we had to do was paddle out a little bit, round an island (avoiding the NO BOATS area with the $250 violation fine) and enter the river, then when we were done, return to the tributary. What could go wrong?

I believe I mentioned that it was windy.

And the water was a bit choppy.

Did I also mention that the return voyage was upstream?

   I know I left out the part where the map wasn't especially helpful. So, even though we didn't end up in the NO BOATS area (with the $250 dollar fine), we didn't make it to the river either. Instead we found the lake. With even choppier water than the tributary. And a current that just wanted to suck boats out and never let them go again.

What we lack in muscle power and brilliance, we make up in sheer determination.

  

    After an hour an a half of serious paddling, we made it back to the dock. All three of us still in the boat. AND we brought back an extra life jacket that we found along the way! Such a deal. Of course now the rental agency is probably wondering what happened to that fourth passenger...

   My daughter learned that paddling can be a heck of a lot of work. Even more so in windy, choppy water conditions. She paddled for about fifteen minutes before discovering that current can also be a challenge.

   She also learned that her parents aren't much for reading and comprehending waterway maps. Nor are they particularly good with navigation .

   She may have realized that deciding who is captain ahead of time might have been a good choice as well.

So, has anyone seen a "Do you want to reconsider that?" button I could pick up?

In case we have any more brilliant ideas this summer.