Last Thursday my friend SteveS celebrated the onset of the final year of his 4th decade on the planet. As a kayaker, biker (commuter,road, and mountain), and high level XC skier, Steve has a carbon footprint about the size of Cinderella's slipper. It was decided that to properly celebrate this momentous event we needed to paddle out on White Bear Lake, raft up, drink some wine, and eat some hors doovers! Steve, ColleenC, BethL, StaceL, ChrisE, the VOR, and myself all headed out to enjoy the birthday, the gorgeous sunset, and the rise of the Blue Moon in the eastern sky.
It was indeed the perfect night. As the wine was pulled out and the snacks prepared, our raft drifted a bit behind an island. Steve, paddling my Feathecraft, was encouraged to hook on and pull the six of us back into position for a proper sunset view. This prompted the VOR to quip, "Poor Steve.....he has to drag people to his birthday party!". I was asked, "What if the DNR checks us and notices that you don't have a sticker on your folding boat?". My response of course was, "My boat?? Thats your boat, at least until its back on top of the car!". Stace was prepared for an Antarctic expedition, gear-wise, and pulled out salmon, cheese, cutting board, Swiss Army corkscrew, wine, Cusinart, trash compacter, etc and we got down to partying.
The sunset and moon rise were as spectactular as we thought they would be, the bottle(s) of wine were excellent, weather perfect, and in general the stars were aligned. Some minor shrinkage occurred when a wine glass went overboard and the carefully tethered and carbinered Swiss Army knife went missing (Steve???) but it couldn't have been a more perfect night.
Noted local convivialist, JillW, had some lame excuse, didn't show, and missed the kayak/wine event of the year so far. I must credit Steve with the photos used here as well as a couple that I pirated for other posts in this blog. Happy B-Day and keep that silent sports torch aloft!
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