Paddleboards, Chicken Fingers, and Ant Man

Friday afternoon.

3:43PM

The day wouldn’t end…

Heather and I had been planning this epic Friday adventure for weeks. Not long ago Heather had gone to a lake chain in the heart of South Minneapolis and rented a paddleboard with a friend. She’d been badgering me to go with her ever since.

Some of my most favorite memories involve lakes, so I was happy to give into her entreaties. The day was set. Friday, July 26th, 2015. We’d head there as soon as we both got home from work.

At long last the clock hand moved! (metaphorically—my husband is the only person I know who keeps an analogue clock face on his digital watch)

Freedom was at hand!

Heather and I lived in the same apartment complex, so we rushed back after work, threw on our swimsuits and various other needed things and headed south.

It’s fun to look back on this first adventure for us on paddleboards. Heather used a plastic ziploc bag to protect her phone from the lake waters and the whole time I was absolutely convinced she was going to drop it into the murky city-lake waters, never to be seen again.

She didn’t and we had a blast.

(some seven years later, our paddleboarding has grown to where we both have multiple dry bags, carabiners, mesh bags, floating phone protectors, and five boards between the two of us—obsession probably doesn’t begin to cover how we feel about paddle boarding)

The lake now named back to its original name, Bde Maka Ska, is one of the most popular in the city. We navigated the streets with some poise and a decent amount of confusion (us Northeast Mpls girls flail a bit in South mpls).

The line to rent paddleboards stretched longer than we anticipated but our worry ended up brief. We paid for our hour with the boards and took to the lake.

The great thing about this particular lake is channels have been cut between three lakes. Bde Maka Ska, Lake of the Isles, and Cedar Lake. You go under two bridges and a pond to get from the main lake (Bde Maka Ska) and Lake of the Isles. These are the largest of the lakes, though Bde Maka Ska is significantly deeper than its closest sister lake.

(You can tell it's deep by the lack of large pond weeds that grow to almost touch the surface in the vast majority of Lake of the Isles. There might also have been an incident with a snapping turtle several years later on Lake of the Isles that challenged our faith that Minnesota Lakes don’t have dangerous predators in them—but I digress)

This was my first time paddleboarding and Heather’s 2nd. Fully aware of our hour timeframe (me more than Heather—I’m the worrier out of the two of us), we didn’t make it past Lake of the Isles, too afraid we’d get back late and be charged another forty-five dollars. Even with the time constraint, we enjoyed every second out on the lake.

The perfect paddleboarding weather (as we’ve learned through extreme trial and error over the years) is a windless day on a lake with no motor boats of any kind. This lake chain is well set up for such perfect days. Set in a bit of a valley, with a few islands scattering through Lake of the Isles, even windy days aren’t as bad on other lakes. The chain itself lends to a leisurely paddle from one lake the next, pausing for dips in the water to cool off.

At this point we’d yet to learn what dangers lurked under the waters of Lake of the Isles so we did swim in the less weed infested spots. Here too began the tradition of I’m always the first one in the water. I have to give Heather the all clear that I can’t feel any weeds before she’ll join me for a swim.

After some sun-soaking, swimming, and precarious picture taking, we headed back to the rental shed and returned our boards. Even this early in our friendship, Heather well knew the dangers of a hungry me, so off we went to find food.

We had a mutual friend who came to Minnesota via Texas and his favorite place to eat was Raising Canes. At the time there were only two in Minnesota. One down in a southern suburb and the other in the middle of the main college hub for the University of Minnesota. The Spirit of Adventure pumped through me and Heather is the Embodiment of Adventure, so off we went to DinkyTown.

Parking almost brought about defeat but in the end we prevailed!

It took one bite of chicken and I knew I’d found the best chicken fingers I’d ever eaten. I have yet to eat one better. To this day (seven years later) eating Raising Canes reminds me of that glorious evening adventure.

BUT—the night was not over—more adventure awaited!

We sat there in the red plastic seats, licking the delicious sauce off our fingertips, and one of us (totally have forgotten who it was—hey, it was seven years ago, give me a break) brought up wanting to see Ant Man. We knew it was in theaters but since this was before all our friends had been swept up into the MCU ferver, neither of us had seen it yet.

Then, I had an idea. Why not go see Ant Man now? Surely a theater around our apartment would have a showing on a Friday night.

Heather stared at me in shock.

(I am well known among all my friends, acquaintances, co-workers, etc…as the person who goes to bed around nine every night—and this is not an age thing, I’ve been this way since college)

I assured Heather I was up for one more additional adventure for the night and as she has often been heard saying later, “When Sarah says she’s going to go to a movie at ten pm at night, you take advantage of the moment”.

So, we slurped down the rest of the most delicious lemonade ever to come out of a fast food joint (yes, it’s better than Chick-fil-a’s, please don’t come after me with pitchforks until you’ve tried it), and sent texts out to all our friends.

Alas, none of the usual sorts responded, except one! One true friend decided to join our quest and off we charged! With one side quest to obtain bubble tea, we dashed back to the apartment to change into attire more suited to theaters in a Minnesota summer, and off to the show.

Our One True Friend arrived, in a somewhat baffled state. He seemed almost as surprised as we’d been that he’d agreed to join us in our Quest to follow the Spirit of Adventure. (he’s not really the normally spontaneous sort of person)

Happy to have him with us, regardless of how it came together, we turned to the screen and settled in to watch the hilarious insanity ensue.

Marvel didn’t disappoint and we enjoyed ourselves. But alas, as all things must come to an end, so did this day of Adventure. The clock hand ticked into midnight and we trundled towards our respective homes.

This night marked the beginning of our paddleboarding obsession (that definitely still exists). It also drew Heather and I closer together as friends. A brilliant moment in an excellent summer of friendship.

I still go to Raising Canes, slurp down my lemonade, munch on my chicken fingers, and remember such a day as this.

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