It was a hot, July afternoon. The temperature was around 105 degrees and we found ourselves on a three hour canoe trip racing across the lake one last time, trying to beat our best time. When we finished, we were sweaty, sandy, hot, tired, thirsty, and sunburned. This may sound like a brutal workout but actually it was just part of our honeymoon.
As brand new grads and just starting our jobs we decided to stay local for our honeymoon and will hopefully travel somewhere later in the year. It was nice to hang out around our new home and get settled in a bit. We took some fun day trips around the area too. One day we decided to take in a movie and saw Man of Steel. It was an interesting crowd at the afternoon matinee-- four older guys and us. I (Alex) was not overly impressed with the movie. I haven't really gotten into super heroes but have always thought the Superman story line was interesting. While this is not meant to be a movie review, most of the flick involved fighting scenes between Superman and General Zard. Since they both have great power they would throw each other through the earth, into buildings, shoot things at one another, etc. This goes on for quite a while with no end in sight until they commence hand-to-hand combat. At that point Superman simply breaks his neck. First of all, why didn't throwing someone through a building break his neck? Second of all, with all the high-tech special effects the big finale is a wrestling match. Anyway, it was fun to go to a movie together, and maybe more fun to make fun of it together afterwards.
The next day we found ourselves canoeing at the lake. Alex spent a summer in Alaska were she spent a lot of time canoeing or instruction canoe classes so she was pretty excited. Arthur hadn't been in a canoe much before. It has been said that you can find out a lot about a couple's relationship if you have them canoe together. Canoeing takes teamwork, communication, one leader and another follower, and some conflict resolution. I (Alex) had my hesitations about this endeavor when Arthur about steered us into the dock as we took off. It was also a fairly windy day and sometimes wind and canoes aren't a good match in a large body of water. That aside, we were off. We packed a lunch in our cooler so enjoyed dinning among the cattails with the dragonflies. We saw some blue herons and even a few bald eagles out. We then spent some time exploring the inlets and coves and just paddling around. As the afternoon went on our strokes became more insync and smooth. It was a pretty good upper body workout as well. Eventually we ran out of drinking water and brownies to snack on and Arthur was begin to develop a sunburn since his dear wife struggles with applying sunscreen, we called it a day and headed to Sonic for Happy Hour. What is better after a long, hot afternoon than a cherry limeade? It was such a fun way to spend time together on the water enjoying God's creation. Better yet we survived the relationship test and no marital counseling was needed afterwards, although aloe vera lotion was. Probably the highlight was as we were bring the canoe up to the beach to dock with a cross wind at the end of our trip one of the swimmers made the comment, "Wow, that was flawless. Have you been canoeing for awhile?" Well yes, my husband has mad canoe skills after just three hours!
The next day started with us rolling out of bed at 5:30am. We were headed for an early morning hike at Konza Prairie. Once again it was a beautiful morning and not many people were out yet. The morning was cool and we saw more wildlife- a deer, turkeys, frogs, and lots of birds. We took the short look trail since we wanted to be back before it got too hot. (On past dates we have gone on much longer treks, but this was when we were younger and crazy). Through our dating years we went to Konza several times so it was fun to relive some of those memories. As we hiked it hit me that those trails were a lot like marriage. There were some large hills to climb, some rocky patches, parts that consisted of just trudging ahead, but then there were some stunning views from the top of those hills and little delights along the way such as watching a deer in the early morning. Most of all, those miles were more enjoyable because we were walking them side by side. Omnia Vincit Amor (even hikes at the crack of dawn and canoeing in triple digits.)
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