The River not so Wild

On Friday after work, we came home, packed, and headed to Sacramento to visit Melinda. We hung out with her, her roommate, and Charlie (another Calvin friend who was visiting Cali) on Friday night.

Matt holding Mel's roommate's snake (ew!)

I love Melinda!

Saturday we took off early for rafting. We went down the south fork of the American River. Melinda's dad guided the boat, and her mom and friend and his parents were there too. Melinda, Charlie and her roommate kayaked.

I have to say that I was a little bit nervous to go rafting. I haven't been rafting since I went in Ecuador 2.5 years ago, and that was a rather traumatic experience. It was a much more intense river with higher class rapids... our raft went vertical into a huge hole in the rapids... I ended up under water for a very long time... and then I floated down river next to rocks and under tree branches until I finally got rescued.

Anyways... this river only had class 1-3 rapids, which weren't bad at all. And Melinda's dad is an amazing guide; he knows the river super well. It was so much fun and I was so glad to have a better experience rafting. The kayakers didn't fare quite as well, however. Melinda fell out once and her roommate several times. So each time we had to stop and help rescue them. They were pretty cold from the water, but didn't get hurt or anything.

We didn't get back to Melinda's until around 7:30 pm, and we were exhausted, so we decided to stay there another night. We went to her parents house and relaxed our sore muscles in their hot tub :). We headed out this morning and got home around 12:30. We had a lot to do today around home after our busy week and before the next one begins.

The gang after rafting.

Tomorrow we're heading down to Visalia to visit Matt's g-parents and aunts and uncles.