Paddling on Lake Sunapee

Our final day of vacation we took our new canoe to Lake Sunapee Harbor. The night before we had Sophie climb into the canoe {on dry land} just to make sure she wouldn't freak out on us. She seemed fine, so we proceeded with the plan to take her out on the lake.

Since it was the middle of the week we had the lake to ourselves. Sophie initially seemed nervous but calmed down as we paddled away from dry land.

The lake is beautiful {we just stayed in the harbor, but it is a truly beautiful area}. On our way out, we had a tailwind which made us a bit nervous about what paddling back in would be like.

Sophie kept moving from one side of the boat to the other which meant the boat rocked quite a bit. Thankfully she didn't jump out.

We ordered nice life jackets from REI that will be shipped to our house, but for New England we stuck with cheaper PFD from Walmart. Daniel and I disagreed on what kind to buy, so we purchased two different kinds. We also ordered a jacket for Sophie {we had purchased one at REI that was too big}. Future canoe trips, we will make sure she has a jacket on so we don't have to be nervous if she decides to jump in.

Normally we wouldn't wear life jackets the entire time, but Sophie was rocking the boat a lot and the water was pretty cold so we decided to keep our life vests on just in case we ended up flipping the boat.

Halfway through our trip Sophie decided she wanted in the front with me. So I carefully manuevered her around my seat so that she could sit in the bow. We think she just likes to be in the front. For her, canoeing is similar to hanging her head out of the car window: she gets good views and a strong wind in her face.

Paddling back to the dock was easier than we expected, though it did take some effort and there were a couple of times we thought Sophie would jump out, but she didn't.

We had a lovely time paddling on Lake Sunapee. We were sure to get off of the lake before 2PM when bad weather was supposed to roll in. A good call on our part since most of the afternoon we were under a tornado watch – not something we expected to encounter in New England!