I'm sitting in the lounge, happily eating my chocolate chip cookie and sipping on a cup of coffee. Mama Bear comes running in, balancing a stack of cookies with her coffee, "Jillianne, oh my gosh! Do you know what we need to do?" I set my glass down and shake my head. She rotates her arms forward, gesturing a paddle, and whispers, "Kayaking."
I laugh and roll my eyes, "It's late and it's kind of choppy out there.."
"No, no, no it's not. Not on the other side. It's nice. They don't close until 6, come on, we have plenty of time," she insists. My mother walks in with her coffee and pulls up a chair to our table. I tell her that Mama Bear wants to go kayaking, hoping that she will agree with me and then cunningly change the topic so it won't be brought up again until it is too late. It works for a little while.
At about 5:15, she asks again, "Please, Jillianne! You know we'll have a good time! Just a short trip, please?"
She's just too sweet, I sigh and say okay.
"Was that a yes?" she gasps, "Oh my gosh, she said yes!"
When we get to the rental shack I tell the young man there we want to kayak. He clenches his jaw together and takes a deep breath in through his teeth, "We're closed, I'm sorry."
"No you're not. You close at six," I respond curtly.
"Yeah, but we like to have everything back in by 5:30 so we can start shutting down. I'm really sorry."
I know I wasn't completely on board (no pun intended) with going kayaking that afternoon, but I still don't care for it when people don't do their jobs. But I wasn't about to have a brawl with the hotel beach guy, so I turn around and tell my mom and Mama Bear the bad news.
"Oh no. You're not getting out of this one," she says to me and continues toward the hut.
"Um, excuse me? Hi," she says to the guy (I would call him a man, but he isn't quite there yet)
He tries to tell her the same thing he told me but she's not having it.
"We'll be super quick, I promise. It's our last night here, and we really wanted to go," she pleads.
After a few minutes of back and forth, the man finally agrees..begrudgingly. She yips with excitement and tells me not to act like I don't feel the same.
We grab our life vests and paddles and head down to sit in our yellow two person kayak. Papa Bear and Lil' John (their son, not the rapper or Robin Hood character) hop in the kayak next to us.
I sit in the back so I can steer and say, "Okay, we're going to win and dominate."
The man pushes us off the shore and I think about how nice it is that I can kayak without having to worry about the hassle that comes with it. I won't have to put this beast back on my car when I'm done. I won't have to take care of the paddle and put it away when I get home. This yak is only my responsibility from the moment I leave the shore to the time I reach it again. Then that guy has to take care of it. This is awesome!
Hauling tail across the water, we pull in front of Papa and John, only for a moment. Their kayak comes closer to ours and Mama shrieks, begging them not to crash into us. John holds out his paddle and rams into ours, pushing us away. I point us back into the right direction but we lose our speed and they quickly pass us. After a few moments, they turn to go back the other way, but we keep going.
"Are you okay? Are you happy?" Mama Bear asks.
I say yes but she turns around, "Are you?"
Laughing, I say, "Yes, I am. This is great!"
When we make it back it to the sand, the guy is waiting and quickly pulls us in.
Mama Bear thanks him again for letting us go and says, "But hey, now you get to be on her blog!"
End Note: This was during my Easter vacation at the same resort the last post was set at. It was lovely and this kayaking trip, even though it was short lived, was still so much fun. The Bears, not their real name, are our family-friends and are all very sweet. I'm glad Mama Bear pushed me out to go kayaking that afternoon and I'm glad Papa and John got to go as well. We would have brought our other family-friends with us, Steve and Belinda, so it would have been an army of kayakers! But, alas, they were no where to be found. Probably at the pool. Oh well, next year.
*There are more pics from this trip in The Gallery
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