Kayak Kid

Today, Matthew and I decided to take out one of the kayak's at the La Jolla house...FINALLY.  We have been meaning to do this for years and never seem to have the energy.  It is a little bit of work to get out to the beach but it's worth it.  We loaded the kayak on Matt's truck and then my dad dropped us off and went home.  That really helped because we didn't have to deal with parking and that was a big deal because the beach was absolutely packed today.

I got in the kayak when the water wasn't too deep and then Matt pushed it out further before jumping in.  Of course, that meant that I got to sit in the front of the kayak as we steered straight into the waves and they crashed right over me...and it was cold!  I got used to it after the 4th or 5th dousing.

Once we were past the waves, we headed towards the caves, along with 100 other kayakers.  I'm telling you it was crazy out there today.  Luckily, the ocean is pretty big so we were never crowded out except when we got right over by the caves.  Even then, it wasn't so bad.  There were sea lions over there sunning themselves on a rock and we all took turns getting close.  A few were in a little protected area of the water swimming around but the rest were laying out.  They were adorable!  We wanted to go in some caves but only saw one that looked like we could actually go somewhere.  It was an opening that led through to an opposite opening which opened to a little protected beach.  Unfortunately, there were a ton of snorkelers in there so we moved on and decided to come back later.

We tooled around the cove for a while and then headed back to that one cave.  We had to wait for some oblivious snorkelers to clear the area before we could go in.  When I say oblivious, I mean that there was a family of four swimming through and then they stopped right at the mouth of the cave.  Despite the fact that several kayaks were poised to go into the cave and were obviously waiting for them to clear the area, they sat there treading water and having a conversation about where to go next.  The mother, meanwhile, was floating right into our kayak.  Her husband was watching it happen but never said a word.  I finally had to yell, "Watch out", to which she turned and seemed perturbed at me.  Whatever. 

Of course, this meant that 2 other kayakers snuck into the cave before us but that was okay because there was a tour guide with them so it was nice to just follow.  Unfortunately, once we got in the cave, there were 2 other oblivious snorkelers inside.  Keep in mind that the cave isn't huge and there were 3 other kayaks in there with us by that time.  The other kayaks kind of made a u-turn to the right so they could go up another cave and exit back out to the cove instead of going through to the little inlet/beach area.  I soon realized that this was probably because it was rocky on the other side.  Already, I could see rocks jutting up from the bottom.  About the time we needed to u-turn, however, the mensa snorkelers decided to swim right into our kayak....literally.  I've been snorkelling before and I think I would notice a bright yellow thing sitting right in front of me.  Anyway, we kept trying to get out of their way and, in doing so, we ended up way to the left of the cave.  All of a sudden, I felt a huge wave just pick us up and hurl us forward.  We were heading straight for the rocks!  I just hung on for dear life, praying that we wouldn't tip because I knew then that the wave would just slam us into the rocks.  We skated over several rocks and then the waved petered out and the front of our kayak hit one of the rocks, stopping us.  We hadn't tipped.  Hurray!  Matt jumped out and steered us out of the cave to the little inlet and we kayaked out of there.  It was our mini-whitewater kayaking adventure...and I have to say it was kind of fun.  I might not be saying that if we had tipped but we didn't.

We kayaked around a little more before heading in.  I didn't really want to stop because it was really nice out there.  The weather was perfect and we didn't feel tired at all.  I thought my arms would get fatigued but they didn't.  Matt's back hurt a little bit but that was all.  We both had a really good time and we are definitely going out again next weekend if we can.  

Do you know that I still haven't done my last 3 ocean dives?  Our instructor is busy teaching a class now and she doesn't have time to take us out.  There is only one more weekend Matt can go so I really don't know what we're doing to do.  I'm going to have to get ghetto on Ocean Enterprises tomorrow because the instructor isn't even returning our calls!  We paid a lot of money for the private class so we could get it done in time for our trip and now the deadline is approaching and I'm still not certified.  Ugh...as if I don't have enough to do before the wedding!