Things To Do For Two

Cost - Free if you own a kayak or around $20/hr if you want to rent one

One of our favorite places to spend time during the hot days of summer is my grandmother’s cottage. It’s on a really nice lake so when the weather is just right we can find a lot of fun things to do. Recently my grandmother bought two kayaks. That’s right, my 73 year old grandmother with a knee replacement bought kayaks…Anyway, we recently came back from a week at the cottage so we got plenty of quality time out on the water.

SHE SAID:

I have always been athletically challenged, but from time to time I like to venture out and try to force my limbs to coordinate themselves. I figured kayaking was pretty safe because it really only involves moving one set of limbs at a time. I hadn’t tried kayaking until now because I was sure I would end up capsized and trapped upside down in a drowning fit. If the same is true for you, read on.

Brad’s grandmother (“Grammie”) recently bought sit-on-top kayaks. Pretty self-explanatory. No climbing into. No trapping. No drowning (probably). So when we went to visit last, I decided to give it a try. It was super easy to get into and was very stable, so I didn’t feel like I was going to capsize, even when the wind picked up and a few waves appeared. Even though the kayak was completely open, I didn’t end up soaked. This, of course, depends on how frantic your paddling is.

What I didn’t anticipate was my husband deciding to play “bumper kayaks” at the deepest part of the lake. That was quickly resolved with a reminder of who feeds him.

Some things to remember when you’re out there:

• Safety first! – wear a life jacket.
• Relax. The tenser you are, the more likely your movements will be jerky and your kayak will rock more, whipping you into a panicked frenzy.
• If the water is kind of choppy, go against the waves on your way out when you have more energy so that the way back is easier. If it’s your first time try a short trip out and back to get the feel for it.
• If it’s sunny, wear a hat, sunglasses and lots of sunscreen (especially on the tops of your legs).

If you’re looking to give it a try, here are a few places in the HRM that rent kayaks. Most rent for $20/hour:

Paddle East Canoe and Kayak – you must kayak on site (Lakes Banook and MicMac)

East Coast Outfitters – located in Lower Prospect, NS

Sea Sun Kayak – located in St. Margaret’s Bay, NS

Though I don’t think I’ll ever be suited for ocean kayaking, I will definitely try lake kayaking again.

HE SAID:

Although I didn’t have the same fears of capsizing as Susan, I am just as athletically challenged as she is. Actually, even more so. I was still excited to jump in a kayak for the first time and give it a try. I immediately felt comfortable as the kind of kayaks we used were very stable on the water. Now, some people (cough, cough…Susan) like to paddle leisurely across the lake, taking breaks every few minutes to rest their tired muscles and take in the view. Not me. I have this weird instinct that kicks in that compels me to see how fast I can paddle and how far I can get before collapsing from exhaustion. It was all well and good until I realized that the farther I paddled, the farther I was from the cottage. You see, when you use my method of paddle ‘til you drop, make sure you turn around and head back somewhere near the halfway point of your strength level. Otherwise you’ll be out in the middle of a lake struggling to get back. Other than a few sore muscles and hands, all went well.

Now, a tip for the guys out there who might be planning to go kayaking with your lady. No matter how funny or harmless you might think playing “bumper kayaks” in the middle of the lake is, please for the love of Pete, don’t do it. Especially if the aforementioned lady has an ungodly fear of drowning.

Noted.

The only other thing I would mention about this activity is that the two of you may end up going two very different speeds out on the water. This is where a decision must be made. Either you both compromise and find a comfortable speed where you are both happy and can travel together, or you just decide to go your own ways and meet back at a certain time. Seeing as this site is about things to do for TWO and not ways to do your own thing, I would recommend the compromise.

One of our favorite movies to watch together is Dan in Real Life. It stars Steve Carell as Dan, a writer who is trying to raise his three daughters alone after the death of his wife. This is not, however, a movie review.

After seeing the movie a few times I started paying attention to the soundtrack. The songs compliment the movie perfectly while standing on their own as good music. I found it on iTunes not long after and it has since become one of our favorite pieces of music.

Up until now I’ve only had the digital version of the soundtrack on my laptop. I don’t like using an FM transmitter for my iPod in the car, and burned CD’s don’t play well at all in it either, so we were anxious to get it on CD. The problem was, the local Best Buy and Future Shop never seemed to carry it. So after months of looking every time we went shopping, and telling Susan many times to “just buy it online” I finally decided to order it through Amazon as a surprise for her.

Later that day we were picking out some music for the car as we were heading out on a day trip (more on that later…) when somehow the Dan in Real Life soundtrack got brought up. Then came the crushing blow to my “I’m such a good husband” ego when Susan proceeded to tell me she had JUST ordered it online from Chapters with some books she bought. Yup, after months of searching brick and mortar stores, we both ordered the same CD on the same day!

So now my surprise has been ruined, my soul has been crushed, but we have two copies of one of our favorite CD’s. One arrived yesterday, and the other is still on the way. Let’s just say I’m glad I didn’t pay for gift wrapping.

And that, my friends, is the story of the Dan in Real Life Incident.

• Cost – Free if you get instructions online and use paper sitting around the house. Less than $20 if you choose to buy paper and a book
• Caution – may cause uncontrollable rage and feelings of inferiority
• Video instructions may be easier to follow than an illustrated book
• Don’t expect to master the art of origami in an afternoon, but expect to have fun along the way

This past July, it rained A LOT here in Nova Scotia. Actually, rain could no longer describe the incessant cloud of mist and humidity that prevented my hair from drying completely or the house from feeling like a barn. So when I woke up one morning and saw that there would be no sun again we decided we could either clean our home or find something to do. While scrubbing off shower scum together could conjure up great conversation, we were looking for something a little more fun, something to get us out of the rain funk. For whatever reason, origami was the answer.

We didn’t have any origami paper or instructions to begin, so we bit the bullet and headed out into the rain to get an instruction book from Chapters (in the Crafts and Hobbies section) and origami paper from Michael’s (which is actually NOT in the huge scrap-booking paper section).

We started out in the beginner’s section of the book and attempted to create an origami bird sitting on a rock. Our second attempt was the classic origami crane.

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SHE SAID:

Being the craft loving geek that I am, I was excited, yet hesitant about the fun to be had with ancient paper folding crafts. I had my suspicions that origami could be challenging and I was not disappointed.

I am not the type that can easily follow technical instructions with diagrams. I’d rather be physically shown. So when Brad suggested a book, I secretly panicked inside. Knowing how challenging origami could be, though, I obliged to make the experience more pleasant for him, since he is craft hesitant. We bought official origami paper at Michael’s, but if you don’t care about the neat designs, save yourself the money and grab a sheet from your printer or an old newspaper. Just make sure it’s not too thick.

Our first attempt was of a bird sitting on a rock. Other than a few wrong folds, it ended up looking pretty close to the picture in the book.

Note: be sure to make really good creases. Don’t wimp out. Drag that nail across the paper with no mercy! Also, don’t give up if it feels like you have King Kong hands like Brad that are always in the way.

Our second attempt at the classic origami crane began with the book. However, after one too many reverse folds gone awry, we – surprise, surprise – resorted to YouTube. This made life MUCH easier. We narrowly avoided failure and ended up with a cute keepsake of our afternoon.

The Japanese believed that if you folded 1000 paper cranes you would be granted one wish. Only 998 more to go!

HE SAID:

How hard could it possibly be to fold paper a few times to make a crane? That’s what I thought as we ventured out in the rain to buy our supplies. Little did I know that I was in for a big surprise. I decided that it made more sense to buy an instruction book to learn from rather than watching how-to videos online. I thought the pictures plus the written instructions would be a good combination for beginners like us. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize there was a whole new vocabulary to learn before the crane was to emerge from my paper.

One thing to know about origami is that not every fold is going to be used immediately. For example, you could fold your paper in half, but then in the next step either unfold it or reverse the direction. It doesn’t make sense at first because it seems like nothing was accomplished with that step. The important thing to remember is that every fold has a purpose, even if it takes a few steps to figure out what it is.

So after a few tries at a beginner level creation, it looked as if origami had won the battle. I couldn’t seem to wrap my brain around reverse inside folds, or the way the illustrations were presented. Somehow we managed to come out relatively unscathed. Then we moved on to the crane. Anyone who attempts origami is going to want to make a crane.

The crane kicked my butt.

After tossing my heap of mangled paper to the side I caved in and hit the internet for some how-to video goodness. We both found this much easier than the book. Once we found a video that was easy to follow, we were off to the races. The cranes turned out really well, and in the end we conquered origami.

Don’t let me scare you away from trying this activity out. If you go into it thinking that the process is the fun part regardless of the outcome, you will enjoy yourself. I liked the challenge, even though it was harder than expected, and the satisfaction of actually making something was worth it all.