So on our way up to North Carolina my friend Rita (a film major who takes her movies very seriously) was telling me about Deliverance,  a movie that takes place near our house. She described it as a great movie about canoeing in the mountains and banjo music, featuring a hot young Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds. So obviously I was like "we have to watch this movie!!!" ...mistake #1. If you've ever seen Deliverance, you know that Rita's description was not extreamly accurate, in fact it was not accurate at all. Sure, the movie does have banjo music, canoeing, and a hot young Jon and Burt, but the very important part she left out was that it is frickin' terrifying! It is actually about 4 men that leave on a canoeing trip and end up being terrorized by inbred mountain people. Yes. This is the movie Rita thought would be perfect to watch on the first night up in the mountains, close to where the movie was filmed. Oh and we watched this movie on our porch outside. In the middle of the night. In the pourring rain. Needless to say the banjo music haunted my dreams and I feared I would never go canoeing again. However, Rita, being the outdoorsy woman she is, forced me to take advantage of our community's lake and canoes the very next day. I am glad to report that we returned home unharmed by mountain folk and without any near-death experiences. 

 

I like to stay comfortable and warm while on the water. A button down with a tank underneath keeps me toasty in the morning and offers a built in change of clothes, should I splash myself with water with my erratic paddling. Shorts are an obvious choice for the summertime. My absolute favorite type of shorts are 3" J. Crew Chino shorts. They fit like a glove and last forever, doesn't get better than that!  

 

Since we didn't want to risk getting the fancy camera wet during our canoeing excursion, I decided to take these pictures on my iPhone 5 with my lifeproof case on it. It worked out really well if I do say so myself! If you're ever in a bind, the iPhone 5 takes excellent HDR pictures and my lifeproof case literally saves my life all the time! I highly reccomend them!

 

p.s. If you hear banjo music, paddle faster!