Let's Get Out on the Water!

More beautiful weather has come our way so we

decided to get the work done and head out on

the boat!

This time we went out to one of the bays that

were a little bit farther away and we brought

the kayaks along.

My daughter getting the feel for her paddle:

My sister getting into her kayak:

It's not that easy from the boat. You need someone

to steady the kayak and you need to be coordinated

enough to stick both feet in at the same time and

then sit down quickly before it tips.

Whew--nobody got wet.

The view as I am heading out to explore the bay:

There is my daughter waaaaay over there by herself.

I didn't worry too much since she was wearing a life

jacket and the worst that could happen was she would

end up wet and someone would go over and help her

get back onto the boat.

The water is so clear you can see all the way down to

the bottom. There were thousands of clam and mussel

shells on the bottom and when we got closer to shore

we could see the bottom literally moving with hermit

crabs and small regular crabs.

Looking up at the beautiful forest surrounding the bay.

Once you stop paddling there is total silence. The

air smells so clean and fresh.

This was a neat contrast with the barnacles on top and

the mussels underneath the water:

Oh, and the prize that we came for--beach asparagus!

I learned about this when I saw a lady selling it at the

Farmer's Market. It grows wild (you just have to find

out where, of course) and it is easily picked and tastes

delicious! It is crunchy and a bit salty, perfect for

stir fry and adding to vegetable dishes. Can you just

imagine the nutritional value of this stuff, growing

wild and totally pollution free?

Yum! I took the risk of getting out of the kayak to pick

a whole bag for us to share. I didn't have a gun with me and

the bear factor is pretty high out here where people don't

go much, but hey, I'll risk my life for freshly picked

asparagus--wouldn't you? :-)

Even after picking a huge bag I stood back and looked at

the patch and I couldn't tell where I had picked it from.

Kinda cool looking kelp growing--no we didn't eat it.

We came across this huge slide--see where it starts

at the top? I noticed there are a lot of these all around

these bays. It must happen when we have the winters

with huge amounts of snowfall.

Oh my word--I've spotted Bigfoot!!!!!

See him to the left creeping out of the woods??!!

Oh.

My brother in law stayed on the boat and fly

fished for humpies.

Heading back to the boat...ahhh, back to reality...