NOW I wish I'd taken the camera along

For months and months and months (if not years!) the OC has been wanting an Old Town "Loon" Tandem Kayak. Well, yesterday, thanks to a terrific sale at the nearest L L Bean outlet, we finally broke down and bought ourselves one for a joint birthday/anniversary/Christmas present to each other!

So, of course, we simply had to try it out this afternoon (on what may yet turn out to have been one of the last warm and dry days before winter sets in).

So began the learning curve...

Not the least part of which was getting that looong kayak hoisted up onto its new Thule kayak rack way, way, waaaay up on the roof of our minivan--no easy task for a couple of old codgers like us. Fortunately for not-so-tall me, we have a collapsable step-stool which gives me an extra foot or so of height and a fighting chance of actually carrying my end (literally!) of the project.

Part two was learning to actually make that baby go where we want it to--we spent the first 20 minutes going around in circles before we got the hang of making it go where we wanted it to! We probably looking unbelievably silly out there. Hee.

Why the camera in the title, you ask? I figured we'd have enough to deal with trying to learn to load and unload (and tie down!) and then to paddle the thing without also having to worry about keeping a pricey camera from going overboard, so we deliberately left the camera behind.

Naturally, with no camera, once we were out on the water, it being late afternoon and all, we saw a cormorant, a heron (up close!), a whole flock of mallard ducks, and a speedy little kingfisher. Oh, and some pretty just-starting-to-turn foliage, too.


'Tis plain to see that we need to do this kayaking business again...and again...and again...and next time, we'll take the camera along so we can take our own pictures!