Kayaking with Jared

Enthusiastic. You guys know I hardly ever get to travel with Jared. On the rare occasions that he does travel with me it is usually on a trip to visit family or to meet up with family, though he did go with me to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter - where he proposed! This past June he and I embarked on a nearly two week adventure where we went and saw a large part of his family in North Dakota and Minnesota, as well as my parents and siblings in Nebraska, and we also just so happened to get married while we were up there.

Anyway, one of the places we visited was the town of Bemidji, MN and a resort called Finn'n Feather, where we spent several days with his extended family celebrating his grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. The resort is located on a lake, one of the 10,000 or so in Minnesota, so of course we all took advantage of staying right on the water. Most of us fished, some of us swam out to the water toys, and a few of us took boats, kayaks, paddle boats, and stand-up paddle boards to explore the lake.

Well, this was one of the few times I could convince Jared to go exploring with me, so we strapped on life vests, grabbed a couple of paddles and kayaks, and hit the water. We paddled around the resort's shore for a bit, then decided to head across the lake and explore the opposite shore. He and I spent several hours on the water, poking around the reeds and water lilies to see whatever we could. The lake was calm and the wind wasn't bad, making it a perfect day for kayaking. We heard loons calling and saw a bald eagle soaring overhead, while closer to home dragonflies played among the grasses and we got showered in baby spiders as we pushed through the reeds along the shore.

We saw lots of little fish and a few big ones in the green-hued but incredibly clear water, and back towards the resort we saw turtles among the yellow water plants, poking their heads above the water for a breath. We headed in when we got hungry, though not without splashing each other a little bit, and Jared chasing me around threatening to flip my kayak. We found out I'm faster than him in a sprint, but he can outlast me if it came down to it... Oh, the things you learn.