Once more for June
last update: 06/30 @ 19:17

Nice day to be out on the river.

It was about 90 degrees — cooler than the rest of the week is forecast to be — and 2.94 so getting summer low but not too low yet.

I anticipate Sarah and I will get the packrafts out again soon.

I ran into two classes of Calleva boaters (and saw a raft upstream where we often see the heron).

These guys in inflatables were coming downstream from Mather Gorge (Maybe they put in at fisherman’s eddy below Great Falls?).

And they met up with a group of hard boaters playing around at the Maryland chute.

I even briefly helped with one errant boat on my way back to the take out.

I Voted
last update: 06/23 @ 18:50

As I’m currently scheduled to work the August 4th primary election, and the weather was cool under the clouds, I voted early today.

Now I’m waiting to see if Robert will give me an excuse to skip my (long) day at the polling place 8/4.

He is planning to get a job and stay in Seattle or, perhaps, stay in Seattle and get a job — the order is not clear.

Either way, he has to be out of his UW apartment by late August. We offered to help move out (either into a new place in the greater Seattle hood or back east if he’d prefer — which he does not).

So the timing of that move will likely impact my election day shift.

Either way, I’ve done my civic duty, and you should too if you have primaries coming up.

GRADUATION!!!
last update: 06/18 @ 16:59

We’re back from celebrating Robert’s UW GRADUATION in Seattle. It was a fun trip, great to meet more of his friends and to see him conclude this phase of his educational journey.

There are many more photos in the travel section. But I’m not sure any others turned out this well.

Comparision
last update: 06/05 @ 18:41

I can’t remember the last time I was out on the river two days in a row.

I wanted to head back to the same spot in the canoe and see how I think the two watercraft compare. (It was a little warmer today and the level down just a bit to 3.6 but very similar.)

I think I can be confident that the packrafts are unlikely to stand up to 10 years of use as well as the canoe has. I don’t see any issues with them yet but I just don’t believe they will still be river-worthy in ten years — but I’m happy to be proven wrong.

Both are really fun boats to paddle. I will admit to laughing out loud yesterday after surfing in the packraft, it was just FUN.

I feel more stable in the packraft and the benefits of two blades on the paddle make it easier to deal with swirly currents. I feel like I need to think more about what I’m doing in the canoe. I spent a long time looking at Hollywood rapid on the James the last time we visited and thinking about how I might run it in my canoe (I used to run it all the time with little thought in a kayak.) I think I’d just paddle the packraft as I used to paddle my Mirage and later Pro Jet.

And I’m confident (but don’t have experience yet) that a swim in the packraft will be a quicker recovery — it’s so much lighter and being self-bailing, won’t hold much water at all.

And I can walk normally much more quickly after getting out of the packraft than getting off my knees and out of the canoe. Obvious but worth stating: portage and getting from the car to the river and back are much easier with a ˜10 pound packraft.

I had a lot of fun in the canoe today — and ran into two other canoes playing the same spot. I’m not ready to trade one for the other.

I’ll just enjoy having great options for now :)

As promised…
last update: 06/04 @ 18:51

… I took more than one photo this time. This one is not too bad.

It was about 88 degrees, blue sky, low humidity (for DC) and the river was about 3.8.

We had fun in the Packrafts at Angler’s Inn. We paddled up the back channel and portaged just a little bit (because they are so light).

That let up paddle down the Maryland chute before playing around a bit.

I had no trouble crossing the Maryland chute hole — they are nicely stable boats.

And even got on the Virginia chute wave for a bit of surfing.

Oh, and we were butterfly buzzed.

This guy stayed with us for a little while as we recombobulated after the short portage.

Lyle Lovett
last update: 06/01 @ 15:23

Finishing out Sarah’s birthday month, we headed to The Birchmere to see Lyle Lovett last night.

It was great fun and a good show with some new to us music along with some old favorites.

And we had a small world experience:

We joined a couple in the waiting area (outside the main music hall) while we waited for our number to called to find a seat in the main hall. (At the Birchmere, it’s open seating; you show up and get a number before the main doors open, then get to find a seat (all are good) when your number is called.)

It turns out they live in Fort Hunt and know Tom and Emily and Ken and Nancy from the swim team the kids all swam on.

We were about 25 spaces ahead of them in the seating order (A73 vs. B00). But just after we ordered dinner in the main hall, they sat down at our table to join us again.

They also tend to go left after they get into the music hall :)

A fun evening and good pre-show conversation.

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