Starved Rock Adventures, Ottawa

This weekend was the most fun I've had in years. Our hosts plan great group trips, like a weekend at Cedar Point immedately before their wedding. This trip was in honor of our friend T's birthday and everyone had an excellent time.

We were able to join the trip for Saturday and Sunday, but the houseboat was rented from Thursday to Sunday. Saturday morning the golfers did their thing. We all met up around 2 pm to leave the marina and sail to the island where we would spend the night. The boat rental company owns a small island where you can park the houseboat overnight and watch the barges go by.

We spent the evening playing bean bags (alternatively known as cornhole), enjoying all the good brews everyone brought, listening to music, and catching up. There were friends from college there we usually only see once a year and some we haven't even seen that much. I swam in the river for awhile. It wasn't as yucky as I expected. At sunset the guys built a bonfire and we spent the rest of the night sitting around talking about pregnancies, babies, hobbies, work, and college stories that always get trotted out for laughs.

It was so relaxing to not be in charge of anyone or anything. I didn't say "Stop that" or "Be careful" for a good 26 hours. We did have big excitement when a very large barge came by in the opposite direction as the other barges. The anchors started coming out of the sand and the boat went sideways. But we recovered and got the boat straightened out and anchored much better around trees.

This was a great weekend activity for adults. One major thing was the expense though. We contributed what we could to the hosts for the weekend. But if you look at the Starved Rock Adventure website prices, those are not the actual cost. The actual cost is significantly more because of all the add ons you have to pay for once you are there that are not included in the web price (insurance, john boat, etc).