A day on the river

Today, I got to spend an awesome day on the river paddleboarding with some friends. There were supposed to be nine of us but one person got called away for a fire and one got called out in a Search and Rescue. So seven of us hit the river at noon from Emigrant and quite thoroughly enjoyed the day. We alternated paddling, hanging out on the boards, and falling into the river. The weather prediction was a high of 77 with a 40% chance of rain so we set out with some trepidation. The weather guys were once again wrong since it was beautiful all day, only getting chilly when we hit the last stretch.
The ultimate plan was to paddle right up to the shore of he Yellowstone Valley Grill. It's a swanky place but it's Montana swanky, meaning that they won't turn you away if you turn up in your waders. However, we landed two hours before our reservation, even being super leisurely an stopping for beer at Grey Owl and lounging on the unnamed beach for awhile. So Trudy, Leigh Ann and I headed back onto the river and Heidi and Stefanie did a car drop for us at Mallard's Rest. We ended up getting off the river (which was running a about 3 miles/hr) around 4:20 which gave us time to change, return the boards to Livingston, and get back to the Grill for dinner.
And it was Really, Really good food. Expensive but totally worth it. I got the Chocolate Soufflé as an appetizer (what? I like dessert!) and ordered all of the sides. The kale was okay, the asparagus fabulous, and the whipped potatoes well worth experiencing. I even enjoyed the sweet potatoes side (I keep trying them... They're growing on me).
An all-around fun day!