Two Outings, One Weekend

I generally consider any weekend when I get to go kayaking to be a good weekend. By that criterion this must have been a pretty awesome weekend as I went on two, count em', two, excellent kayak trips.

 

First, on Sunday Tall Tom and I went out with our wives for a paddle - which is only a slightly less surprising a sentence to have written than, "Saturday I went over to the American Nazi Party headquarters for Shabbos services." The genesis of this spectacularly unexpected event was Tom's plan to twist his wife's arm into a kayaking outing. V has been making noises about wanting to do some kayaking and generally prefers doing things with "other people" (other than whom? Other than me, I suppose). V likes Tom's wife and so, when I presented her with the idea of a joint paddling outing she unexpectedly jumped at the idea.

V on the water

 

We launched at Pohick Bay. Pohick on Memorial Day weekend has a warm nostalgia for me, as it was the time and place of my first camping trip with the boys (when the campground was full of biker groups in town to participate in the Rolling Thunder rally). We headed up into the creek. V was very unsteady at first, feeling like the slight chop was going to capsize her, but once we got into the creek she was OK. I think she really appreciated the creek's beauty, too. After about 30 minutes of paddling Tom's wife abruptly announced that it was time to head back. I later learned that what she was really doing was giving V the opportunity to head back without having to be"spoiler" who asked us to turn around. Ironically, V, while unsteady at first, told me that she was fine in the the creek and could have gone further. Go figure.

After getting off the water we stopped at a resaturant for a light lunch - where the waitress actually came over to our table to comment on Tom's height. 

Pax Paddlers

The next day Tom, Suzanne, Susan G2, Yvonne and I paddled the Patuxent River. Tom and Suzanne had the ulterior motive of checking out a location for a kayak camper they are planning for later this season; Susan and I were just along for the ride. We launched at the Patuxent Riverkeeper building - the same place from which Tom and I had been turned away a few weeks earlier when the river was declared off-limited due to sewage contamination, paddled down to their intended campsite where we landed and did a little exploring. We then paddled back upriver into Jug Bay. Beautiful day, nice outing- but nowhere near as distinctive as the couples outing!

Landing at Tom & Suzanne's campsite location