Yep, May is almost over and I'm finally getting the canoe wet. I bought this canoe loader to fit it on Gretchen's newer/smaller SUV and it worked & looked great.
At the last minute, and based on how nice our trip to the Chattahoochee River NRA HQ was yesterday, Gretchen and I decided to use the canoe launch there at the National Recreation Area. We had the easiest launch ever and were enjoying the river almost immediately. Since we were going to return to the same launch, we headed upstream as "we like to feel we can get out of trouble, quicker than we got into it".
We were greeted with smooth water, tree-lined banks, and long views with nobody in sight.
Well, there were some geese.
We also saw a couple of turtles.
We also had to navigate around some rocks. The next couple of pictures show you the "tip of the iceburgs". We fortunately navigated around all of them without a single bottom-out event.
The whole trip was just under two miles as you can see on the Google Map I charted. It was really all we needed and we had this part of the river almost to ourselves. I'm so looking forward to more river trips this summer.
One of the very best things about living in the Atlanta area is the extremely easy access to multiple trails. I'm not talking about concrete sidewalks that snake there way through the suburbs (there's a little of that, too!). I'm talking about "in the woods" and "walking on dirt paths"!! Many of these trails are surrounded by city & suburbs, but you really feel like you are away from it all. Some good examples can be found in 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Atlanta; including the one we went on today.
Today's stroll was along the Island Ford hiking trails (see map) that start at the Park Headquarters of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Gretchen and Connor went with me on a quick three mile hike. We parked at the old cabin that serves as the Ranger Station and park HQ.
Just a short walk down the hill and we arrived at the canoe/kayak ramp where many folks were entering the river for a ride down the river towards Chattahoochee Riverwalk Trail/Park in Roswell. The Island Ford trail follows the river for much of its length with mostly tree-lined views of the water.
There are some spots where you can get unobstructed views, too.
To my surprise, and delight, there were multiple rock overhangs that I'm sure have been used over the centuries for shelter.
Many of them had cool views when inside and looking out towards the river.
As well as pretty neat little areas to climb around when inside.
All in all, a very pleasant afternoon enjoying the beautiful outdoor opportunities right in our own backyard here in Roswell.
I sure can't explain how thrilled I was to hear that I had won a company-wide recognition program whose award ceremony would take place at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman. It was a 4-day/3-night trip with one guest all expenses paid mini vacation. The best part was the awards ceremony (which was very nice and definitely humbling) was that first night and the rest of the trip was free time!
Gretchen was able to take the time off from her teaching position and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip. It was so nice to have a few days away with her and to enjoy it on beautiful Seven Mile Beach. We sunbathed, swam, ate, shopped and napped for several days on an island that had the prettiest water Gretchen had ever seen.
Yes, we did a lot of "high impact" activities for sure!! We did take a half-day excursion to see Stingray City and the North Sound Reef. We went out a big catamaran owned by Red Sail Sports and ultimately anchored at the infamous Stingray City. We had done plenty of research about this excursion and based on what you see at Google Images I made the assumption that the water would be as smooth as glass.
Well… it wasn't. We had 3+ foot waves constantly rolling in. Hey… at least there was only one other boat besides ours there so it wasn't crowded like you see in some of the pictures either. We obviously didn't let that deter us and quickly got in the water. For a bit, we just swam around and took some pictures with the disposable underwater 34mm camera. You know… actual film!!
If you do not recognize anyone from the picture above, that's ok. We don't really know these folks either, but this picture looked like it was right out of a travel brochure and I couldn't not post it. 
The waves were rough like I said and there's nothing more disturbing than being slammed into a stingray. Well, two things more disturbing. 1) Slamming into stingrays multiple times. 2) Stepping on the top of them when your foot comes back down to the sand. I guess it was worse for the stingray now that I think about it.
Here are a few photos of Gretchen and I with stingrays rested in our arms. As far as "more disturbing" things, it was also nice to have your face thrown by a wave into the wiggling tail of one of these guys that someone else is holding.
Yep, I got a heckuva tan while I was out there!! As you can guess, these photos are from them lame disposable camera, but I was glad we got one to capture some photos. These next few are snapshots underwater. You'll see we didn't get any of them framed up nice. I blame the waves, not the operator!!
The waves proved to be too much for Gretchen who got out a little early. She actually almost got hurt trying to go up the stairs and barely missed one of the catamaran's hulls from another wave's force. For me, I doubted I'd ever come back here so I stayed in the water as long as I could soaking in the experience.
Our next step was the North Sound Reef. It was clear to me the the water was pretty rough for snorkeling. After Gretchen watched the crew fish out two "big guys" (one was a firefighter) who looked like they nearly drowned, she insisted I wear an inflatable vest. I felt like a wimp putting this on, but I quickly realized it was perfect with the waves. I was able to effortlessly snorkel around and take some photos of the reef.
As I didn't do the reef justice, I'm including the YouTube video (surely not done by me!!) below to give a richer appreciation for the beauty. A highly myopic guy without his glasses using a crappy little camera yielded the pictures above. Hey, I tried!!
Back at the Ritz, we were able to get some very nice sunset pictures like these that I'll leave you with.
