Tubing Down the River

One day this summer we had a free afternoon and decided to drive up to Helen and go tubing down the river.  I had heard this was an affordable, fun family activity but had never tried it with our boys.  It was a nice sunny day so we weren't worried about the cool water of Helen.  What surprised us was that we spent almost as much time getting off rocks as we did tubing.  We were very glad we rented a stick/pole thingy to aid in pushing ourselves off some of the rocks.  During our trip down the river,  Porter kept "falling" out of his tube to play in the water.  Of course, I kept telling him not to do that because he was going to get hurt from all the rocks.  Can you guess what happens next?  He is out of his tube when we come to some swift water with massive rocks and he is banged up pretty good.  After we got the tears under control and finished the rest of the river, I told him that I knew where we could go tubing without any fear of  rapids and rocks and he could get off his tube and swim as much as he wanted.


Some of my fondest memories from my childhood involve tubing down the Ichetucknee River.   I remember the COLD water and black tire tubes.  We would swim in the head spring while Dad would take our car to the midpoint (South entrance) parking lot/picnic area.  I was so excited to take my boys and continue this summer tradition. 

I reserved a hotel for the weekend, packed a picnic and we headed south.  The kids were excited because they knew we would be staying at a hotel (isn't that always the case though).  I showed them some you tube videos to sort of let them know what to expect.  I knew from the website that we needed to show up at the state park early.  They limit the number of tubers at the north entrance to 750 per day but they allow about 2500 in through the south entrance launch per day.  We didn't just drive 5+ hours to miss out on half the trip down the river so, we were there early.   I was so excited.  It was a moment of such happy nostalgia for me.  I was a bit teary eyed as we pulled up.  We rented 2 person rafts rather than tubes.  I did this for a few reasons: #1-my Dad NEVER let us rent anything but the black tubes and I always dreamed of having my own raft, #2-I was secretly afraid that the water might be too cold now that I am a grown up and #3-I was concerned that Dixon might be too little for his own tube.   During our trip down the river we learned that Porter needs his own tube.  He was in the water almost as much as he was in the raft and having his own tube would allow him to get in and out without drenching his raft partner/Dad.  Dixon did get brave and started jumping out of the raft and swam along by the raft.

We exited the river at the midpoint launch for bathroom breaks and our picnic lunch.  Once we were refreshed we hit the river again to finish the last portion.  The boys swam a lot during the last part and we decided that instead of doing a second trip down the river(from the endpoint, they have a tram that takes you back to the midpoint and you can keep going down all day) we would just get back to the van and go back to the north entrance and swim in the head spring and check out blue hole spring.  We had some goggles in our swim bag.  It was amazing to look under the water at the fish, plants, springs and caves.  Matt and Porter really want to get snorkeling equipment for our next trip.  Dixon didn't want to leave but the poor kid was turning purple/blue and shivering.  Lucky for us, it started to thunder and we have a rule about leaving the pool when it thunders so they didn't argue when I said , "there's thunder, Let's go!"

Oh the memories!!!  I am already looking forward to our next trip!!

A year can pass so quickly

So, summer is almost over! Porter starts school again in 2 weeks!! Our year flew by so fast and I didn't post any of it. That is pretty sad. I don't have time or energy to write about a whole year lost. I will simply recap by say we are doing okay and looking forward to another school year! I will try really hard to keep up with blog postings.

Porter will start 2nd grade. He has discovered a love for Legos. He can spend hours creating and playing with those little things. We spent a small fortune on them over the summer but decided it was money well spent.

Dixon is into anything that Porter likes. He wants to do everything just like his big brother. Whether it is good or bad...they are Pete and Repeat!!