Canoe: #40

Last Monday was Memorial Day. Since Mr. Pea was off work, we decided to fill our day with special adventures. Since part of the day would be spent canoeing, I made sweetPea a special bento for her very first canoe trip. In this bento are a cream cheese and strawberry balsamic jam on a croissant with a cheddar cheese canoe with provolone paddles. She also has strawberries and snap peas from our own garden and some Pirate's Booty.

What's that? Stawberry balsamic jam? Yes. I canned some of the best jam I've ever made on Saturday using strawberries from our front yard patch. Apparently, just a smidge of balsamic vinegar makes strawberry jam absolutely sing. 

Here are some of the beautiful berries from our garden and the finished jam. 

I also packed lunch for the adults. My bento contains egg salad on a croissant, pasta salad, and strawberries and snap peas from our garden. 

After a 7 mile canoe trip, lunch was a welcome respite. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures on the trip itself. I was afraid to take along my camera, although I think it would have been fine. I didn't want to chance dunking my camera in the water. I kind of regret it now, considering how many picture worthy moments we had. We saw a big fish chasing a little fish, loads of turtles sunning themselves on rocks, a mama mallard with her little baby mallards, a snake playing in the riffles, a dog wearing a doggy life jacket swimming alongside another canoe. 

sweetPea sat in the center while Mr. Pea and I did most of the paddling. We had plenty of moments of rest because the river was still fairly high and running at a lazy pace. It was nice to set down the paddles and just listen to the birds talk to one another and watch the sun sparkle on the water. It was a record day for heat, but on the river it was quite comfortable. 

No canoe trip could be complete without at least one round of "Row, row, row your boat." Apparently Pea thinks the song ends with "Like a spider dream". Ha!!

After the canoe trip, we had lunch in the shade near a dam in the Blue River (which looks pretty green, by the way). 

Our day wasn't over at this point. Next we went to Marengo Cave and took the Crystal Palace tour. It was a nice cool walk after a hot day on the river. There are loads of stalactites and stalagmites, culminating in the Crystal Palace room itself. I'll be honest - it's hard to take pictures in a cave, but here's the best I could do.

After the tour, we had the option of panning for gemstones (for a small fee, of course). 

We were pretty worn out by this time, so we headed home. sweetPea said it was the best day she'd ever had. She asked me yesterday when we're going canoeing again. :)