I learned something new this time of canoeing.
I really do love the water and I really do enjoy getting out.

Here I am as we moved through the water, it was calm, warm but not too warm.
Just a comfortable 75 degree day. We always wear our hats because of the sun.
And of course our life jackets. I do not know how to swim so for me it is a ‘comfort’ knowing if I fell in someone could grab me, they always say, float on your back and relax. Um… in case they don’t understand ME falling into the water does not equal a time of relaxation.
The water was full of snags and trees and this year it was lower than normal as we have had little rain.
There wasn’t a lot of activity on the water either except for a few other rafts, canoes or boats.
The water was beautiful and the scenery was a mix between trees, grasses, personal homes along the rivers edge and some wild life, such as Eagles, deer and geese. Before we even started our ‘trip on the water’ an Eagle flew over our group and almost circled  us.
It was a sign… all would be well.

The landscaping in this part of Central Oregon includes old rustic snarly trees.

It also includes the tall trees reaching to the blue skies and wispy clouds.

We followed the rivers trail as it winded through waterways that were open sending us into more beautiful scenes and homes along the waters edges. I couldn’t take many pictures of the homes as they were personal property and I was sure they would not appreciate their home on my blog. I will say most of them were beautiful and most were very expensive along the waters edge. The exception was this old beat up shack that remained on waters edge with a do not enter sign on the side of the home. We wouldn’t dare.

I did take assorted photos of different scenes.

These kind of snags can turn a canoe or a kayak in the wrong direction so we had to be careful.

Contrast between dark and light the top picture was from two years ago the bottom picture was from this year, the weather and the current of the water along with the wind always bring to us challenges. Even though it is calm we always are aware of the dangers beneath the bottom of the boat. The current can change without one knowing it and you have to pay attention when on the water, it is easy to relax too much and then get into trouble.

Can you imagine the nice relaxing moments spent as one would sit on this ‘bench’ and watch the world move by with clouds and trees and other boaters passing on the water. I just loved the look of welcome.

The grasses were very strong. We held onto them at times along the waters edge as we waited to load onto the boat or off the boat, they were a good thing to keep us stable.

The water stayed very calm and slow moving only toward the end did we feel we needed to work a little harder to paddle to shore when it was time to get off and out for the final time on the water.