Vacation Day 3

May 31st, Day 3
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Today has been a very hot, but pretty chill kind of day. Our plans were cut short a bit due to Jason tweaking something in his foot yesterday (possibly while I was whacking tennis balls hither and tither for him to fetch) and not feeling up to walking around a lot today. No matter though since it's vacation and who needs to stick to a planned schedule of "fun"? Fun happens best when not on a schedule. That's what I think anyway. So, even though we didn't end up exploring Colonial Williamsburg today, we know we'll get to it eventually this week. No worries. Vacation continues on.

Today's adventures: Row boating. Oh, so many hoorays are in order here. There's a park here, Waller Mill Park, that provides all kinds of nicely-priced adventure opportunies. They let you rent out paddle/pedal boats, kayaks, fishing boats, or just a simple row boat for as cheap as $5/hr. There are also several nature trails to wander about on and a 2 mile bike trail. The entire park is beautifully set in a forest-y realm with tall towering trees and a decently sized body of water for all of the boating adventures. It was pretty near perfect for our row boat outing.

The sun was out in full force today, and the humidity was also doing more than its share of beating down our anti-sweat defenses. By the time we left Waller Mill, we had all kinds of attractive sweat patterns decorating the back of our shirts. I was even disgusted at how disgusting I was. What a success! Speaking of the weather, I have to bring this up: Even though I realize that Williamsburg is only 5 hours away from Newark, I can't help but think that Virginia is a southern state and Delaware is a "more northern" state, not just geographically (which is obvious) but also climate wise. Jason laughs at me and points out that the difference is like that between Tulsa and Fort Worth, only a minimal climate change at best. While I realize he's right (in that it's such a short distance from the 2 points, thus making the differences hardly worth mentioning), my head still argues against this "logic." For 1, obviously Virginia is south of Delaware, and if Delaware is hardly a northern state, then Virginia is most definitely a southern state. For 2, when we left Delaware, it had been getting warmer, but it was nowhere near the heat that we've been having the past couple of days down here in Williamsburg. Yes, I realize we've been doing extensive outdoor things down here, making the heat seem worse, and yes, I realize that this may just be a heat wave that's coming through this week (I don't know for sure because we don't have internet here to check weather.com [we would have to pay for it and who needs to waste time internet-ing when you're on vacation?]), but seriously... It only adds to my conviction that Virginia is a noticeably hotter (ie. less pleasant) state than Delaware, and thus, a less desirable a place to live. The beauty is top notch, but I think I'm still good with Delaware. Ok, enough said. Moving on.

Consider this my official checking off of "rowing a boat" from my to-do-before-I-am-unable list: The boat has been rowed. Done. Check. It was a ton of fun. Plus, it was actually a pretty relaxing activity, which surprised me a little. I suppose in my mind I've always thought of my rowing a boat happening in a situation where I'm trying to out race a brewing storm or a killer rainbow fish. Naturally, that type of situation would be much more dire and stressful. In my imaginings, I'm always an excellent boatman who rows as if she were born with the oars melded to her hands (ouch for my birth mother). There is no learning curve, no need for instruction. I simply see the impending danger and row swiftly to safety. The speed at which my boat is cutting through the waters is only topped by the beauty of my rowing form. It is magnificence in its purest form. As it turns out, rowing a boat does not have to be all gung-ho and frantic (though beautiful). It can be extremely peaceful and satisfying. As there were no dangerous goldfish in our general vicinity and the sky was as clear as <insert name of very clear object>, our boating adventure today was of the serene type. It was perfect.

Obviously, the next question is whether or not the rowing came as naturally to me as my imagination suggested it would. The answer would be a... resounding... almost. I doubt that I would have been able to compete in Yale's boat rowing competition, but after a few minutes, I could most definitely out row the flock of mosquitoes that attempted to ambush us. Sure, if I attempted to row in a nice straight line it could probably only honestly be called 64% successful. But, seriously, who wants to row in a straight line? Zigging and zagging is so much more creative. Plus, any pictures you take are all at different angles, which is always a good thing, no? Many of my traits or characteristics can be labeled as monotonous, but not my rowing! This pleases me.

Jason started off the rowing since I don't like to try new things that I'm unfamiliar with while other random people are watching (in this case, the boatman who cast us off, and a group of picnic-ers). Plus, he's done it before. Our boat was a small, 3-seat, entirely metal boat that was so hot you could have scrambled an egg on it. We had to sit on cushions provided by the park and were warned not to let any skin touch any part of the boat. Just to see what would happen, I touched the seat with my finger - it was like accidentally touching the oven door with your elbow. Ousch. We were asked by the boatman if we were ok with the tiny boat. As we are pretty agreeable people, we quickly voiced that it "looked good!" Just as we okayed the boat, I heard the boatman add one last tiny bit of extra info: "...it's more unstable than the others." Sigh. Of course we get the most unstable boat. But if there's something I hate worse than the possibility of falling into dark, unknown waters due to boat instability, it would be that I hate changing my mind due to cowardly whims. Unstable or not, this was our boat!

Turns out, as long as you're super careful in a potentially unstable boat, you will not be dumped into the murky depths. Hurrah. Jason rowed for a while and then let me row for a good portion. We switched places by doing a delicate dance along the middle line of the boat. It would have been hilarious to watch as an outsider, but we were too smart to allow ourselves to be a free spectacle and did our switcharoo in a small nook of the lake, trees blocking the view from laughing eyes. I picked up rowing pretty quickly with a few minor oops moments in the first 5 minutes. It was a blast. Since the boat wasn't one big enough for both of us to sit next to each other and each row one side, I would say that it wasn't quite up to the excitement of our kayaking adventure last year, but it was still pretty neat. I like that the rower is able to look at the non-rower. I like that you can chant "big circles, big circles" as you row. I like that you feel like a pro rower as long as you see the trees floating by at some kind of rate. Rowing a boat = good times.

Even though we didn't do much more today because of Jason's foot, it was most definitely a successful vacation day. Boy, heat sure is tiring though.

Also, I love Jason like crazy. How can someone be so sweet and considerate and funny and mine?