Back in May, at a charity auction, I made the winning bid on a certificate for two all day canoe rentals from local outfitter Saco Bound. By planning for the middle of September, I was able to assemble enough of my gal pals to make use of the certificate. We’re all busy, but there was a Monday on which everyone could be available and we knew we’d avoid the summer weekend crowds. The weather cooperated, it was a simply spectacular day.

Susan and Alice took a double kayak,

while Nancy, Chico, and I stayed old school and used a canoe.

Our boat was in a leisurely mood and very quickly the kayak was a small spec down river.

The river has a lot of sandy, beachy, banks like the one you see down river, on the right, in the picture above. People pull their canoes over and have a snack, or a drink, or stretch their legs (or maybe rest their arms?) and then continue on after a while.

Kind of like this.

At one point, we floated past some folks resting at one of these little beaches and one of them said in a wistful voice, “Ooh. I wish I could do that with my dog.” I haven’t heard that a lot of times and it just plain made my heart sing.

The more efficient craft, the kayak, with its more energetic paddlers, eventually disappeared around one last bend, headed for the pick up spot. Then we really took off the pressure and pretty much floated and gabbed for the next hour.

Like this.

Because it looked like this:

The Saco River, looking like a mirror.

We all have our own kayak, between us we own or have access to several pick up trucks, after wondering why we hadn’t done this sooner, we decided to do it again as soon as possible. Which could be next year.