Kayaking with Leo and Sara on 3/24/12

We took Leo kayaking for the first time today and had a great time.  We do have to remember though not to try to kayak up McAllister Creek when the tide is coming in.  Up wasn't a problem, but coming back down we paddled against a very strong current.

Leo and Sara getting ready to put into the Sound.

Sara's in 

 Helping Leo with his skirt... I bet he never thought he'd see that in print.

And then I put in.  Brenda was first in so she took all these pictures.

I forgot to mention that this was Pace's first time kayaking too!

He wasn't too sure he would like this at first.

Roxy started with Brenda.

Then spent a little time with me.

It really was a beautiful day out today!

The mountain was out.

Here's the best picture (I think) of Leo from the day's adventure.

We saw plenty of eagles today.  Here's a female trying to blend into the branches.

Here's a nice view of the mountain with the new Nisqually Wildlife Refuge gazebo in the foreground.

And another view, this time with more of the boardwalk in the picture.  We didn't get any pictures of it, but there was a lady on the boardwalk who dropped her glasses into the Sound.  The water was pretty shallow there and I was able to recovery her glasses for her.

As you can see, Pace got a little more comfortable as the day went on.

Brenda and I decided to switch doggies again, so she's paddling towards me.

Pace didn't want to wait.  He would not have wanted to fall into the water today.  It was COLD!

We were heading back by this time and the current was very strong.  Sara was a good sport though.

Here's another female bald eagle.  Where were all the males?  Probably watching TV and eating Doritos.

And here are a couple of group photos at the end of the day.  We happened to run into one of Leo and Sara's friends, Mira, and Mira's friend Tom.  They took the pictures for us.

You can see the Olympic Mountains in the background of this photo.

Jerry, Brenda, Sara, and Scott at Boston Harbor

Yesterday, Brenda, Sara, our friend Scott, and I went kayaking out of Boston Harbor.  We had heard reports that there was a pod of orca in the area and were hoping to get some pictures of them.  No orca (I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing), but it was beautiful out today.  The weather was perfect.  We paddled north from the harbor (47.140475, -122.905331) and didn't go far.  There was an incredible amount of boat traffic on the sound today, so we spent a lot of the day in heavy wakes. 

Here we are leaving the harbor.

There was a crane sitting there that flew off when we got close.

I just thought this was a nice looking sailboat.

The harbor behind us, we paddled north.
Here are some views from the Sound.

Brenda took over camera duty for a little while.

Roxy went kayaking with us today.  I can't believe I forgot her in the title of the post!

Roxy spent a lot of the day standing up in the back of my kayak.

This sequence needs a little explaining.  We wanted a group picture with Brenda, Sara, and me. 

Sara was pointed the wrong way so she decided to paddled behind us.

But went a little too far.

So Brenda decided to paddle around us, but Sara had already gotten in position.

Sara tried to push me towards Brenda to reach her with the paddle. 

Where is she going?

Ah, got it.

So here we are, all in a row, looking right into the sun.

So Brenda gave her sunglasses to Sara so she wouldn't have to squint.

And there you go.

Turns out it's harder getting three kayakers in a row for a group photo than you would think.

We really didn't paddle for distance today, we just went out to have a good time.  This was about as far as we went then we turned around and headed back.  

Here's me carrying Roxy like a European man-bag.

She wanted to ride in the front for a little while.

You won't see it unless you know where to look, but the capitol building is on the distant horizon.

The Boston Harbor light house.

Here we are after the trip.

And here's the approximate route we paddled.