Tyler's Blog of Life: May 2007 cont.

5/13/2007
Sunday morning, we just headed back to the mainland pretty early, as it was Mother’s day. We had sent flowers to Eva’s mom and were curious as to whether or not they had gotten there on time. They do not deliver on Sundays so we had asked that they be delivered on Saturday. Apparently, Swiss flower couriers are a bit overzealous in performing their duties. Saturday morning, Eva’s parents were roused to what sounded like a knocking at the door. They checked the clock and it was 7:20am. They thought it couldn’t possibly be someone at the door at that hour but then another knock was heard. George gets up and headed to the door to, very rightly, give this early morning interloper a piece of his mind. When he opened the door a large ball of paper was thrust into his arms and the courier was off. He brought the item into the house and Miluse and he opened our little gift. Switzerland is a bit funny sometimes. Grocery stores close at 4pm on Saturday for the remainder of the weekend yet flowers can be delivered at the crack of dawn. I felt bad that Eva did not get to see her mother on Mother’s day but they spoke on the phone a bit. I hope that Miluse knows what an incredible mother she is and what a wonderful job both her and George did raising Eva. I feel so lucky to have two sets of incredible parents.

After we got back from Catalina, my dad and I cleaned up the boat while Eva and my mom went out for a run. Later, my dad put together a BBQ for Mother’s Day. Rosemarie joined us, she is always a blast, and it was a really nice afternoon. My mom already knows this, but I am so appreciative of everything she has done for me and just love her so much. Call me a mama’s boy, because that’s what I am.

Tuesday 5/15/2007
For my birthday, my parents had said they would spring for kayaks. We had picked up one at REI and I would get another on Craig’s list. My dad had the day off so we decided to brave the seas in one kayak and the Alpacka raft. We did not really know what to expect, but it was surprisingly easy. One sad note, this was the first day in a long time that I was skunked fishing. I do not know what was wrong. I guess the fish were smarter than me that day. Oh-well, it was still nice to get onto the water. While we were out there, we saw an egret standing on kelp picking around for food. I had never seen a bird virtually walking on water. We put in at White’s Point, my dad took out there, and I went ahead and kayaked a couple miles to Cabrillo Beach where my folks picked me up. Amazingly, my dad did not flip backwards on this wave.

Testing out the new kayak. The perspective you get by being right on the water is pretty cool.

5/19/2007
Most of the rest of the week was filled with day-to-day stuff though I did do a bit of a sewing project. I had gotten myself a sewing machine and had ordered a vest kit online and finally put it together. Sewing is pretty fun though there were occasional moments of frustration (and when I say frustration, I mean moments of pure rage). I cannot believe that people sew all day for something like a dollar a day. What I went through makes me want to send extra money to the people who actually made my clothes (not the people who put the logo on them). From time to time, Eva and I would cruise over to Hombly for a round of golf. Her game is really coming along. Check out Eva’s score. Birdies on a par 3 are pretty legit (even if the hole is only 40 yards long). Just know, if anyone wants to challenge us, we would welcome it as long as our infinite mulligan rule remains intact.

5/20/2007
Earlier in the week I picked up another kayak and stored it on the car until we could get it down to San Pedro. Eva and I cruised south, put the kayaks onto the car, and launched at Cabrillo.

Again, the fish outsmarted us, though my fishing skills seemed to be too much for this character.

In the theme of “no good deed goes unpunished,” I fell off of my kayak as I was trying to pull a balloon from the water. Well, at least it was good practice getting back into the kayak. I am sure I will get in a bit of trouble for this, but, just for the record, Eva also got a bit wet. Her spill was a little more public as a wave was just big enough to tip her over on her exit. She picked herself up graciously and I tried to grab all the bits of trash we had collected while on the water. Sadly, the bread did not make it, though salty apricots are not all that bad.

5/25/2007
Most of the week was spent again tending to ordinary affairs but Eva and I were heading back to the Island for the first half of the Memorial Day holiday. We checked ahead of time and saw that there were no fires, so we figured this trip should be cake. On our way over, we saw a pretty big structure out in the open water. It turned out to be Sea Launch. I had never seen it moving before and it was cruising along at a decent clip. If it looks huge from the bridge going into Long Beach, imagine how it looks in a tiny boat from 200 yards.

We went straight across to Goat Harbor and, unfortunately, had to share the beach with others this time. We fished a bit with no luck (aside from the sea star, skunked 3 times in a row, I was getting a bit worried at that point) and then went for a bit of a hike up the streambed next to the camp. Check out the happy couple.

We had a wonderful dinner and evening. We brought big boggle this time and I at least gave Eva a run for her money.

5/26/2007
We went out fishing in the morning and finally my bad streak was broken. It was so much fun. We each caught 7 or 8 fish and those little halfmoons put up a decent little fight.

All I can say is “What a cutie!”

After fishing, Eva and I took on a fairly ambitious hike. I knew it would be much longer, but on the map, the airport is only about 1.5 miles away. I had unsuccessfully, tried to get up to the airport about 4 times before. Usually the hike ends when there is some little ridge that is just a bit too steep or the rocks are a bit too big in the stream bed or we have hiked for a couple of hours and the airport is not even in sight. On the map there was small road that would take us to the airport, if we could get up to it from the beach. We set out up the streambed and made it up farther than I had ever gone. There were a couple hairy spots but Eva just held my hand and we made it fine. After about an hour and a half, we climbed out of the streambed and found ourselves basically on the ridge. We kept pressing on into the interior and Eva spotted a few buffalo on a hill a little ways away (her first buffalo sighting, or technically, bison sighting) and then we stumbled across the road.

It was not much more than a couple tire treads, but it eventually took us to a paved road and, after another mile, we were at the airport. We split a buffalo burger and grabbed an ice cream before we left. We were really stoked that we made it and it was a fun hike but we do not have any plans of repeating that one anytime soon. Yeah, I was sore for a number of days.