New Adventures: Kayaking

When I was a kid, my family used to camp a bit. We loved exploring new places and hiking. A few times we had a chance to go tubing, canoeing, and kayaking. I loved it--although, I was always a little worried about snakes when tubing. Those adventures were always reserved for when we'd go camp in the mountains in the spring or summer, which only happened a few times.

Then when Chris and I got married and moved to Lynchburg, we really wanted to get a kayak or a canoe. My dad would tell us stories of canoeing trips to the boundary waters up in Minnesota, and we wanted to make our adventures on the water, but the logistics (and money in general) were enough to hold us back. Instead, we focused on hiking and backpacking. We had a lot of great experiences and took some awesome photos, so I'm glad that we did.

Still, the thought of getting a kayak lingered. We had Eliot. We moved back to Chesapeake when I was pregnant with Jack. It wasn't good timing. Each summer, we thought about it, but the kids seemed too small.

This summer while at the Outer Banks with Chris's family, we took a kayak out into the sound. Eliot was nervous about the waves, but he was fine. Jack just sat there so happy and didn't want to get out. In fact, Jack spent about thirty minutes sitting in the kayak in the garage asking, "Do you want to go for a ride?"

Even though Jack just turned two, it seemed like we could pull it off. So we did. We went to a local outfitters store and bought a tandem, sit-on-top, sea kayak. This way, we have room for all four of us and a good amount of stability. We might even get brave and take it on the bay sometime. Maybe. The next day, we packed everything up and went to Stumpy Lake. Chris and I paddled with the boys for about an hour. We saw cranes, seagulls, and a lot of turtles. The weather was perfect with a little breeze too.

I was really glad that Chris and I were able to load and unload the kayak ourselves because, let's face it, that was a pretty big concern of mine. There's so many places I want to check out around here.