In the summer of 2004 my friend Luke's family went on their annual canoeing trip and newsie682, Kate and I tagged along for all the fun. I don't know the name of the river that we went canoeing on, but it was at least two or three hours north of Grand Rapids MI. I remember first taking some pictures of newsie682 sleeping in the car and she hated the way they look (but I will put them on the internet anyway because she is so darn adorable). When we got there I also took some photos of Luke's family. You might notice a douche bag named Dave in those photos (in the reflection). He cut his own bangs just a few days before. Look how sexy they are.



Once newsie682 and I got into the water and were on our way we came into some difficult times in canoeing because we both really didn't know how to work together. We seemed to be both going the wrong way together at all times. And it didn't help at all to have all of these objects reaching out over the river where you can get slapped in the face with a branch as well as have a hell of a time attempting to turn all of these corners. On top of that, I was iterating how I felt that "women are fragile" and that I felt the need to protect her.



Total we had maybe 7 canoes with all of Luke's family and friends. Believe it or not I brought my digital camera in the canoe with me because we had this waterproof bag that you would fold over and tie together. About half way down newsie682 and I get stuck on top of this flat rock and I forced it a little too much with the oar and we totally flipped the canoe including our huge bag of stuff which gladly didn't get soaked. Newsie682 seemed mad, scared and soaked but somehow we managed to get all of our stuff and got back into the boat.



There was also another point in the ride where both our canoe and Kate and Luke's canoe got stuck in a huge stump that was difficult to dodge. So I took that opportunity to take some photos.



Overall it was a great time, but after all that drama of getting whacked in the face, flipped over, frustrated from not being able to control ourselves very well, and getting stuck in tree stumps we were pretty exhausted toward the end. Even though we had a nice selection of food midway when we stopped and ate lunch.



After the canoe trip we also went to a small Italian restaurant and all had food together. It was a really fun and exhausting day.