White Water Rafting..best TIME EVER!!

We went white water rafting for the first time this weekend in Kernville. It was so much fun!

Kernville is a small tourist town with small shops and things. Mary and I went to the Riverbend Cottage to look at antiques.
It was a cute little store, but we didn't buy anything

We went rafting with some girl, Shiloh, from work. She invited us and since we've never been before we said, "Sure".

We stayed at the Kern Lodge in Kernville, right across the street from The Pizza Barn. The whole place is family run and the owners live on the premises. It was a really cute spot.

Here I am, going inside room 106, the Eagle's Nest.

Shiloh and Odulia had 104.

This is the kitchen. It was really cute. They had bowls, tuperware, utensils and foil for us to use. Unfortunately, at night, a mouse came in and raided our trash can for the left overs of our ice cream and woke us up. The next day we got smart and put the trash outside.

This is our room. We had the Eagle's Nest room, hence the eagle picture over the bed. Mary is coming out of the bathroom here, which was also very cute, with pink tile and more wood.

Mary and Shiloh in front of the hotel.

Shiloh and I. We were ready to walk to the restaraunt next door for dinner. We went to the Kern River Brewing Company. Everything was so close by that we didn't need to use the car for the whole weekend.

Grilled cheese sandwich and home criss cross fries. YUM! I have never had a grilled cheese on this kind of bread before, but it was very good.

They made their own beer. I had root beer, which to me, is the best kind of beer. We went for a walk at night. This hotel is next door to ours. I can't remember the name of it. Lone Pine or something

Mary and I were anxious to get in the pool

It had killer whales in it.

Not really, but it looked like it.

The pool had 2 whales painted at the bottom. It looked like Mary was swimming with Shamu

After swimming, Mary and I walked around for a while

Kern Baptist church. I thought it was cute.

In front of the lodge

Sun was going down. I look orange. Directly across the street is an elementary school.

In the morning, we walked down to the White Water Voyage station to get ready for our trip. We met our guide, Brian, there. The whole company is family run. Brian's niece, Ashley is a guide, and her boyfriend is too. The other guide is his brother. Our guide was a forest ranger, but retired. He says he's been running the river for 30 years.

Coming out of a run

Dropping

going down the river

I'm somewhere under here, in the front. At one point, our boat flipped over and we all fell out. We had life vests on, so I wasn't scared. I was super bummed though because when I fell out, I felt my shoes slipping off me. I tried so hard to keep them on, by grabbing the straps with my toes, but I couldn't swim that way so I had to let them go. Our guide got the boat overturned quick enough, but it was so hard to get back in the boat without someone pulling us up. Mary was in panic mode and it was so hilarious. She kept saying, "Kathy, hold on. Don't drown". Brian pulled her into the boat and then she said, "Kathy, don't worry, I'm gonna pull you in". She grabbed my life vest but couldn't pull me up, so she said, "wait, let me use my legs. You're not going to drown, not by the hair of my chiny chin chin" or something to that effect, then she pulled back and pulled me in. I landed in the boat like a wet seal. It was so funny, actually. At the time it was scary, but then it was so funny. I was so sad about losing my shoes. I had to spend the rest of the day barefoot.

Me, 2nd on right, Mary, 3rd on left

We ate lunch midway, and then when we were almost done, we stopped at a cliff and took turns jumping into the water. Mary went first, but I was barefoot and didn't want to climb barefoot, but I still wanted to jump, so I walked up to jump, but once I was up there, it looked like such a long jump down. I had to jump though. Everyone else was. I jumped and my stomach lifted. It was a horrible feeling, but once I landed, it felt so good. I climbed back into the boat, but because I wasn't wearing shoes, I slipped HARD on a rock and fell right on my butt! OUCH!

Back at the hotel we hung out in the back for a bit

the owner's actually live on the premises. Right behind Mary is their yard.

They had a giant checker and chess board outside, which was really cute.

At one of the little shops. I got a bear massage.

Our guest...Murphy

He has his own blog, actually. Murphy hung around all day. He was everyone's dog.

Getting ready to get back in the car and head home

I was so glad I went. I really had a great time!