Dear Kid,

The kayak was first created in the arctic by the Inuit people. This explains why kayaking is most popular in warm climates and in the summer.

You may have thought that kayaking is fun (it is) and fairly straightforward: get in and paddle. Turns out you are much mistaken, my young padawan. You need equipment, a river or other water body, and a healthy helping of Newton’s 1^st and 2^nd Laws. And some torque. You definitely need torque. There is a website that explains all this in detail and even suggests that to become a better kayaker you should enroll in a physics class. (The Physics of Kayaking if you are interested.)

Kayaking became a part of the Olympics in 1936, although it’s not obvious whether the kayakers take physics as part of their training.

In other news, the rain continues. And continues The sump pump is running full on  and Dad is fretting over the accumulation of water. Many of the plants are growing water wings and requesting swimming lessons. Rain is making the front page of the newspaper on a regular basis (which I suppose is good in that it means that there aren’t that many other interesting catastrophes in the world). And I can’t use gardening as an excuse not to do housework because “gardening” right now probably involves scuba gear and a lot of mud.

Sorry your kayak trip got rained out.

Love, Mom