While on vacation in Eastern Oregon, my family and I decided to take a canoe ride down the Deschutes river. After putting on life vests, and getting a brief set of instructions about the trip, we shoved off into the slow, smooth water and headed downstream behind a host of other canoers.I did not realize how tippy a canoe can be until I started rocking the boat for fun, which immediately freaked out my entire family. My three year old son was in the front with my wife, and although I thought he would get the most fun out of the trip (he's crazy!), he ended up being the most frightened, and declared with unwavering confidence, "This is Dangerous!"
As the trip progressed, my son's fear gradually moved into the uncontrollable world of panic, evidenced by his shrieks of fear and screams of "No, No, NO" every time the boat rocked from the unstoppable side affects of paddling. At one point we were going through a beautiful canyon with shear cliffs on one side of the river and grass choked beaches on the other. Ahead of us we could see two canoes, one occupied by an elderly couple, and the other by what appeared to be their grown children. I felt sorry for them because although the scenery was breathtaking, and promised peace, the noises coming from my boat, and which were ricocheting off the cliffs sounded more like the sound track from "The Shinning." I'm surprised the local police were not waiting for us we climbed out of the canoe with our whimpering 3 year old son.
By the way my son had screamed, you would have thought that he was traumatized for life. His soul was surely permanently seared by the rocking of the boat, and his dreams would forever be haunted by the sound of lapping water and the feeling of a rocking boat, but as soon as his feet touched land, he was a changed little boy. The screaming stopped immediately, and by the time we were on the bus headed home, he was talking as if nothing had happened. I think he was a little embarrassed over the whole thing. In an effort to forget the incident (something I will never do) my son looked up into my face, smiled a wonderfully sweet smile, and said, "That was fun."
