Ooops! Sean gets too close to the shark!

Humiliated

We were no more than 2 feet from shore, when he fell in. 5 minutes - he couldn't even last 5 minutes before he was sopping wet! My favorite part of the day came when the onlookers from the shore clapped when Sean was able to haul the dog back into the kayak without tipping over! His "accident" (I'm not entirely sure he didn't try to jump out) sure put a damper on the evening as he continually tried to stand up so he could shake himself off in the kayak. I haven't read the owner's manual yet, but I'm sure wiggling around, shaking back & forth and circling around & around before you sit down is not recommended in a long, skinny and somewhat unstable kayak! And to make matters worse, my new kayak was not in proper working order!

How could we not?

How could we not use our new kayak the first chance we got? It proved to be a very profitable evening as I became the paddler, negotiating us between buoys & shorelines, boats & piers. We cruised around Mission Bay, near Sea World, where we saw penguins and enthusiastic tourists riding the skytram overhead that wanted to see what the heck we were doing. I tried to oblige each passenger by waving while paddling and Sean was more than happy to hold up his trophy for the skytram passengers that yelled, "Hey Canoe-eeey!" 10 fish were caught, in all, but 9 released back to their home. The one we kept: a spotty bass, I'm told. Surely, there will be many more to come as we were able to appreciate the quietness of a warm summer evening in the middle of a big city.

This is turning out to be...

...one fantastic summer!!!
There is nothing quite like getting up at 3 am to support a husband's love of fishing! My husband and I have been talking about how fun it would be to own a kayak for years now. With our recent fishing adventure in Mammoth last month and our even-more-recent sport fishing adventure off La Jolla last week, Sean's love of fishing has been rekindled. So, he decides he wants to enter a kayak fishing tournament to see if it is something he would enjoy. He spends a few hours on the water fishing for the tournament with nothing more to show than a tale of catching a Baracuda (the wrong type of fish) and a seasick stomach! As we sit on the La Jolla shore watching the hordes of tourist kayakers try to make their way out past the break water with the swells getting increasingly bigger, we feel inclined to join them! So, he and I hop in our one person specially-rented-just-for-this-tournament-kayak and head out. We are laughing and enjoying each other's company as we head over to "the caves." I've always heard about "the caves" but could never really understand what all the fuss was about until we entered one!
Such a beautiful adventure on a beautiful day. But the fun does not end there...
...after we paddled back in through the ever increasing swells and larger waves and Sean spotting an actual shark (yes, I said shark, but it's a really small one that can't hurt a person I am "assured,") we head over to the fishing tournament bbq.
We get to the bbq too early and are tempted to leave until we are told this is the best part of the day because there is fantastic food and an extraordinary raffle with a gazillion prizes where almost everyone is assured to leave with something. Well, that's enough to keep us around, and although Sean did not come home with the biggest fish of the day, he did come home with the big raffle prize of the day. We are now the proud owners of our very own kayak!!! And yes, the person that presented us with our new kayak was none other than the person we rented our kayak from! We are so completely blessed and are already planning it's maiden voyage!!!