City Rivers are known to be extremely dirty. They have been used and abused for hundreds of years. Polluted by the industrial revolution and reconstructed by modern technology. Yet they continue to bring life to the people—even with their brown coloring. Today, they carry rich history and also, well, a little E. coli. Boston’s great river, The Charles, falls under that exact category. It’s rather disgusting. But we love it. We admire its frozen beauty in the winter, and sail through it in the summer.

I must say: the Charles has some fairly scary horror stories. The toxins, the boats, the mutated fish. There is no way in hell anyone can pay me to jump into that foggy water. But you can defiantly get me on a kayak. In fact, that is exactly what I did on this lovely afternoon. Rented a couple kayaks with some friends, enjoyed the breeze, the view and some cold beer. Wait a minute. We didn’t have beer. The group next to us had brought bucket-loads of beer. We we’re smart, but not that smart. Regardless it was still a great Saturday. But now we know for next time—always bring alcohol.