Vacation Report part 1

7-12-11 reminiscing brain
My 4^th of July vacation week, spent in my hometown of Charles City, was filled with many of my family’s usual traditions: parade, fireworks, special dinner with flag cake and homemade ice cream, and lunch with high school friends…. just to name a few…. But this year two new activities were added.

The first one was tubing on the new kayak run on the Cedar River, which runs through the center of town. As this kayak run was being built this last year, many people in town were questioning the logic behind it all. Now that summer has arrived, this has proven to be a popular activity, not only for kayaking, but tubing and swimming in the river.

The first day I was in town, we all went down to the river to observe and we came to the conclusion that this was something we COULD do. Besides a few kayaks, there were people of all ages using tubes and inflated mattresses. A few days later, there were three of us available (Christopher, my high school friend Steve visiting from Alaska, and me) and we agreed that we would go tubing. At first I thought I was going to be afraid, but the first time down the run proved to be easy and not scary at all.

I spent about an hour on the river and was able to go down the run 4 times. We rented these really nice tubes and life jackets at the Davaco gas station only a block from the river. The tubes and jackets were only $10 and were great fun for the price.

Here are some pictures my friend Jean Ann took.  Sitting on the river’s edge, in the shade of a tree, watching the tubing has also proven to be a popular past time in my hometown.

Come check it out! Bring your bikes too…. There is a bike trail looping around the town.