Re: [Paddlewise] Mates and Children (was "Inactive Mates")

My wife Mary was an indoor person and I have always enjoyed physical
outdoor activities.  She claims to have always done very poorly in
physical sports (i.e. PE when in school).  She believed that she had a
balance problem is bothered by arthritis.  Vacation camping ended when
our children were too old to go on vacation with us.  From then on it
was comfortable motels or B&Bs.  Ironically, we have occasionally
discussed how our differences actually may have helped to sustain our
fourty year marriage.

I have been kayaking, most of the time alone, for several years and this
year picked up a recreational double in the hope of getting my two
grandchildren out on the water.  After much discussion and persuasion, I
took Mary out for a paddle in the double.  She liked it and declared a
desire to go out again.  After the third trip, she declared, "I want my
own kayak".  We picked out a very stable sea/recreational kayak, a
Current Design Breeze.  To make a long story short, for the past four
months we have been going out twice weekly.  We picked up a Nautiraid
Grad Raid double, took it to Maine after Labor Day and had a wonderful
time paddling around Rockport/Camden and Acadia National Park.  She is
now a kayaking nut.  Her paddling skills have vastly improved with time
on the water. We usually paddle in the Potomac River and the tributaries
of the Chesapeake Bay and will be using the Nautiraid this winter to
minimize the chance of capsize in the cold water (yes, she even has cold
weather gear now).  Sometimes when it gets choppy, I see her smiling
while paddling with her smile geting bigger as the chop increases and I
think to myself that miracles do happen.

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