Kayaking in the Bay

Living in the mountains gives us the chance to hike a lot! We love hiking so we have NO complaints! Kayaking which we also love, on the other hand, has become a rare event. Unfortunately, our kayaks have become wall decorations. This weekend, however, we left our hiking boots behind and headed for some saltwater.

 The beautiful rocky shores and crashing waves of the Pacific Ocean are too intimidating for me since I haven't paddled in over a year.

 

Wildlife along the shore is fun to watch. We saw a momma Sea lion being trailed by a pup interested in nursing. That was a first for me.

 If you ever return to your car and find it has clumps of unexplained greenery on the roof, it may have been the earlier site of one gull trying to "woo" another one. Initially, we saw two gulls with beaks full of greenery strutting on the grass near the parked cars. Then, the one with the fullest beak flew on the roof of a car where an observant female gull was standing. He dropped his offering at her feet and then they proceeded to head bob and go beak to beak. Quite a new one for me! Wish I had recorded it!

Back to kayaking, yes, we put our boats in salt water. We found a sheltered bay where we could paddle and practice the strokes our inspirational kayak friends/instructors taught us back in the southeast on the Atlantic Ocean and beautiful tidal marsh. When you are in a quiet kayak, you can observe all the wildlife along the shore. It's fantastic!

Back at home now, the kayaks are drying in the sun and the lizards are chasing each other around them.

I'm trying to figure out how to prevent the boats from becoming another wall decoration.....