Girls' Weekend - Day 3

Sunday, our shuttle back to Sapporo didn't leave until 5PM, so we had almost the entire day for more outdoor fun. We had such a great time rafting on Saturday that we decided to book a kayaking trip for the next day. It was a very different experience from rafting, much more calm and serene. The section of the river we kayaked was so smooth it looked like glass, and the surrounding mountains, trees, and clouds were perfectly reflected in it as we paddled along. I wished I had a camera with me, but I didn't bring it because I wasn't confident we could keep it dry, even in a kayak. During the rafting trip, the company had provided a photographer who was stationed at various points along the river to document the trip. Our guide would tell us in advance where he was going to be so we would know to look and smile/wave. As we were gearing up for kayaking, the rafting photographer was waiting on the rafters to be ready to leave the NRC base and snapped a few pictures of us before we left:

Not knowing that the company only provided a rafting photographer, Fiona then spent the entire rafting trip craning her neck any time we went around a bend in the river and asking, "Where's my photographer? Where's my photographer?" She's very photo shy...

After kayaking, we went back to the hotel to for lunch and a last swim in the pool. One strange thing about the resort pool - it was only open from 2:00PM to 10:00PM. I'm guessing it's just a cultural preference thing, but I kept finding that our ideal pool time would have been about 9:00AM. After lunch, we had about an hour to kill until the pool opened, so we walked around the Rusutsu resort checking out some of the minor attractions we'd meant to take in earlier.

First, Fiona took about five rides on the  amazingly intricate, two-story carousel (free!) housed in the resorts lobby:

The entire entry level to the resort was setup like an old fashioned village - complete with an an old time car.

I got a taste of what life is going to be like in about 10 years...terrifying!

More selfie-stick fun:

Finally the pool opened, and we went over so Fiona could swim and mommy could read until it was time to catch our shuttle.

We missed not having Jason with us, but had a really amazing girls' weekend together. The first of many to come!