Kayaking

Our last adventure during my visit was a kayaking trip. We went to the Elkhorn Slough, just south of Santa Cruz, and enjoyed a peaceful day in the sun.

Dad was in his inflatable kayak (great for traveling) and mom and I were in the two seater. It was great for taking pictures and not lagging behind. Not sure mom was too happy about having to paddle alone a lot though. Sorry mom.

The slough goes inland pretty far, but it leads out to the ocean. We went about four miles. With a lot of twists and turns, it is a beautiful ride, as long as you ignore the cattle ranch literally on the water. Nice.

It was a quiet ride and we didn't see many people. Of those that we did see, they were all kayakers and they were usually going in the opposite direction.

Because the slough leads into the ocean, there is plenty of wildlife to see. We had a great time kayaking with some rather curious sea otters. They were not shy about following us, and on occasion they got a little too close for (mom's) comfort. The harbor seals had the opposite reaction and didn't appreciate us coming too close to the shore.


We also saw a jelly, I think, but I'm not entirely sure since it was dead (?) and didn't look whole. Perhaps the otters had a nice jelly meal. When we were heading back to the car, mom and I saw a shark fin come out of the water right in front of us.

Now a week or so before, she watched something in the news about a guy who had a shark take a chunk out of his kayak and of course got freaked out. So, when we saw a shark, she panicked. The funniest part looking back was that she was ready to jump out of the kayak.

Turns out, it wasn't a shark. Actually, it was a bat ray. The irony of it being a ray is that I am extremely anxious about them, but luckily we only saw him for a a flash. He was huge though, at least 3-4 ft.

After a lot of exercise, we decided it was best to spend the next day in the backyard relaxing. So, we played some bocce ball, enjoyed a few beers, and had a lovely day. And because it was my parent's backyard there were lots of birds to watch too. Bocce ball was interesting since the grass was bumpy, but that just made it more interesting.

If only we could have days like these more often.