Three Years is Personal Flotation Devices

Three years ago today, I married a man with infinite patience and a sense of humor enough to let me make fun of him publicly on the internet.  He's quite the catch, this man of mine. 

For a while, like several years, Dave and I talked about buying kayaks (one for each of us, because you know we each need our own boats).  Over Labor Day weekend, we redeemed a Groupon to try out the sit-on-top variety of kayaks, which we quickly dismissed upon being soaked from the water splashing into the boat and the complete lack of control (we were both listing in various directions).

After that excursion, we visited an independent outdoor store, New England Backpacker, and got some very good information about the type of kayak we'd want and why.  Seriously, we are so glad we went there because if left to our own devices, we would have royally screwed up the purchased.  Additionally, they said we could test-paddle the kayaks we were interested in by renting them for a day and if we decided to buy them, the rental fee would be taken off the purchase price.  Which was already on sale since it's the end of the season.  Score.

So last Saturday, we rented our desired kayaks, hit the same lake as the weekend before, and proceeded to paddle in absolutely terrible conditions.  It was super windy, the waves were choppy, we were paddling with the wind which meant we'd have to battle against it to get back, clouds threatened to unload on us, and on top of that we weren't exactly pleased with each other.  So we took a break, got out of the water and regrouped. 

Then we bonded over the two meatheads trying to get their small jet boat launched.  It was awesome. The one guy had no clue and the other guy had no grasp of telling his buddy what to do.  This thing was old and after he got the boat trailer in the water, the guy had to jump it with a battery box to get it started.  The engine sounded awful.  Dave watched, and actually helped at one point to give the guy a line to the dock, ticking all the various things they were doing wrong.  The best part was that they knew there were a bunch of rocks at the launch that needed to be avoided, at which they were successful.  Until they finally turned the boat the leave the launch and scraped the bottom over the rocks in the most fantastic of ways.  The sound was horrible and it could have easily been avoided, but at this point we knew they had no clue what they were doing.

Their boat was something like this--but older and more full of idiots.

After enjoying that show, we got back in our kayaks, got rained on a bit, but toured the rest of the lake before the winds got particularly heinous.  We really got a chance to figure out our kayaks and decide if we really wanted to get them.

By the time we got back to the shop to return the rentals, we decided we really wanted to buy these kayaks.  We have a lot of fun paddling, and there are a lot of opportunities for us to try different rivers and ponds not far from our house.  The guys at the shop were great hooking us up with everything we needed, sizing us appropriately and making sure we were comfortable.  When we paid for it all, I turned to Dave and said, "Happy Anniversary!"  Maybe molded plastic and life vests will be the new contemporary third anniversary gift.

So, there you go Dave.  You now have your own boat.  Please stop asking me for a sailboat, because I don't know which anniversary nylon and dacron are given.