Last weekend, Poppa and YaYa came up for a short, almost non-work day.  The drywallers were in the middle of installation (still) and there wasn’t any work to do.  The only work we did was measuring for baseboard, doors, moulding, etc.  Rowdy had joined them for this trip and so in the afternoon, we went to the beach to give Rowdy the experience of the ocean.  He promptly lost his retrieval bone in the surf, so Poppa would throw seaweed out into the surf and Rowdy would dive, swim, run and stumble for it.  Lucy kept Poppa well supplied with washed up seaweed.  When we were walking back, we passed the Carp Boating Center where they rent Kayaks by the hour.  I thought that Max would enjoy a trip in one, and planned to go Sunday after church.

We went to the early service and Max and I headed down to Ash Beach.  As we talked, Max told me that he was a little nervous.  When we walked up, we saw that there was a large group of people standing around, outside the rental place.  We were told that kayaks were not being rented because there was a special event going on.  Pretty disappointing for me, but Max consoled me and told me that it was OK that we didn’t go.  I think he was a bit relieved.  We went home and played Monopoly Jr.  Lucy won.

Yesterday, I decided to try to go again.  We got to the shop at 10:45a, and it was all closed up.  The sign said that rentals were opened at 10:30a, so I was confused.  I was also distressed by the sign that said that rentals were $20/hr for adults, $10/hr for kids.  I had it in my brain that the rental would be $10/hr for me and $5/hr for Max.  I had brought $30 just to be safe, it looked like I was going to need it all.

At 11a, the high-schooler who ran the shop rolled up on his bike and leisurely began to open.  I didn’t say anything about the late opening, but immediately began filling out the paperwork.  I casually asked what the cost would be and he said $15/hr for the both of us.  Hooray!  I was happy to trade 15 minutes of waiting for basically half off the published price.

The guy was very helpful and quickly got us into the water.  Max had to wear a helmet when launching through the surf, but once we got past the surfzone, he took it off and donned his Dodgers cap.  We had been instructed to keep the nose of the kayak perpendicular to the waves and so Max was adamant about keeping it narrow, as he called it.  I tried to turn towards Santa Barbara, but Max started complaining about not being narrow.  So we paddled straight out and straight out and straight out.  The swells were constant and quite fun for us.  We would bounce up and down.  Max would get splashed when the nose dropped into the trough.  Being in the back seat, I didn’t get wet at all.  Max said he wanted to be in the back next time.  It was good to hear that he was interested in a ‘next time’. 

We cruised in after about 45 minutes.  It was *much* faster going towards the beach than away.  We rode the waves into shore and returned the kayak.  It was alot of fun.  During the walk home, Max asked if we could go again tomorrow.  Soon, I’ll be looking on Craigslist for a 2 person kayak of my own.