Conquering the Nantahala River

 So we ended up doing Nanny today due to my husband forgetting he had offered to host a department meal Sunday afternoon. Both kids attempted the falls. I went first, flipped, but rolled up (yay!). Then 9 yo Michael tried, flipped, and came up crying hysterically. Eric went after his boat and I took after Michael, who continued to bob down the river sobbing incoherently and hanging to his paddle. He would not let it go, and thus could not swim to shore. 

While this is transpiring, Tosh (NOC instructor who happened to be at the falls helping a private student) had signaled for Amy (who was supposed to be waiting) to come down. Which she did, and promptly flipped and dropped her paddle. 

So now we have two paddles, two kayaks, and two kids we are frantically chasing after. 

Amy kept her cool and Tosh got her and paddle while Eric found her boat. I had to yell (something I never do) for Michael to stop crying so he would drop his paddle and swim to shore (he kept screaming “Waaaa, I can’t let go, I’ll lose my paddle, Waaaa.”) He eventually made it to shore and was reunited to boat. 

I caught his paddle and discovered it is next to impossible to attain up river with two paddles. I struggled futilely for a while. Tosh’s student came to our rescue and let Michael use her paddle to get to where I was. 

And that brought to a climactic finish our first family attempt to conquer the Nanny.