Whitewater Rafting????

The name Jennifer means gentle spirit.  The name Ann means nice.  So, I guess I am supposed to be a nice, gentle spirit.  So, does whitewater rafting race to your mind when you hear that description?  No!?!  Well, it took me 33 years to decide I was brave enough to try such an adventure.  Before whitewater rafting the most adventurous thing I had done was when I was on a family vacation the summer after fifth grade.  My family and I went to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado where we had the "coolest tour guide in the world!" who showed us all the ins and outs of the native peoples who built their homes in the side of a bluff.  We got to climb hanging rope ladders over deep canyons, crawl through dark, carved-out rocks, walk carefully along the edge of a broken-down trail, and walk in behind these rock homes to find ourselves very high in the air.  Now, that was cool!  So, when Todd and I were planning our trip to Montana, I thought to myself, "Self, you need to be more adventurous!"  Todd had never been whitewater rafting either and he loved the idea.  So, we decided on a place out of Superior, Montana who took us on a rafting trip from 10:00 to 4:00 with a stop for lunch along the way.  It was a wild ride some of the time and a very docile, peaceful ride during other parts of the trip.  We got to know our raft-mates and we all got very wet.  During the scariest moments I told myself, "If little children like Cassidy Walsh can do this - so can I!"  My friends the Walshes had done some whitewater rafting together and had put a picture of it on their Christmas card.  I had the Christmas card picture running through my mind as I was worrying about capsizing!  But, we didn't capsize and we had lots of laughs.  I recommend whitewater rafting to anyone who is ready for a little extra excitement!  I'm glad we went.  Hmmmm, what's next?  A zipline?  Mountain climbing?  We'll see!