HOW TO GO ALL THE WAY - Artist's Date #60: Kayaking trip

We dragged the boat into the water and the rocks crunched under the weight of the plastic. I straddled the boat, which, as I was doing it, felt unnecessary. And then we were off.

Wait up there while we come in, the leader shouted, but you couldn't really hear him over the wind. There are lots of animals to look out for, he shouted again, when the rest of the group was all in the water but then he turned away from us while he listed what we might see. Olive and I dipped our paddles into the water, me in the back, and I half shouted tips to Olive which I had no right to be giving. Mostly I was worried she would tire herself out. The paddles sliced through the surface of the water and I think we both felt the power of that. 

The city spread out in front of us as we went along the east side of San Francisco just south of the bridge to the East Bay. It was a gorgeous day – sunny, no fog, 60 something degrees. Our instructor leaned back on the boat and put his paddles down and ate a sandwich on his lap, while observing the class and how we were doing. I wondered whether we were supposed to paddle at the same time on the same side or alternate sides and I realized that given our skill level (beginner) that didn’t matter. We paddled together down into one of the coves, passing a dock where the instructor said the same blue heron had been perched for months in the same spot.

I love blue herons. I'm sure this comes from my parents because the one thing they ever loved doing together was bird watching. Once, when they finally had an empty nest, they took a trip to Arcadia National Park and both swooned about it in the same way. This summer I was at a retreat center and from the marshes a great blue spread its massive wings and soared upwards, across the trail and into a tree, then camouflaged by the branches.

This heron was not one of those birds. This bird was the scraggliest heron I'd ever seen. Have you guys ever seen Dark Crystal? I shouted out to the group who couldn't hear me as I continued on to try to describe the Sheksis who the bird reminded me of.