One of my favorite things about living in Washington is the proximity to fun outdoor activities. So we were really excited to be invited on a white water rafting trip with some other UW hospital couples. We headed out at 6am from Amanda and Chris's apartment, and drove about two hours to the eastern side of the mountain, near Naches, which is a tiny town with a lot of fruit stands.
We suited up in full-body wetsuits, rubber booties, splash jackets, life vests and helmets, and waddled over to our raft, where the group was nice enough to let me sit up front for the first couple of hours. We had a great time rafting on the level 2-3 rapids (apparently the river is a level 4 on occasion, but not this weekend) for about three hours, and it was generally pretty easy going. There was some talk of going to river guide training ($400 for a summer of rafting and a free lifetime pass), because after that trip I felt like I could totally handle it, and wouldn't it be fun to sit in the sun on the river all summer? But then we got to talking about all the groups who aren't as easy as a bunch of healthy 20-somethings, and the ugly things that can happen with the rocks and the rapids. Probably not my calling right now.
