One thing my friend has always wanted to do while on vacation was go kayaking. Every time they go to the time share orientation meeting, there's a guy promoting the kayak tours enthusiastically, and yet we never went before. This time we put it on our "must-do" list, despite the irony of the kayak guy not being at the meeting this year.
The brochure was still in the lobby, so we have numbers to call and stuff. We originally wanted to go on the closer Maritime Forest & Marsh tour, but there was a terrible moment when we called to check availability, decided to book it online (for credit card reasons), then... it rejected the online reservation, and we called back to find out... oh! Somebody called right after we did and filled it up before we could complete the online form. They were sorry for the mix-up and offered the not-yet-full Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary for the lower price. It was further away but we really wanted to go, so we booked it right there on the phone this time instead of trying to do it online again.
Driving out to the kayak place, we were desperate to get some kind of breakfast in us. There was no fast option on the route. After the phone GPS took us to a food storage shed, we went next door to a hotel's restaurant which had bagels. YES! 5$ seems like a lot for one bagel, but the alternative was going out with nothing at all in the tank. All topped off with the fitting restaurant name The Lifesaving Station.
Another lesson for proper preparation, we could have saved a few bucks if we thought to get some kind of breakfast beforehand. At least... this was a very tasty bagel, and we still made it there on time.
I thought I got a picture of the farm house we parked near, but I guess not. There was a bathroom there everybody took turns in, because it was going to be a couple of hours and hey, your all alone in a kayak! There was a bit of a walk to get to the dock where the kayaks were.
Here's a little preview of the kayaks. I think this was just a display thing to get us all excited. The actual kayaks we took were from another rack.
Go grab a life jacket and a paddle! And Minty also grabs a picture while she's in there.
Quick lesson on how to paddle. If you notice, the paddles sides are not aligned the same way because it's better for the one in the air to be horizontal to cut through the air while the one in the water is upright to push the water. Science! There's also a front and back side to the paddle for pushing or stopping. That's about the whole lesson! Oh, um... paddle on one side only will turn you to that side, that's the way you steer. Now you're ready!
There's like a cool docking bay thing where he pulls the kayaks up so you can easily jump in without getting wet. The guide was totally standing in the water himself to push them up and down the ramp.
We were courteously waiting in the end of the line, so there's already people having fun out there while we waited to get our kayak.
Here we go! Finally out on the water. The phone was around our necks in a water-tight pouch case that still had touch-ability but it was hard to press the buttons on the screen. Often it took several minutes to get a picture and then we had to quickly catch up to everybody.
I thought it might be cool to get a picture of the other kayaks, so you could get a better idea of what we were in ourselves. Besides the Minty and her two friends, there was eight other people and the tour guide.
You could almost see the bottom of the water, it was not very deep here.
I didn't seem urgent to get a ton of pictures, since this was what most of the scenery looked like. My friend made an effort to enjoy the kayaking and not worry about just getting Minty pictures.
The difficulty level goes up a notch as the lanes grow smaller. It's not hard to pilot one of these things, so it's nothing to worry about.
Most of us had yellow or red kayaks but the guide had a green one to stand out. He mentioned he was from New Jersey, and it turns out it's right next to where we are! He's also the same guy that would usually come to the time share to promote the tours. Cool guy.
Mid-way through the tour we all take a little break. It was pretty relaxing so breaks were not really needed, but still nice to take a break. I should mention the several teenage girls out with us not once took out thier phones to get selfies and post on social media or anything. So good for them to have broken the expectations.
It was so very quiet and peaceful out there. Perfect weather, too. Not too hot but still warm and sunny. Nice spot to take a moment to soak in the fact that we are in a kayak on vacation... and stuff.
I dared to pose for a picture standing on the kayak. We also took the phone out of the case for an easier time to get my friend a selfie, since the buttons were hard to press in the case. Minty and the phone remained safe and dry, and then we had to catch up with everybody again.
My friend enjoyed the ride back without stopping to get pictures, but thought we might need one to show the dock house in the distance and the near-end of our fun time. It looks like we are far away from everyone else, but you can quickly catch up without too much effort.
Safely back on land! Not that we were in much danger. But we managed to stay dry the whole time except for the several hand splashings to cool down a little. We were out for about two hours. Just long enough to not feel tired at all, but maybe if we were out a little longer, it might have felt like you were exhausted more.
I enjoyed this so much that I considered the idea of getting my own kayak! We have a few rivers in New Jersey that would be perfect. Alas, our tiny apartment doesn't have anywhere to put a big 'ole kayak, so that's something we just can't do realistically. Still, it was a ton of relaxing fun. Can I say it felt like it was similar to riding a bike, except using arms instead of legs?
Nice flowers spotted on the walk back. Just now noticed that there wasn't a lot of colorful stuff aside from the actual kayaks out there. Maybe next time we can do a different tour, I'll certainly suggest it.
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