Adam's Birthday with a Splash of Adventure

Adam is not the type of person who believes in making plans, so trying to figure out how he wanted to celebrate his birthday was nearly impossible. Eventually, he agreed to drinks at Le Sainte-Elisabeth.  Being a Friday, it wasn't too much of a stretch from what he would normally be doing and it worked out nicely.  Adam's friends and workmates were there and it turned out to be the best non-celebration I have ever attended.  The only down side of staying out late, was waking up Saturday morning for our weekend adventure of white water rafting.


Don't let Adam's scruffy beard fool you, he is not the outdoorsy type.  His natural habitate is usually at a pub talking about games, on the sofa watching TV/playing games, or at work making games.  As I've mentioned before, he hates when I make him trek around Mont-Royal, so I wasn't really sure how he would take to rafting.  But despite having several pints and even more shots the previous night, Adam was ready for our adventure with Andreanne, Jack, and Bjorn the next morning.  And I was thankful that we didn't have to leave Montreal until 11am.


It was nearly a two hour drive, almost made longer by an accident and horrendous traffic.  But luckily, Jack's navigating skills and Andreanne's speedy driving got us there right on time to sign safety waivers and get suited up with life jackets, helmets, and paddles.  As we were grabbing our gear, a girl in a group we were paired up with asked why we would need paddles.  I still have no idea what kind of tour she thought we were on.


As it turned out, we did need to have paddles, but rafting wasn't nearly as laborous as I thought it would be.  Following our guide's commands, we only needed to paddle for short bursts and then let the river do the rest of the work.  I think this had a lot to do with the experience level of our guide, who obviously had a love of rafting and knew the river well.  He was able to negotiate the rapids and put us in position where the opposing currents allowed the raft to "surf" on the rapids.


For me, the hardest part about rafting was getting back in after we all jumped out to swim in the river.  My lack of upper body strength made it nearly impossible - and I think this knowledge is what kept me from falling out during the rest of our trip.


For Adam, the hardest part about rafting was staying in the raft.  Just about everyone fell out at some point, but Adam fell out the most and had a few close encounters swimming through the rapids.  I have a theory that the number of drinks consumed on the previous night may have had a direct correlation to the number of times Adam fell out of the raft.


Rafting has been my favorite experience since moving to Montreal.  It had just the right amount of excitement, without being too scary.  Not to mention the beautiful scenery!  During our trip down the river is started to rain - which was a bit cold - making it warmer to be in the river than in the raft.  It created a stunning view as the rain subsided and steam rose off the water.  The view was often so distracting, I would lose the rhythm of paddling and smacked into my neighbors paddle on more than one occasion.


It was an incredible adventure - one that we both would love to do again.  We didn't bring cameras and the tour group's photos were great but too expensive.  So instead, you will just have to accept my stick figure drawing as proof that we actually got off the sofa.  :)