Once Upon a Photo

On Sunday, we took the kids to Town Lake Lady Bird Lake for a little kayaking adventure. I have plenty of experience with canoes, but always assumed that kayaks were those tiny little boats that you had to squeeze your legs down into. I had visions of flipping over as soon as I got into the water, and not being able to disentangle myself in order to escape. I’m hyperventilating just imagining that whole scenario.

But – I’ve always loved canoeing, and I kept thinking that it would be fun to do with the kids. And kayaks are supposed to be even easier to maneuver than canoes. So when my friend Rachel told me she went kayaking all by herself a while ago – I was intrigued. I took a look at the Rowing Dock’s website, noticed that the kayakers did not appear to be trapped and/or panicky, and decided that kayaking sounded like a lot more fun than doing 8 loads of laundry.

I carefully read over the FAQ and determined that I:

A) would stay relatively dry; and

B) should bring my tiny Flip video camera along to document the occasion (I wasn’t going to take any chances with the digital Rebel).

I was waaaay wrong on A), which made B) somewhat of a bad decision as well. One of our paddles was missing a stopper, which is supposed to keep the water from pouring off the paddle and down into your lap. I thought it seemed odd that I was getting a thorough soaking, while Neil was perfectly dry, but I wrote it off to his clearly superior kayaking skills. I filmed a few seconds at the beginning of the trip, then stuck the camera in the little fabric pouch, and put it behind the seat, which was nice and dry. For the first minute anyway.

When we caught up with Neil and Abby the first time, Neil asked about the camera, and I said “Oh yeah – I was worried about it getting wet in my lap, so I stuck it behind the seat where it’s nice and dr……… What the *&%#@?!?! Where did all this water come from?!!?”

I pulled out the now sopping wet camera, wrung out the bag, and handed it over to Neil for safe(r) keeping. Amazingly, it still worked, despite sloshing around in 3 inches of water for almost 15 minutes! (Actually, I knew exactly how long my beloved Flip video had been sloshing around, as I had neglected to turn the thing off before I stuck it back in the bag and behind the seat).

What you can’t tell from the video was how very different our two paths were. Neil and Abby’s route went something like this:

While Travis’ and mine went more like this:

See that one straight part on the return trip? That’s where Neil and Abby took pity on us, and kept us somewhat on track by rowing along one side. Notice that it didn’t last very long.

I think there was definitely some sort of rudder on the bottom of our kayak, sabotaging our every attempt to go in a straight line. It made for a pretty long trip, and I got to hear plenty about how Travis “KNEW he should have gone with dad!” And also “They’re going to beat us! We’ll never catch up now!” And “MOM!!!!! STEER!!!” Good times, let me tell you!

I tried to explain that we were getting so much more exercise this way, and also we could also see more of the ducks and turtles close-up, while Neil and Abby just zoomed right on by. I think I heard growling from the front seat, but I’m not sure.

Despite the crazy steering issue, and the soaked shorts, we really did have fun. And once my arms have recovered, I’d like to go again. I’m definitely going with Neil this time though.

P.S. – Several of you have let me know that you can’t comment, and I finally figured out the problem – it should be fixed now, so please feel free to comment away!