Day 38: Kayaking At Last!

Ready to unload at Cedar Lake

After completing what is now our morning routine, Gracie and I drove to Cedar Lake with the kayak.  One of the sweetest pleasures in life for this part Norwegian is being on the water in a boat: sailboat, canoe, motor boat, pontoon...kayak.  Any boat.  I had been easing up to this moment since Gracie arrived: taking her out in a boat with me.  I didn't want to go when it was too cold or too windy or too potentially stormy.  I wanted her to like it enough to be willing to do it again...and again and again.  This has been a summer when cold, windy, and stormy have ruled.  But yesterday and again today, the weather was perfect!  Having everything needed--life jackets, paddle, kayak--all ready to go and being very familiar with where we were going and the logistics of getting the boat to the water was a good start.  Now would Garcie go for it?  I know she is part King Charles Spaniel--but I don't know what else she is.  Spaniels are water dogs, though, so I was hopeful.  (Our last dog, Rex, was a Basenji.  He hated water and wouldn't even step in a puddle.  I would never have considered taking old Rex kayaking! Of course, Rex wasn't a Hearing Dog either.  He spent a lot of time--too much probably--at home alone.)

So far, so good!

Once we were parked, I told Gracie to "wait" while I untethered the kayak and took it down to the lake. I left her in her seat belt and opened a few windows in the car for air.  The model of patience, Gracie sat in the car watching me.  With the boat by the water, I got Gracie out of the car and into her life jacket.  No protests yet.  I got into my own jacket. 


No protests yet.












Bad smells smell good to me!

The water level in the lake is higher than it was last summer.  Because of this, there is not as much sand available for taking off and landing as there has been (all that rain!).  We found the best place to put the boat, but this was not an ideal spot.  Kayaks are tippy.  The first time I took this one out, it dumped me while I was trying to get in despite my years of boating experience.  When we practiced in the yard, I had envisioned getting in and then bringing Gracie in with me.  She is quite the jumper when she wants to be someplace.  I could tell that she didn't really want to be in the boat enough to jump in, though.  So I picked her up, and we got in together.  She was dubious, to say the least, but a good sport through and through.  She sat between my outstretched legs facing me with her head in my lap.  We had to wiggle ourselves into the water.  Thankfully, it was early enough in the morning to limit our audience to one lone dog walker, female.  Then suddenly we were floating!  A slight breeze found us.  "Good girl," I said as I scratched the top of Gracie's head.  Then we paddled off.  I wasn't just how long we would be able to stay out on the water.  But then I could feel Gracie relax.  As we cruised the shoreline, her nose found all the tantalizing lake smells, a combination of dead fish and algae.  "Smells good," I said and gave her head a comforting pat.  



Gracie securely in the car watching me
put the kayak back on the car rack.



We stayed out about an hour.  Then the wind started to pick up, and I decided that getting splashed wouldn't be something Gracie was going to like...at least, not yet.  So in we went.  For a moment I wondered if getting out was going to be a problem.  With the nose of the kayak firmly nestled in the wet clay of the bank, I took a moment to figure out what to do.  In that moment, a small crowd gathered.  Thankfully, age and other things related and not related to that have left me immune to embarrassment.  I decided the only thing to do was set Gracie out of the Kayak which meant setting her in the water (about 2 inches of it).  Then I stood up myself.  We were out.  The show was over.  Our audience moved on.  We did it!  Not only did we do it, we had fun.  I took off Gracie's life jacket and put her in the car.  She was content to watch me put the boat away.  Now we can add boating to our list of things we can and will definitely do more of with each other!