Kayaking

I had planned to save this for another day this week as I’ve bombed this blog with too many oversized entries lately, but unfortunately neither Carol nor Jun could hold their cool about withholding kayaking blogs.  I didn’t want to be old news, so here we go.

Over the weekend, Karen and I went kayaking, and even though we were only a tiny, little bit late (40 minutes), our beloved friends (David, Carol, Eddie, Jun, Allen) had forsaken us.  We had snubbed water sports in the past, as the inability of Karen keeping her head above water for more than 0.5 seconds may have had something to do with it.  With the shabby guarantee of the safety vest on her, we decided to take a plunge anyway.  First we headed toward Gas Works…

Then we saw a group of ducks and headed straight for it…

Unfortunately with Karen working against me, we had no chance of catching up.

Then we saw our beloved friends paddling over in our direction.  Strangely enough, the closer they got, the blonder their hair seemed.  Wait a minute!  Those are no friends… counterfeits!  I did receive a call from David, who mentioned they were at the UW draw bridge, but somehow I must have brought the wrong cognitive map with me because I thought the Ballard bridge was the draw bridge.  We turned around.  Then about 15 minutes later I realized my folly and turned around again. What a waste of energy!

By the time we found our friends, they were heading back already.  Because I wanted to show Karen the *real* UW draw bridge (not Ballard), we painstakingly parted with our friends and continued our path toward UW.

We took a slight detour toward the beautiful water lillies…

Then we headed toward the draw bridge…

That’s when I realized a real map was strapped about 4 inches from my face on top of the kayak.  Sheesh.  Rubbing it in my face.  We noticed a path toward the right and headed under a few bridges.  It was a cinematic experience to behold…

Padding out from under the 520 bridge was another gorgeous sight…

That’s when the low battery light on my camera came on.  A practical tip for the wise: charge your batteries.  At this point I received another call from David, and they have already paid and ready to leave.  When we disclosed our location of Huskie Stadium, I slightly underestimated our distance “Give me 20 minutes, we’ll be back.  No problem!”

David answered, “No way!  You’re about 40 minutes away!”

To prove I was no slouch, I kicked into overdrive, supercharged my neglected biceps and triceps, and blazed down the path as the kayak parted the water.  This feat lasted a whole…oh, 30 seconds before I decided to take a break.  That’s also when Karen politely pointed out her need for her break as well–a bathroom break.  Great.  Looked like it was going to be a *really* long trip back. 

On the way back, the wind was against us, and at times it seemed like it was winning the tug-a-war as the kayak stood still.  After an hour we managed to make it back, but the return trip instilled a soreness in my biceps, triceps, and any other ceps you can think of.  It has yet to wear off as of this day.

It was nice being out on a kayak though.  🙂  Maybe next time, our “friends” will wait for us!!