A weekend on Orcas Island

We planned a kayaking trip with friends to Orcas Island several months ago and just recently returned from our much anticipated trip. I walked away from the weekend with a newfound love for Orcas Island.

What I will be doing this Summer: kayaking

Living in Seattle, water is such an important part of our everyday life. We are spoiled to enjoy wonderful water views almost anywhere we head in the city. One of my favorite things to do on a nice day is go for a midday paddle. Last week, Cameron and I participated in our very first Sunset tour with Kayak Alki. After a thorough briefing on equipment, technique, safety, and route we left from the shore of Alki beach. We paddled down toward the Duwamish and then cut across the Puget Sound to downtown Seattle. The water was calm, the skies were clear and how many other cities can you kayak past a ferry while enjoying the cityscape?

An awesome Saturday in West Seattle

Saturdays for our family, are a day set aside for fresh air, fun and time spent together. We try to limit our outside commitments and reserve our weekend to relax, rejuvenate and reconnect. When you are out on the water, paddle in hand, looking for jellyfish or watching the clouds shape shift, it is hard to have another care in the world.

Date night: kayak and dinner at Agua Verde

When I share fun things to do or places to go, I don't write about so I have something to blog about, but because I truly think they are great. Last week, the forecast looked promising, so I picked Cameron up from work and we headed out for a paddle on Lake Union. We arrived at Agua Verde within minutes and hopped in a double kayak. For a Friday evening, I was surprised at how uncrowded the waterways were.  When you are kayaking, boats can create the most unwelcome waves, so we were pleasantly surprised at the lack of boat traffic.  We spent a lovely couple of hours talking, paddling through the houseboats, watching the seaplanes take off and land and dreaming of a life filled with daily water activities. I marveled at the idea of picking Cameron up from work in a little boat or jumping off the dock into a kayak at a moment's notice. When good weather rolls around, life on a houseboat sure looks dreamy.

Date night: Agua Verde dinner + kayak

I know dinner and a movie is a classic date combination, but I would much prefer to go kayaking and then to dinner. One of my favorite places to do both in Seattle is Agua Verde. One of the best parts of Agua Verde is the location, it is on the Montlake Cut at the mouth of Lake Union. Once you leave the dock, within minutes you are paddling past house boats and watching seaplanes land and take off. On a warm, sunny day I can think of no better place to be than on the water in Seattle. After you have worked up an appetite, lunch or dinner back at Agua Verde is a sheer delight. I am a big fan of their Bagre (spicy catfish) tacos, but everything I have eaten there is delicious.

Dinner and a kayak

How many places can you rent a kayak and then have a delicious bite to eat? Not many, but at Agua Verde you not only get to kayak through the Montlake cut into Lake Union, but eat the most delicious cat fish tacos.

Taking on Puget Sound

This past weekend we took advantage of the sunshine by heading out on the Puget Sound for a little kayaking. You might say, didn't you just go kayaking?........ but that was in warm, clear water and the Puget Sound is dark, mysterious and hovering somewhere around 45 degrees right now.

We were surrounded by industrial views, and the waterways are not only a busy port, but a zig zagging of ferry routes, cruise ships, Coast Guard and Argosy tour boats. We were able to see some sea lions who if it weren't for the fact that they were extremely territorial, I would gotten a little closer.

I love kayaking with this backdrop, it is picture perfect.

The water was a little rough while we were out. We encountered a few white caps, lots of wakes and plenty of currents.

A little different vantage point than last time. After a lot of on the water time, we have decided single kayaks are the best way to go.

The Missile Detecting Radar Ship, which is here to be repaired in the background.

I never know what Cameron is going to do when I am not looking. He is such a nut!!

Summer nights

While the rest of the country is sweltering under the intense Summer sun, we have enjoyed a relatively dry and mild Summer. We have had our weeks of heat here and there, but overall it has been warm enough to not need a jacket, but cool enough to not get all sweaty. If it gets too hot, we always have the cool breezes off the water to cool us down. We took to a double kayak for a little sunset outing last week.

One of the reasons I like to be in back is so that I can steer and keep rhythm with Cameron. When he is behind me, who knows what kind of antics he will be up to......case in point this picture.

It is so peaceful on the water, with the ferries passing by and the sun dipping down on the horizon.

Living close to city, but not in the city allows us to be away from the hustle and bustle, while the skyline is a backdrop on our everyday lives.

The Art of Being Happy

Rattlesnake Ridge, June 2010

As I paddled past the expansive yachts, boats and elaborate houseboats, I did not feel a tinge of jealously nor malice I was without one of these items. Given the fact that we live in a culture perpetually obsessed with being young and having more, it may sound contradictory to state I enjoy getting older and I like having less, but let me explain. With each passing year I have become more self assured and loving towards myself, thus the diminished need for things to define who I am. I am more apt to try new things, as a result I am more apt to fail. I know better than to count each calorie of what I eat, but rather enjoy the pure and simple fact that all in all I am healthy.

There is a song we have been listening to lately whose chorus says, "how lucky we are" and I feel that more today than anytime thus far in my life. Is everything in my life perfect or is everything occurring according to plan? Far from it, but I have the wisdom to recognize just how lucky I am each and every day. Everyone searches for the recipe for happiness, unfortunately one does not exist, but if it did I bet the secret ingredient would be a large quantity of gratitude....................

and a yacht wouldn't hurt either.

One way to feel small is to set out in a kayak and have a large vessel create a mammoth wave for you to navigate through.

The endless personalities of the houseboats I am convinced speak to the varied lives of the owners.

One of the true joys of the Pacific Northwest is our busy waterways. Whether by kayak, canoe, powerboat or seaplane. Watching the seaplanes take off and land is truly remarkable, especially from a kayak.

Mahi Mahi tacos dockside at Agua Verde. The perfect Summer lunch time setting.

Refueled by tacos, we headed to Rattlesnake Ridge for a little R & R. Too bad every ridge we went to someone else had the same idea too.

There are good places to lay in the sun and then there are great places.

Merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream

A sunny Saturday is a day waiting to be seized; so we got ourselves up, out and onto the water early for a paddle along Alki beach. We headed toward the Alki Point Lighthouse, taking in views of downtown Seattle, freighters, ferries, the Space Needle and Mount Rainier on our way. Shockingly enough, this was our first time taking out single kayaks. Normally, we instinctually take out a double, since there is two of us, but I think it is safe to say that singles are the way to go for us. No disgruntled paddlers and you have the freedom to go where you want at the speed you want, with the expectation that each must pull their own weight. I enjoyed the increased agility and movement of the single, although it is a little less stable, I am happy to report there were no overturned boats at the end of the day.

Killer views of the city while kayaking. In the distance you can see it is cruise ship season here in Seattle.

Between ferries, sailboats and freighters, it is amazing what a busy waterway this is.

Hugging the shore on the way to the lighthouse.

A little apres kayak lunch in keeping with the water theme we ate clam chowder and fish.

Another first, we decided to ride the West Seattle Water Taxi into the city, so we could roam around Pike Place, pick up the all important peonies I was dreaming about and eat cheesecake at The Confectional. Their summer feature is White Chocolate Key Lime Pie, which is well worth the calories, I promise.

In all, it felt like a day on vacation rather than just a weekend. It was nice to break the routine of going hiking each Saturday in place of a fun filled day on the water.