Sunday, August 12, 2007

Splish Splash

Finally!! Proof of me wakeboarding (not of wakeboaring skills, mind you...but just of me actually being on a wakeboard behind a boat). You may want to wear your sunglasses to protect your eyes from the reflection of my white skin. Apparently the Oregon sun hasn't been as good to me as the California sun (though, let's face it...I'm Irish).



And in other water related news...I never got a chance to blog about my incredibly fun weekend at Detroit Lake a few weekends back (other than the jumping pictures, of course). We went out to the Lake to camp with Korie and her family...and it was a lovely time. I was reminded of how much I love camping and being in the woods. I am a fan of camping of all kinds, be it car camping with a community of fellow campers or backpacking into the lonesome woods. There is something great about sleeping outside and the slow, laid back pace that comes along with sitting by a campfire with little else to do. We took a walk on Friday night and got to know the locals.


Jeni and I played a riveting game of don't touch the ground (and made up rules as we went along like 5 year olds...awesome!).


We also hung out on the dock and watched for shooting stars. I didn't see any this time around, but it reminded me of the trip my family took to the Florida Keys when I was a teenager...among my fondest memories was laying out on the dock with our feet in the warm water, watching the meteor shower. Amazing!


I had a heck of a time trying to wakeboard that day, and never successfully got up. I was ridiculously frustrated since that has never happened to me before and we all know how much I hate failing at something. After the attempted wakeboarding we went to this little cove where a river came off the mountain into the lake. There were a bunch of waterfalls, one of which you could slide down on the tubes! We hiked up the riverbed to another great big waterfall. It was beautiful! Just like the spot on LOST where Kate and Sawyer had their little waterfall moment (sans dead bodies or anyone as beautiful as Sawyer or Kate). And, unlike the island on LOST, the water here was freezing cold as it was mountain snow run-off. Despite the cold, we jumped in and swam across the pool to touch the waterfall and back. I think I've officially qualified for the polar bear club.


Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of the waterfall because getting there required swimming to the beginning of the hike from the boat (in much warmer water). But Korie took this video of us sliding down the first little waterfall on the tube...if you listen closely you can hear my squeal...I promise it looked much scarier from the top than it does from this angle :)

5 comments:

Amy said...

It's so great to see you in your natural element - the mountains! It just seems like it fits you so well!

p.s. i couldn't get your videos to load.

Anna said...

:) my cousins and I used to camp out in my Aunt Roxanne backyard. She has huge property of woods and we would out into the woods and camp out!

Ryan said...

Renee you are taking blogging to another level. fun to catch up. Love the video. how exciting!

Anonymous said...

Man, I love your video's. Just so you know I was also upset that I couldn't wake board that day and so I tried again last weekend at Bear Lake. Thankfully I was able to redeem myself, I got up and stayed up, well you know, for a little bit. It was suprisingly easy. I've decided it was definitly the boat not the one's behind it.
P.S. I love 5 year old activities!

Shaun R. said...

I've never tried wakeboarding but I did make one attempt at water skiing. After unsuccessfully trying to get up several times, they told me they would give me one last chance. Trying as hard as I could to follow the instructions they gave me I ended up flipping out of the water and landing so hard that I had to look which way the light was coming from to know which way was up. When I finally surfaced I was greeted with screams of "That was SOOO cool!"