One of our date night bucket list items last year and this year was to go paddle boating in a park downtown. The last time I went paddle boating was when I was twelve and I remember wanting to spend all afternoon pedaling around the lake! Joe and I have tried to make this date night happen for a year now, and I was determined to make it part of our anniversary celebration a couple of weeks ago. There is a park in Downtown Salt Lake with some rides and a small lake where you can paddle boat and canoe. It cost us $10 for 20 minutes of paddle boating and I kind of wish that we'd gotten at least half an hour for that price, but we still enjoyed it!
I will say that this activity was a lot more fun when I was younger and probably would have been more enjoyable without my baby bump as well. Pedaling is great exercise and you can go as fast or as slow as you want (as long as both of you can agree on a speed), but it is a little more difficult when you're pregnant. Add to that the heat and you have not as romantic of a date activity as I'd thought, but it was still fun.
We were a bit flustered by the time we got to the boats. We'd missed our first activity of the afternoon and had to stop and replace my car battery before we could get the fun started. When we got to the park, we found out that there was a festival that day (there was another festival by The Melting Pot when we went to dinner later, obviously I didn't do my research) so parking was rough. We picked the first parking spot that we could find, so we had to hike into the lake and were worn out by the time we got there. Joe was really hungry, so we grabbed churros at the concession stand when we purchased our ticket for the boat. Once we were on the water, it was nice to enjoy each other's company and the view and relax for a bit.
If we'd had more time after our boat ride, I would have liked to ride the Ferris Wheel and explore the park a little bit more, but we had reservations for a romantic anniversary dinner experience, so we headed back to the car after we were done. I would love to go back again next year, maybe later on a fall afternoon when it's cool and there isn't so much going on at the park. Then we could really enjoy our time in the park, pedaling hopefully won't be as difficult when I'm not pregnant and maybe we'll try canoeing while we're out there as well.
If you're looking for something different to do this summer, find somewhere near you that rents out paddle boats. It's a fun, simple date night or afternoon activity! You could pack a picnic to enjoy after you've finished pedaling.
