Our friend Andrew followed impressively close behind us through the Friday afternoon traffic. Dazing off in the passenger seat, a thought popped into my head... "Babe, did you pay the bills?" (I was supposed to remind her that morning before we'd left)... And not long after came another thought... "Shit, I forgot the canoe paddles." See what I mean? My better half. I called the credit card company and paid over the phone, and then called Susan and Gary to see if they had some paddles we could borrow. Hooray for cell phones!
Once off the 101, we got to enjoy the ride through the Dry Creek Valley vineyards. Lake Sonoma, our destination, dams the creek for flood control in the valley. With crush season starting, the leaves are starting to change, and grapes are heavy on the vines.
Our other friend Nick was on his way too, and planned to pick up Jess in his john boat that he was launching from the other end of the lake. Andrew and I packed the canoe with what we needed to start dinner, and took a head start figuring we'd probably get to the site a little ahead of them or at the same time. We paddled away, leaving Jess at the parking lot to wait for Nick to motor in. Andrew and I doubled back from a wrong turn, and about 20 minutes later I was still confused as to where we went wrong. The better half was probably still waiting for her ride, and it was getting dark quickly. Andrew's IPhone gave us a lovely dot on an empty grid with our coordinates, but no map since it had no network connection. I added "radios" and "map" to the mental list of items I'd forgotten at home in the rush to beat the traffic.
Navigating by the stars and a flash light, Andrew and I were relieved and somewhat worried to see a couple of spotlights heading our way. We thought Nick and Jess had sent a search team after us, and we might be in trouble for not having lights on the boat. It turned out to be just a couple of guys out for a joy ride, and we found out from them that when we took our wrong turn we'd actually been just around the corner from the campsite. Go figure. At least now we knew where we needed to go.
With the moon up over the hills, we made our way back to the creek in the relatively bright light. Andrew commented on this being his first night time canoe trip. For me it was my first night time canoe screw up. As we rounded the last bend we heard cheering coming from lights on shore, and knew we were in the right place. It turned out that Jess and Nick had only found the site minutes earlier. She was especially freaked out that they'd beaten us since they were late too. We celebrated with some tasty beverages and grilled cheese while keeping warm and chatting around the fire. A shooting star made a brief appearance, but I may have been the only one to see it.
We picked up Jill, Robbie, and Steve, along with the groceries Jess and Andrew had gotten, and headed back for an afternoon of relaxing. The rest of the crew drifted on the boat for a bit while Robbie hung out with me and caught his first sunfish on worms he baited himself. We kept two of the bigger ones, and he cleaned them with Nick to enjoy as an appetizer before dinner. Dinner was ready just in time for the folks who came for the 6pm boat pickup; Jason, Tania, Isaac, Susan, Gary, and Daisy disembarked and the festivities began.We ate some delicious sausages with green peppers/red peppers and onions, an array of salads, and plenty of drinks. We played multiple rounds of "I.D.," a guess-the-person-based-on-their-initials game, which Robbie totally kicked butt at. He is 11 years old and knew who Ludwig Wittgenstein and Sally Ride were. It was crazy and funny and awesome.
Before it got too late, Susan and Gary had to get Daisy home. The moon wasn't out from behind the clouds yet, so Nick spotted obstacles with a (very dim) single LED flashlight at the front of the boat while I drove us back. Daisy's "twinkle toe" shoes pretty much blinded my night vision, but I had no trouble seeing another shooting star, and it got Daisy looking for them too. She was asleep by the time we reached the shore- a tribute to Nick and my joint effort at not running aground or breaking the prop on a tree stump! It was an amazing feat (though slow and arduous), and I think we pulled it off without freaking out Susan and Gary.
(Now for Jess' part...)
As Nick and James returned to camp after another night-boating adventure, the birthday girl was pooped from lots of beers and all the excitement. We all packed in for the night. Isaac even spoke a sentence I don't think his Mom has ever heard "Mommy, I'm ready to go to sleep." Word. It had been a good day.
Sunday morning dawned with no coyote howls this time. We had put all of the empty beer bottles on top of the cooler so that we would have a good warning in case the raccoons got near our cooler that didn't have a locking mechanism. James heard some bottles rattling a little before dawn and jumped out of the tent (nearly, it was zipped). Turns out it was our neighbors in the campsite next camp over- two fishermen, a husband and wife team, cleaning up their bottles and heading out on the boat. It was hilarious- James almost took the whole tent with him. But to be honest, there was enough food leftover that the raccoons could have taken some and we still would have had plenty.
We all started the long process of packing up at around 10am after a leisurely morning. While I was washing dishes, Robbie remembered that we had dry ice in the cooler instead of regular ice and asked if he could play with some. We had bought 3 packs of the dry stuff for the cooler, so we got one of them out. They decided to dump it in my bucket for washing dishes and then of course James fished out a piece to do an "experiment." The video below shows the aftermath of the "not-quite-enough-dry-ice-in-water-bottle-so-lets-throw-Andrew's-sweatshirt-over-the-bottle-and-pop-the-bottle-with-a-rock" scenario that the boys concocted. The explosion echoed through the creek and probably scared a few folks, as there was a feral pig hunt on at the park. .....Boys.
We packed the boats and headed for shore- we all got back to the parking lot and Andrew and I ferried the cars to go pick up James at the Marina 6 miles down the lake from the parking area. The drive home on Dry Creek Valley Rd. (yes, that's the "Dry Creek" from those bottles of California wine at your liquor store) was spectacular. Many of the grape vines have started turning yellows and reds, but they are also heavy with fruit. It is harvest time and really made me ready to get into the fall holiday spirit!
Oh, and then there was the return trip... The car overheated! Hey, everything needs to be kept in balance, right? We got a free tow from AAA over the Richmond Bridge from San Rafael, with the canoe on the roof of the car. This was the view from the passenger seat of the tow truck, with the rear view mirror on the left and the San Francisco skyline on the right...
It was a beautiful birthday and I feel ready to tackle my 30's!
The rest of the photos, for those who might want to download them, are here:
http://www.flickriver.com/photos/jess-y-james/
