All Girls Weekend SUP Adventure
Nothing is as fun as a weekend away with just the ladies because we know how to do it up right! While yummy food and beautiful waterside views are obvious, the best activity to do while catching up is SUP! The ladies I know are adventurous and active, and floating around on the paddleboards is a great way to stay active and adventurous while looking glam and snapping the best group selfies.
For our weekend away to Harrison Hot Springs, three of us were driving up together to meet a fourth who was going to lead us through some SUP YOGA out on the lake. We didn’t want to worry about taking care of hardboards at the hotel overnight, so we put four inflatables into the back of the jeep along with all of our overpacked bags. The other girls were amazed when we deflated the boards and fit them all in! I do love my jeep liberty, the cargo room is awesome 😊
We stopped for a coffee, caramel macchiato (half sweet, with drizzle), at a cute roadside coffee hut with little candles and soaps for sale. A bit further on we did a short waterfall hike to bridal falls where we thought it would be like a hike-hike, but were surprised to see a lady in her 60’s wearing very nice high heeled boots picking her way over the roots and rocks while her family snapped millions of pics! It was so nice not to worry about anybody stealing anything from the roof of the Jeep because everything fit nicely inside while we went galivanting around the sights.
When we got to the lake and checked into the hotel it was SUPER windy, and the lake was actually freezing cold. It was pretty though! Steely blue water reflecting the layers of grey clouds in the sky with rays of sun escaping here and there. The mountains are wild and a million shades of blue and green fading into the distance. We put on our jackets and pulled up the hoods to go snap some pics, then went to explore the town for dinner. We delayed our sunset SUP plans until the wind died down the next day.
The next day was still pretty windy and cold, but we always have a good time wherever we go! We splashed around in the hot springs and followed our noses to the chocolate shop! After brunch and a stroll around the lake we decided that the lake was beautiful, but none of us wanted to actually fight the wind on it, there were just too many risk factors with the inflatable SUPs in the crazy wind on a freezing lake with big rocky shores, plus it was one of the ladies first times ever! But there was a sweet little lagoon beside the big lake, with sandy shores and pretty sheltered. We really wanted to SUP and this would be perfect 😊.
In true West Coast fashion, our fourth friend, who was kind of a new friend, flaked at the last minute because she had made other plans for the day, so if we wanted to do Yoga we would have to figure that our for ourselves. That was fine, we were excited anyways! We found some soft green grass beside the lagoon to chill out on, and we started pumping up the boards. The activity warmed us up right away and we took off our jackets. Then clouds broke and the sun came out. It was instantly ten degrees warmer! Everything was coming together beautifully.
Every single person who walked by had some comments on how beautiful the boards were, questions about what we were doing or just felt the need to be a part of our fun. Viktoria, who had never paddle boarded before was having a great time trying to use the pump backwards and sit on the handle, pumping it up with her best asset. Of course because we were busy chit chatting, somebody forgot to push the valve pin up before connecting the hose, so when I took the pump off the first board that was up to pressure I got my hair blown back!
It took about a half hour to get the boards set up and take some epic photos. We tried setting up the phone on auto-timer about a dozen times and then we finally let one of the guys walking by take the picture for us. He was terrible, like zoomed in so you couldn’t see the mountains, and people walking behind us- so then we let the next guy’s girlfriend take the photos for us and they were awesome!
We headed out on the water and it was so fun exploring the shore of this little lagoon, visiting the baby ducklings and seeing the fish! The boards are super wide and sturdy, so nobody fell. I SUP all the time but usually try some silly footwork and end up splashing in, Amber has gone out a with me just a few times and is really good, actually she has never fallen off the board. Viktoria was also awesome, you can tell from her graceful balance that she used to be a gymnast. The far end had a nice calm spot to chill out and we tried our yoga moves. Hmmmm we are not as flexible as we remember being in our youth!
We were toodling around, maybe spending more time with the camera phones than the paddles, getting the best snaps of each other and ourselves, of the goslings and ducklings and the mountains. The wind never did go away, it was still pretty gusty and Amber kept getting blown away to the far shore. Viktoria and I came to save her- we used the shoulder carry strap to clip from the back of our boards on the leash D-ring to the front cargo D-rings on her board. We are all mothers of toddlers, so we were singing the Paw-Patrol rescue theme song as we towed her back across the lagoon.
When we landed we were so happy we went out to explore the lagoon, and flexed our biceps and our abs and felt way better after some exercise. Everyone loves standing at the water’s edge and gazing out, but I prefer to actually go out on the water and explore!
It didn’t take long to pack the boards back into the jeep so we could head over to the Blackforest Restaurant for some Schnitzels and of course black forest cake with fresh cream and cherries!
After dinner we wandered around and found a little hike beside the lake that came out to a sheltered alcove with sandy shore and gorgeous views. There was a mother duck with twelve ducklings swimming by in an endless line behind her! We sat on a driftwood log and wished we had the boards with us here! There are so many cool areas to explore, if one spot isn’t good, just strap on the backpack and keep looking. The hike was short, like only 20 minutes on a nice trail up and over a little ridge, totally doable with the hiking bag. Next time we are definitely going to bring them there and enjoy the big lake.
We had a great trip home the next day, after a yummy breakfast we stopped at a greenhouse for some additions to the garden, and then when we were almost back to White Rock we drove past a vendor’s market at a local winery and hit the brakes. I love my hand sculpted tea mug that I picked up there, but the pictures I love most from that trip are the three of us tired moms, escaping to the water with our hair blown back and big genuine goofy smiles on our faces. There is something magical about the water and the way it refreshes one’s soul.