Kayaking Carlsbad with the Kid

Instead of going out for my weekly Saturday morning MTB ride, I decided to take Celeste kayaking at Carlsbad's Aqua Hedionda lagoon. Being protected water, it's a good place to bring a kid - and what better place to be than on the water on a cloudless summer day.

Before leaving there was the matter of installing roof racks and kayak carriers on Allie's car. Her car has been rack-free for the past 4-5 months, so the entire install and putting the boats up top took about an hour.

ahoy!

Celeste was quite eager to get in the water but tired relatively quickly after fighting the stiff breeze and (small) whitecaps. At that point I tied up her boat to mine to tow her to the other side of the lagoon where the water was smooth. Unfortunately, a few minutes into towing her, lost her balance while trying to stow her paddle and went into the drink.

She's been a good kayaker for the past two summers and spent many hours on our old canoe and wooden boat - so she has "sea legs". However, this is the first time she's capsized so she was a little bit stunned to suddenly be swimming. Her PFD ("a lifeguard" as she mis-spoke) kept her head well above water and managed to keep her paddle and Crocs from drifting away.

I managed to get a good deal of the water out of her boat before she climbed back on in, but there was still a few gallons of rolling ballast sloshing in the hull. If only I knew where I had left the portable bilge pump.

Towed back to shore, she laughed at the dogs frolicking on the beach - soggy but happy. When putting my boat onto the roof I heard some clunking coming from the rear compartment. Turns out I had placed a few paddling accessories (all purchased at the best paddlesports and outdoors shop in the world - Rutabaga) back there prior to the move, including the long-lost bilge pump and my Pelican case (which is sadly just a tad too small for an iPhone).
I'm leaving the racks on the car, maybe the water will be still in the morning.

Another great morning

crappy cell phone pic taken aboard my Valley Anas Acuta

Not only did I get out and paddle at Carlsbad's Aqua Hedionda Lagoon before work, I found my driver's license. I noticed it was missing a couple of weeks ago when I was carded at the grocery store. The last time I paddled I took it out of my wallet and placed it in a pocket of my PFD. Oops.

Another visit to the Oceanside ("Where the Sea Meets the Debris") DMV office is no longer needed.

Better pix (I didn't say "good", these were just taken with a real camera):

It was a great morning

I went paddling before work this morning with my buddy Derek at Carlsbad's Aqua Hedionda lagoon.
This was the first time my kayak's seen the ocean. Well, under my ownership at least. The boat was used when I got it.

We spent about 45 minutes on the water. Yeah, not a super-long paddle, but since I had not been on the water in a few months, that was plenty of time. My upper body is a bit sore tonight.

Derek had his paddleboard out, he's a tough guy and uses his hands to propel himself. Surprisingly fast too. Looks like fun, I'll have to try it out sometime. We'll definitely be doing this again.

I hope to bring the girls out to the lagoon one of these weekends. Too bad you can't get directly to the ocean from the lagoon - there's a pipe across the water to keep the rental wakeboard boats from heading out to the open ocean.

It's going to be a good morning

Now if I could only find my camera's Pelican Case.