We decided to take a quick Sunday afternoon canoe paddle on the Boise River from Barber Park downstream. We needed the exercise and wanted to cool off.

It looked like the Western Idaho Fair.

It was wall-to-wall, no make that shore-to-shore rafts, tubes, and inflatable toys.

A family of mergansers looked bewildered, like they were going to move upstream to Atlanta as soon as the babies could fly.

Floating the Boise River in the summer is cool, especially when it's 100 degrees. But, if you want a little more privacy, you might try launching at 10 a.m., instead of 1:30 p.m. when we launched.

The busiest times look like noon through 6 p.m.

Although it was packed, it was fun. When we pulled out of the main stream to practice eddy turns while tandem canoeing, we had to carefully merge back into traffic like you do on the freeway.

Although it was crowded, it was also fun because everyone was polite and having a good time.

That's Boise in the summer, for sure.