US National Whitewater Center

My husband and I had a friend visit over the weekend so we had the opportunity to be tourists in our own city. Granted, we're still learning our way around and exploring the area, so it wasn't much of a stretch. One place I've wanted to go is the US National Whitewater Center so we took a trip on Saturday afternoon.

First of all, if you live in Charlotte, buy the season pass. Totally worth it. Three trips and you've covered the cost.

If you have ever wanted to whitewater raft but are scared of trying it out in Colorado, come to Charlotte and go to the Whitewater Center. You get some instruction with minimal risk, and it doesn't cost as much as the rivers, AND you can go as often as you'd like in one day.

And if you just want a flat out awesome day, go! I had a blast. There's other stuff to do there, but I'm going to focus on the whitewater rafting because it was the most fun. We took two trips and each was about 90 minutes. The trip starts with a safety talk and then get in the raft. Each raft accommodates 6-7 people with a raft guide and we all had the opportunity to paddle. We took two laps around the Class II-III rapids, with the second time being more adventurous, and then took two or three trips around the Class III-IV rapids which were more exciting and a tad scarier. We saw many, many people get dumped from their rafts, including the instructors! We had no "swimmers" on either of our trips, but we came close a few times.

A couple of highlights of our trips:

• "Surfing" in which the boat rides the rapid like a surf board. Our first trip involved the front two riders (my husband and our friend) getting water up their noses for a good two minutes, which was fun for everyone except them! We surfed a few times on our second trip, and we all got soaked!
  
• I got dumped off my seat both times through the Class IV rapids on our second trip, but fell into the raft so I was lucky. We almost had a casualty, but we grabbed him before he got dumped overboard.
• Paddling through rapids is an amazing upper body workout, and trying to stay in the boat requires a lot of core and lower body strength. I am still sore!

I highly recommend the Whitewater Center if you live in Charlotte or if you're a visitor to Charlotte. It is tremendous fun and a great way to spend a day - being active, laughing a lot, and enjoying the outdoors!