The One Where Aimee Tipped Me Over

After our great time canoing, yesterday me and Aimee decided to try kayaking in Union Bay. Agua Verde is conveniently located near the Arboretum, albeit a bit more expensive than the Yahoo site indicates. But cela vie, we were already there...

You have to put on special clothes before you climb in, so that you can be appropriately bibbed into the kayak. It was my 1st time kayaking ever, and I was suprised to discover that they've installed rudders since the Inuit used them. Rudders that don't really work that well when directed by your feet...

After a wrong turn, Aimee finally got me set on target, and we went through the Narrows, out to the beautiful arboretum, which I've visited terrestrially before. If you look it up on Google Earth you'll see the drawbridge up, and small dots around the water- those are the kayakers.

I had it in mind to try the tipping over thing, once my camera and cell phone were safely in a plastic bag. I found out a couple things. Water in Union Bay is not as clean as it looks. Also, lots harder to right yourself once tipped than it looks like in the movies. Aimee came over and helped me back into the canoe, holding on to hers as we twisted my canoe around.

Our route took us through lots of lilly pads that you could snag through, and even some lilly flowers. Even more fascinating was how close you could get to the birds when you were on the water, seemingly unpreturbed by large floating mammals in the shape of crocodiles. I came right up to small flocks of ducks numerous times, some of them walking along the lilly pads without concern for gravity. And once, once right up to a heron, close enough to analyze it's feathers and long reversed feet, and see the gripping toes designed to wade through the mud.

To get in and out of the Arboretum's waters you have to paddle underneath the 520 Freeway. Coming back, I discovered shooting through the freeway supports is not as fun as it looks, as the spiders hanging above the water with their webs are large enough to be waiting for food the size of a kayaker. Finally, weary from chafed feet against the rudder breaks, and arms filled with lactic acid, we returned, refreshed, after seeing some of nature from a different perspective.