Day One: Rain. No problem, I still have 4 more days.
Day Two: High winds bringing in more rain, water is far too choppy. No problem, little bit of a downer, but no problem.
Day Three: Only free time we had was in the middle of the day and the water was so wavy we would have flipped immediately. I want water that looks like glass.
Day Four: This has to be the day!! We leave tomorrow and I WILL go kayaking!! We get to the rentals at 6:10 to find out they closed at 6. I cry.
Day Five:
Sarah Anne and I wake up at 7:30 to pack and make sure we are all ready to go. I slip on my Chacos that are still wet from last night, spray sunscreen on my back, and we run downstairs so we can be the first people at the rentals at 8.
Not even Jesus himself could have painted a more perfect morning. The water is as blue as the sky and as still as a rock, not even a ripple. Pelicans hang by calmly, enjoying the morning as well. The man at the shop is happy to see us and asks if we want one kayak or two. Huh? I didn't know there was an option. We look at each other and shrug our shoulders, "One?" He smiles and says, "One it is." He gives us some paperwork to fill out, agreeing that we are not minors and consent to the safety precautions and won't sue the hotel if something goes terribly wrong. The thing was, I in fact was a minor, my birthday was two months from then, but when I was asked to check that box, there wasn't a bone in my body that was about to let a scribble of ink stand in my way of kayaking, so I checked it without hesitation and grabbed a life vest.
The was the first time I had ever been kayaking and this was after I had spent months obsessing over kayaks so you can imagine how...happy I was in this moment in time. It was a level of Euphoria that I haven't found since.
Sarah Anne sat in the front while I sat in the back since I was better at steering, a lesson we learned years ago in summer camp when we went canoeing. We only had an hour so we didn't waste anytime. We were hauling tail across that water! There were two of us so we were going as fast as the birds flying overhead. We made it towards one end of the beach where the sand meets the rocks and the rocks meet the piers. I check my watch and we had only been out here for 10 minutes so far! I thought for sure it would be longer than that. One of those "Time flies when you're having fun" type moments. So we stopped. We were now facing the part of Mobile Bay that isn't blocked off by Mobile, it was just open water. And, hand to God, the water and the sky was the exact same color. We could not tell where the water ended and the sky began. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Then all of a sudden, a nearby pelican take off from his post to catch some breakfast. He glides down to the water and hurls his head under the surface to snag something in its beak. It was as if he was a cutout resting on a piece of blue construction paper and then the paper begins the wiggle and ripple as soon as he meets the unseen horizon. We drift for a few moments, comparing ourselves to a scene in Life of Pi.
Sarah Anne turns around and says, "This is pretty sweet."
I don't say anything back, just continue to admire where I am.
"I get it now."
My eyes open and I look at her.
"Why you want a kayak so badly, I mean. I get it."
Sarah Anne and I wake up at 7:30 to pack and make sure we are all ready to go. I slip on my Chacos that are still wet from last night, spray sunscreen on my back, and we run downstairs so we can be the first people at the rentals at 8.
Not even Jesus himself could have painted a more perfect morning. The water is as blue as the sky and as still as a rock, not even a ripple. Pelicans hang by calmly, enjoying the morning as well. The man at the shop is happy to see us and asks if we want one kayak or two. Huh? I didn't know there was an option. We look at each other and shrug our shoulders, "One?" He smiles and says, "One it is." He gives us some paperwork to fill out, agreeing that we are not minors and consent to the safety precautions and won't sue the hotel if something goes terribly wrong. The thing was, I in fact was a minor, my birthday was two months from then, but when I was asked to check that box, there wasn't a bone in my body that was about to let a scribble of ink stand in my way of kayaking, so I checked it without hesitation and grabbed a life vest.
The was the first time I had ever been kayaking and this was after I had spent months obsessing over kayaks so you can imagine how...happy I was in this moment in time. It was a level of Euphoria that I haven't found since.
Sarah Anne sat in the front while I sat in the back since I was better at steering, a lesson we learned years ago in summer camp when we went canoeing. We only had an hour so we didn't waste anytime. We were hauling tail across that water! There were two of us so we were going as fast as the birds flying overhead. We made it towards one end of the beach where the sand meets the rocks and the rocks meet the piers. I check my watch and we had only been out here for 10 minutes so far! I thought for sure it would be longer than that. One of those "Time flies when you're having fun" type moments. So we stopped. We were now facing the part of Mobile Bay that isn't blocked off by Mobile, it was just open water. And, hand to God, the water and the sky was the exact same color. We could not tell where the water ended and the sky began. It was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Then all of a sudden, a nearby pelican take off from his post to catch some breakfast. He glides down to the water and hurls his head under the surface to snag something in its beak. It was as if he was a cutout resting on a piece of blue construction paper and then the paper begins the wiggle and ripple as soon as he meets the unseen horizon. We drift for a few moments, comparing ourselves to a scene in Life of Pi.
Sarah Anne turns around and says, "This is pretty sweet."
I don't say anything back, just continue to admire where I am.
"I get it now."
My eyes open and I look at her.
"Why you want a kayak so badly, I mean. I get it."
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