*this post was previously published on our former blog
July 24, 2008
We’ve returned from our tandem kayak adventure. It was our favorite vacation yet! The San Juan Islands are gorgeous and we had a lot of fun with our “divorce maker boat”. Though I loved the trip, I had a few concerns. Here are some of my thoughts from the trip:
1. Why am I spending hours paddling against the current (tide charts, what?!?!) and worrying about not making it to our next human-powered only campsite?
2. Why don’t I just sit on my private 2-acre island instead of exerting physical energy paddling to another, yet more of the same island. Yup- this took me .5 seconds to convince Jake to stay put for a day… it was the best crabbing spot in the region.
3. Why is crab so @#&&*(&@ hard to eat? I was STARVING (because I was in charge of packing the food and rationed a little too tightly) and Jake plopped a full crab in front of me. “You have got to be kidding”. I sat there sulking until he pulled the meat out and piled it on my plate. Pitiful, yes. Crabby, yes.
4. I love tandem things (we’ve now biked 70 miles and kayaked) because I like having a captive audience and benefiting from Jake’s physical fitness.
5. The “divorce boat” (as tandem kayaks are known) did not affect my happy marriage…. well, except for the fact that Jake wanted to pull-over to pee every 1/2 hour (embellishing only slightly!). The kayaks we rented were really high quality and therefore we were instructed not to “beach” them. So, I had to do wet exits and pull the kayak onto shore while pretty pretty princess Jake hung-out in the tail end of the boat (he was in charge of the steering and also had to exit in the water, just after I pulled the thing 1/2 on shore). So, each pull-over took a fair amount of time and I have the bladder of a camel (I assume they rarely pee since they hold water for so long). After a few “fine we’ll stop at the next island beach, just don’t talk to me… I need a LITTLE time to chill!”, Jake found a bottle washed up on shore and began to deal with his bladder while floating. CRISIS AVERTED 😉
6. Wild animals are awesome! We accidentally floated within 5 feet of a baby seal whose eyes were (still?) shut. We also saw numerous seals (which we have named Sea Pickels), bald eagles, weasels, porpoises, crabs, starfish, and more!
