A quick update from student Kate: As the group makes our way west to the Lost Coast, we drowsily reminisce on sweet memories from the rafting trip we recently embarked on. The three days went by incredibly fast, but the atmosphere and activities we submerged ourselves in made this short lived portion an undeniable highlight. For starters, the entire community was back together. New relationships were quickly formed and old ones reconnected during evening beach talks and relaxing floats through calm water. There were many different options of boats to use while rafting through the rapids; like two 6 person boats, 7 white water kayaks, and 1 miniature boat. Everyone had the opportunity to use each watercraft and test them out for themselves, definitely forming a hilarious cult of die hard kayak junkies in the process. These insanely skilled kayakers tackled high class rapids like no big deal and made the sport look easy. Three boys, Mason, Cole, and Jacob, took it upon themselves to go over the largest rapid of the trip in the mini me (the smallest boat). They suffered the gnarliest wipeout while doing so, but joked about it and laughed the whole way down. “It was quite exhilarating!”, says Mason just a second ago when I ask him to describe the experience in a sentence. “We gave it our best shot, but sadly it just wasn’t quite enough…”, said Jacob when asked the same question. Speaking of exhilarating moments, our last day was packed full of wet wipeouts as well as a wet night. I’m aware of the drought California has been suffering through, so it came as a large surprise when droplets started to fall onto our makeshift Survivor-esq shelter tarp. Although it may have been tempting to allow the rainy day to put us in a bad mood, we managed to sweep up camp and get onto the river with smiles and Christmas carols rolling off our lips. Now our group dozes off to sleep in the vans as we slowly inch closer and closer to the coast.