In the never ending quest to keep my girlfriend happy I decided that it would be a good idea to take her for a bit of paddle-boating down by the Mariner’s Museum down this weekend. I had been playing Halo 3 all week and it had been a while since we had done anything outside so we headed on down to the Museum to get a boat for a bit of exercise time out on the water. Plus Todd P had told me what a fun time he and Justin had on their Man Date paddle-boating in Newport News Park.

Now I used to live over by Riverside Drive, and I consider that whole area south of Warwick between Main St and CNU to be the best area on the Penninsula. Most of the housing dates from the 50′s or before, and boasts some of the highest property values to be found this side of Poquoson and Williamsburg. Christopher Newport President Paul Trible has really gotten the city to whip up some cash for improvements in the area surrounding the University and the Ferguson Center for the Arts. You will not find a cleaner area of town except for maybe Port Warwick or Town Center.

The park surrounding the Mariner’s Museum is the nations largest privately owned park that is free and open to the public. The 5 mile Nolan Trail encircles the 550 acre park surrounding Lake Maury and is always occupied by joggers and walkers within it’s rolling woodland pathways. To make up for all this free public land use the museum charges out the ass once you step foot inside. Adult rates for the museum is $12.50 for an adult, and while this fine for what is no doubt one of the finest museums in the country, I really wasn’t trying to spend that much today. I had been to the museum once in 8th grade and remember the collection of intricate model ships that the museum possesses but I wasn’t trying to spend that much today.

And so we walked to the gift shop and ignored all the overpriced nautical themed knick-knacks and asked the lady at the counter for paddle boat rates. When she told me I tried not to act incredulous. $12.50 a half-hour?! I did a bit of mental calculation in my head; Didn’t Todd say NN Park was $5 an hour? I decided that paying the $12.50 and getting the hell out of there was better than driving through town and wasting another 1/2 hour getting over there. I told the counter lady it was fine and she pulled out a disclaimer. Emergency contact? Hmm.. wouldn’t do much good to put Stacebug down since she would already be with me, would it?

After the disclaimer the clerk pulled out a map and marked out the area we should stick to if we wanted to keep it under a half hour. She said that it was an hour and a half to one side of the lake. She warned us not to get stuck in the sides of the lake or try to go under the bridges, told us that the emergency number was right on the boat and asked us not to wind up like several ladies who had come through earlier and paddled all the way past the Lion’s Bridge, and had to be picked up as they floated helplessly in the James River. After she had given me the key to the boat and we were on our way to the dock I realized that she had neither taken my credit card or asked to see ID. Oh, why had I put my real info on the form?

So we got to the dock and paddled away in our blue pirate ship boat. There wasn’t anyone else out on the water with us so we just kinda paddled around in the water for 20 minutes, stopping in the shade and taking pictures. It was strenuous and sunny but it was relaxing to spend some time out there with my baby, and she was pleased. We pretty much just paddled as far as we could in our tiny boat, stopped for a few minutes and turned around and came right back in. Half an hour, no more. There was no way I was going over.

So we went in, paid the fee and went back to the car to leave. On the way out I took a close look at all of the other people who were at the park and in the museum, and wondered how many of them were tourists and how many were just nautical nerds. I vowed never to go Paddle-boating at the Mariner’s Museum ever again.

I would much rather recommend that anyone that wants to go paddle-boating stay far, far away from the Mariner’s museum and instead find their way to Newport News Park. I just confirmed that paddle-boat rentals are $5 an hour so I’ll only be going there next time. Plus they’ve got Frisbee golf.