Last weekend Hilary and Ralph came to visit for the holiday weekend. They arrived late Friday night sans swimsuits [yes, they are morons]. We were going on a dolphin kayaking tour the following day at 9 a.m. so we stopped at Walmart to look forswim gear. Walmart here is ALWAYS packed. Even at 1:40 in the morning we had to park a quarter mile away.
The next morning I woke up early to pick up Adam from base- he had been on duty for three days straight due to Hurricane Earl (which turned out to be no more than a light drizzle- Earl managed to cancel school though- Wahoo!). After I picked Adam up we swung back home to change and wake up Hilary and Ralph. Amazingly, Ralph was already out of bed ready for the days activities- Hilary, not so much.
The beach where the kayak tour took place was beautiful and we actually visited it again the next day. You park on a residential side street and then walk a block or two to a tunnel of foliage that leads to the beach:
We got on the actual beach around 9:10 A.M. and immediately noticed a pod of dolphins out in the water. They were a lot bigger than any of us expected. Besides the dolphins- there were pelicans, hermit crabs, butterflies- it was kick ass.
One of the best parts of the kayak trip was trying to make it out into the ocean from the beach. While Hurricane Earl was gentle on land it shook up the sea nicely. The surf was pretty big and getting through the waves crashing on the beach was an event. Adam and I were the only ones who made it through on the first try :)
While we waited for everyone else to get off the beach we sat out in the ocean and watched the dolphins play and hunt around us. What we didn’t notice was the current pushing us pretty far from where we were supposed to stay which meant A LOT of kayaking back to that spot. Ralph and Hilary eventually made it out- Ralph kayaked like a pro and the guides taught him how to surf in the kayak. Adam, Hilary, and myself were all pretty tired after the first hour. During hour 2 a dolphin came within a foot or two of Hilary’s kayak (I’m sure it was amazing). Oh yeah, and I got sea sick. The water was choppy and I felt my head spinning. The guide told me to get in the water to settle the liquid in my ears- not gonna lie- I was totally freaked out a shark was going to get me that far out. Obviously I survived.
A little while later I got seasick again and hopped into the water knocking Adam off the kayak with me. This time sitting in the water didn’t help and I threw up. At that point, I had pretty much had enough. Luckily, it was time to head in. Heading in I was sick as a dog- we were pummeled by a wave and the kayak went over top of me and cracked me in the head pretty good. If I wouldn’t have been sick I would have enjoyed riding the waves to the shore, but I felt green on the inside. Hilary and Ralph also wiped out- Ralph’s wipe out was the guide’s favorite of the day. He came in quickly and flipped.
After our brush with death we piled back into the car and headed back home for showers and dry clothes. We were all starving so we headed out to No Frill Grill to have a HUGE lunch. At some point Ralph suggested we go to the Aquarium and we did. Saw sharks, a stink ray tried to eat Hilary when she pet it, and got to enjoy several different kind of aquatic life forms. We then had a drink at George’s and returned home exhausted from a full day of activities and not much sleep the night before.
Oh, and Ralph and Adam got their fix:
