The Lee Family: Rafting down the Rio Grande River!

After a great night's sleep, we woke up and had breakfast at 8am. The girls were super sleepy, but did get some scrambled eggs and bacon before we left at 8:30am. Before we left, Shirl and I made pb&j sandwiches for the ladies, and turkey sandwiches for the guys. I also brought along granola bars and pretzels since I knew the girls would get hungry at some point before lunch. After we'd packed our sandwiches and water bottles, we loaded up and drove to Santa Fe Rafting Co. which is only about 15 minutes away from the hacienda. About a week before we headed to Santa Fe, Aunt Shirl and I were talking about our upcoming trip and she suggested trying a rafting trip down the Rio Grande, which she'd heard about but had never been on before. She explained it and it sounded fantastic!! So, she said she would buy the tickets for 9am on Tuesday. I was really excited to go, and wondered what the girls would think about it. Once we were at the rafting company, it took a bit to fill out the paperwork and we met a few of the people who would be going rafting with us!

We all loaded into two vans and headed toward Taos, which would get us to the Rio Grande river, where we would start our adventure! The van ride took about 45 minutes to an hour through little pueblos and towns. Our van driver told us different facts of each of the pueblos we went through. Of course, after about 30 minutes both girls were hungry and ate a granola bar and a small bag of pretzels. I was glad I brought snacks, since no one wants hungry girls on an adventure.

We arrived at the drop off point, after driving along the Rio Grande River for the last 20 minutes of our drive. The rafting guides removed the rafts from the back trailers and we each were outfitted with helmets and life vests. Our driver, Elliot, told us he would be taking all of us in his raft. Apparently, each raft holds four people, but since there are six of us, Elliot said he could take us all. We were so excited to all stay together on our trip down the river! We soon realized that Elliot was the leader of the rafting guides and had years of experience on various rivers. He gave the entire group a safety briefing and said that we would be going down class 1 and 2 rapids with two sections of class 3 on our trip. Elliot said that since it was so dry, the Rio Grande river is pretty low so we would come across areas that we might get caught up and would need to work hard to free ourselves from rocks. Elliot packed our waters and sandwiches and we left our phones and cameras behind in the van. I really wish I had a waterproof camera so I could take photos throughout the trip. Aunt Shirl actually brought her camera and took some cute photos on our breaks. We broke up into four different rafts and we headed out in the lead! I sat on the front left with Sofia and Uncle Steve behind me. CK sat across from me on the right and Aunt Shirl sat behind him with Olivia sitting in the middle of them, but dropping into the center of the raft when we arrived at some rapids. Sofia was super excited, while Olivia was a little tentative. She often is nervous in new experiences, but usually warms up quickly once she realizes it's safe. Within 30 minutes she was loving it and soon wanted to sit at the very front of the raft as we headed down the river. The day couldn't have been more beautiful and perfect and the river was just perfect.

We gently floated down the river for part of our trip and soon found Elliot to be a great guide! Not only has he had a lot of experience and is very qualified, he clearly loves being a guide and was fun and easy to talk to as we headed down the river. He would tell us commands, like "Row two" or "Row hard" or "Two back" and told us what he meant by all of them. It was great to be the lead raft, since we had clear views of the upcoming rapids and a great view of the Rio Grande as we floated along. There were many flat, smooth parts and some minor rapids, which was really fun. It was shallow at points, but Elliot got us through those areas easily and he said we were the best group he'd had all week...I told him he really meant to say "all season!" We did actually work well as a team and navigated the river well by listening to Elliot's directions. It was really fun and an interesting way to see the land. We did end of stopping several times to wait for the three other rafts, since they were slower. The fourth raft was usually very far behind since their guide was deaf, so she would signal to another woman in her raft who would shout out the commands. Because of this delay, the rafters weren't doing their part in time which got them hung up a lot. Their poor guide ended up out of the raft and pushing or pulling several times. Of course, Sofia loved when we stopped because it meant a break to swim and splash. Uncle Steve was really the only one brave enough to join her. The water was COLD! It felt good on your legs and I would dip the arm of my long-sleeved sun shirt to get wet, but there was no way I was getting completely wet! At one of our stops, Sofia and Uncle Steve jumped in and CK had his legs hanging over the side deciding whether he wanted to go in, when Olivia stood up and Aunt Shirl asked "Olivia, are you going to swim?" to which she replied "No. I'm going to push Papa in!" and she did! It was so funny! CK was more than a little surprised and said the water was very cold!

We ended up eating our sandwiches whenever we had breaks on the flat areas of the river. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich never tasted so good! We went through our water pretty quickly and I was really wanting more water the last hour of our trip. In the last 30 minutes of our trip, we came across the two biggest rapid areas and it was super fun! Olivia sat at the very front and loved it and the rest of us worked hard to listen to Elliot and do what he told us. It was so much fun. Finally, the last 15 minutes or so were flat and pretty shallow so we had to work hard to get to the end. Plus, a headwind had come up and we really had to fight the wind even to move. By the end our behinds were sore, but just on one side from sitting so awkwardly in the raft. Aunt Shirl and I decided we should have switched places about halfway through to even everything out. We made it to the unloading area and it was 3pm already! It was such a fun trip and we all agreed we'd love to do it again. The guides set out water, lemonade, watermelon, ham cubes and cheese and it all tasted great after such a trip. Soon, it was time to load up and we thanked Elliot for all he did. He had to stay behind and help with the rafts. The guides were all great and it is hard to understand how hard they work on the raft. There were so many times it felt like we were floating effortlessly down the river, but Elliot was rowing and guiding us the entire time. The girls had a blast and they were both talking about what other river trip we could go on next time! Of course, Sofia wants bigger rapids next time!

We loaded up into the van and headed back toward Santa Fe. Sofia read while we drove and Olivia sucked her thumb and fell asleep, although she swore she never "actually" fell asleep! Once we were back at our cars, we decided to go to the craft beer place over by Meow Woof and followed Aunt and Uncle over there. We all ordered a beer, the girls had root beers and we got chicken wings and tater tots. Sofia was pretty bummed because her molar was very loose and bothering her. Finally, she went into the bathroom and pulled it! She came back super happy that it wouldn't be bothering her anymore!

After relaxing on the patio with our snacks, we returned to the hacienda for much-deserved showers. After showering the girls headed straight to the arroyo to climb and play. The rest of us sat out on the back patio and later ordered pizza and salad from our favorite place in Santa Fe, Il Vicino. Uncle Steve and I picked it up and we returned to the house to enjoy it. We sat outside and enjoyed the cooling evening until about 10pm and then headed to bed. We figured that we would all sleep well after our fun adventure!

The girls at the river, ready to go rafting!