First river canoe trip with Liora
Today Liora and I went on a canoe trip on the Muskegon river! It wasn't too fast, and had basically no whitewater, which was perfect for our combined level of expertise at this point. We had a great time; we had lunch on the river, especially when we stopped twice to walk up the bank and float down river in the current. We saw interesting wildlife including a bald eagle, turtles, lots of fish, ducks, crayfish, and snails with green shells.
I experimented with using the iPhone as the primary camera for this trip; it worked pretty well. I kept it in a ziploc bag when I wasn't actually taking pictures, which worked fine to keep it dry. I did miss shots that happened quickly (water fights and the bald eagle), but got a pretty good number of very usable shots during the trip. It is quite hard to take a picture of mostly dark-colored items while you're in the sun wearing sunglasses, because it is too hard to tell whether the iPhone has finished focusing and the shot is well composed.
This experience reminds me of overnight canoeing/camping trips I did as a kid, and makes me start thinking of doing them with both of my girls when they get a bit older. We'll see if we can get the set of skills we'd need to do that enjoyably over the next couple of years.