On the Water

Hooray, hooray, hooray for the beach. Boy, did we need that.

We had a great time with FS and Yum and their offspring, as well as our friend J.Pro and her daughter (even sans their patriarch, who had to hang around DC and work). We ate a lot and drank a lot and watched some fireworks. We took the kids to see Ratatouille (very cute, recommend it) and saw a lifesaving competition. We made sand castles, and Basil and I swam in the ocean. We hiked sand dunes and flew a kite.

But I think the most fun for us Valentines was kayaking on the Currituck Sound.

We left the vaguely trashy, commercial stretches of the central beaches to head up to Corolla (pronounced cah-RAHL-uh) one morning, which turned into a mini-day trip, much to the consternation of FS's Son1, who missed Petunia dearly. Basil and I had decided on the way up that we'd try kayaking as a family.

Basil is an Eagle Scout and former Boy Scout camp counselor who taught rowing and did lifeguarding. He has spent plenty of time on the water. Me? Not so much. Well, I take that back. I spent a lot of time on the water as a kid - on houseboats, cabin cruisers, Seadoos, etc. My dad had a boat for awhile, and he had friends with boats. So we would drive down to Lake Cumberland a couple of times each summer and hang out on the water. But until five years ago, I had never been in a kayak, canoe or rowboat.

During our beach trip in 2002, when all of us were childless and had disposable income, we decided to fill our days with things other than body shots and blender drinks. Some of us went kayaking. I can't remember the company we used or at what milepost we shoved in. But it wasn't a very scenic trip.

First of all, Basil and I were in a double kayak, aka the 'divorce kayak.' I'm a control freak, but Basil actually has experience on the water. Both of us were trying to power and steer our craft at the same time, which was...uh...frustrating.

Second, we kayaked through some yucky swamp of a place. I know it was on the soundside of the Banks, and they called it 'marsh,' but it was definitely shallow water with lots of tall grasses and lizards and stuff. No stretch of open water in sight.

The good news is that our kayaking tour guide was one of the creators of the Myachi. He and his stoner friend came over to 'party' with us one night, though it really ended up being a bunch of us just sitting around drinking. As usual. Except we had two guys who had created and marketed a 'hand sack' drinking with us. (We saw Myachis for sale this year at Kitty Hawk Kites, so apparently, the last laugh is on us for making fun of them.)

For our kayaking adventure this year, we didn't make any reservations in advance. We just grabbed some free advertising rags before we left, and I read ads while Basil drove north on Highway 12. We thought we'd start with the Corolla Kayak Company. The guy in the shop/tour guide was super nice, no pressure and seemed genuinely interested in helping us find a way to get out on the water to enjoy ourselves. We settled on a single for me and double for Basil and Petunia, and we declined a 2- or 3-hour tour so we could just 'self-guide' for an hour. Not knowing how Petunia would react, we didn't want to commit to anything for very long.

It was awesome. The Currituck Sound is beautiful. Wide and peaceful, it was nothing like the swampy marsh we had paddled in Nags Head five years earlier.

We took a leisurely paddle up to the Whalehead Club, and then paddled out in the open water a bit. We saw giant grasses swaying in the water, rooted in the bottom of the sound that was deeper than the length of a kayak paddle. The sun was shining, the temperature was incredibly mild and the sound was not crowded at all.

Petunia loved it. She never freaked out. She never wanted to get out. She never wanted to take her PFD off. She never wanted to move around. She just sat quietly, watching the world go by. I loved watching her be so still and soak in the world.

Next year, we'll definitely go out for a longer tour and maybe even combine a kayak tour with a trip to the four-wheel drive area. One year, probably when Petunia gets older, we'll definitely do some sea kayaking.

In the meantime, I think we want to find somewhere to kayak locally. Heck, maybe we just need to buy a kayak or two and get out on the water ourselves. It's so nice to find something that all three of us genuinely love doing that we've got to find a way to do it more.