My First Kayak Adventure

One really cool thing that came out of my Old-People Watching trip was my very first kayak trip.

I’d been dying to go since pretty much, forever, and of course it came up in conversation in the car on the way to the recital. Somewhere in the conversation, I said, “Man, I wish I could go, like, tomorrow!” Then Sarah kind of raised her hand and said, “I’ll go!”

Well, she didn’t have to tell me twice! I immediately texted my new friends Amber and Anne, who I knew had been wanting to go. They were both super excited about it and didn’t hesitate to say yes. Keep in mind this was at, maybe 7pm the day before. Just goes to show… I found the right girls to hang with!

So, I got up the next morning and headed to REI to get a dry bag. They convinced me to join their membership as I was checking out because I can’t say no I know I’ll be there again, and on the way home I could barely contain my excitement. I was SO ready! We met at my apartment and rode out there together. Anne and Amber got a canoe, and Sarah and I got kayaks.

We took the two and a half hour, ‘Ballpark’ tract because a) we were too late to do anything else, and b) we figured it’d be easy.

So, the Foggy Bottom Canoe people took us and our boats to the drop off point. This was kind of sketchy because there was no shoreline; you could only put in one boat at a time. We had to walk down a flight of concrete stairs that ended with just water. So, the guy who drove us to the drop off held the boat while we got inside. And after a very awkward encounter with his arm and my butt, I did actually get in the water, paddle and all, without tipping over (though it felt like I was going to). In fact, we all got in just fine without any more awkward encounters or tipping.

Anyway, after about 10 minutes, Sarah and I got the hang of the kayak thing. It was a lot of work because you can never really stop paddling, but it seemed easier to steer than the canoe…

Anne and Amber had quite the difficult time getting it to go in a straight line. It was pretty entertaining to watch them go in circles. We had plenty of time to turn and watch them.

And despite Sarah and I having to wait for Anne and Amber a couple times and very worn out arms, we all made it safely back to the take out point.

When we got in the car, I immediately regretted offering to drive because it took quite a large amount of work to lift my arms. But we were hungry and we couldn’t spend the night there, so I sucked it up for a little longer, and off we went. To Arby’s, which was, hands down, the BEST meal any of us had ever had. We all agreed unanimously on that one.

I’m pretty sure it was the most fun I’ve ever had on the water, and I couldn’t wait to do it again!

We had the van to ourselves!