Finally Used that Gift Card

Remember that Cabela's gift card from Christmas? I finally carted the family off to Cabela's today to use it. Before we could savor the wonders of Cabela's, we had to stop in Ann Arbor to have lunch at one of my favorite places, the Maize and Blue Deli. Mmmm, delicious!
The girls loved walking around Cabela's, but they made it difficult to do any actual shopping. They kept pulling me to the next taxidermy display to ask a hundred questions about each animal. We decided to get a "pop" gun for the girls, since they enjoyed trying them out so much. At one point, Greta pointed her gun at a snowshoe hare and said, "I'm going to shoot that rabbit!" Definitely my daughter!

We didn't see the whole store, but I arrived with a few ideas in mind (thanks to the responses from an earlier post). I scoured the camping and footwear sections, but didn't find anything I really needed soon. I ended up using the gift card to get a pfd and some rain pants, two items I know I'll use this season. The pfd has a mesh upper for more freedom of movement than the standard rental vests, and the rain pants replace the pair that tore along a seam during a downpour last summer. Those who accompanied me last August can rest assured that I tried them on, bending and crouching to make sure they would not expose my backside at an inopportune moment!

Lastly, I checked out the half-dozen canoes on display outside of the store. Two were Old Town Pack canoes, nice and light. The others were heavy clunkers, mostly Old Town tandems. The yokes on some of them were ridiculous; no contour at all vertically, I can only imagine how painful it would be to portage a km under one of those beasts. My wife did not share my enthusiasm over a solo canoe. She would prefer something with two seats, with room for the family. Hmmm, I could solo paddle a tandem if I had to, now if I could only find a canoe in my price range---anybody willing to pay me to take a canoe off their hands? ;)

Now I'm itching to hit the water, and still hoping Saturday the 24th is as nice as today was.

Birthday Plans Set

Just under 3 weeks away, a trip is in the final planning stages. My brother and I will drive to Ft. Wayne, tent camp at my uncle's farm, and paddle the St. Joseph River with cousins and some of their kids. I believe this will be the earliest I have ever paddled. Hopefully a new trend. Previously, the earliest was Memorial Day weekend. I'm hoping for another warm front to pass through Indiana that weekend! This weekend was amazing!