Sunday, August 17, 2008
Ok so I should tell you about my "surprise" anniversary weekend with Kyle.
My hunch was right. We went on a kayak trip. I'd just like to take this opportunity to say that when I told Laura of my suspicions she asked if they even had kayaks that would fit my stomach. Ha ha, good joke, right? Well, there was a hint of real concern and I'm convinced she really was wondering.
Anyway, last friday morning we were off. Kyle decided to tell me in the car ride up that we were going to telegraph cove. It's this popular tourist place just outside of Port McNeil where there's many a whale to be seen. The plan was, to rent a kayak, put all out gear in it and paddle to a random beach, set up a secluded camp and then feel free to roam that water to find whales. Kyle, was unfortunately quite unorganized. I dont take full responsibility for the unorganization because it was a trip he planned and knew about for much longer than me. He was very concerned about packing light and wouldnt let me bring much. Even though we were going for three days he only wanted to let me pack one extra set of clothes. What if I get hot? What if I get cold? One needs options!!! Also, he knew it was supposed to rain but he would only bring ONE blanket!!! It was the little duvet blanket that the fwuffs and I got for Christmas one year from mom and dad. Yes, it's fairly warm, but not so big for two people. Kyle kept saying "we'll be fine," and believe me, I was unaware of the blanket situation until after we left. I thought we brought the sleeping bag too. He didn't even bring anything to cover the airbed with.
When we got on the water, the sun was peaking through the clouds. It was quite the kayak to the spot we were going to. Three hours. Three hours isnt THAT bad, but when you've never really kayaked before and you don't have well developed kayaking muscles, it's really hard work. The whole time we were like "ok, where's the whales??" Just as we were getting close to the beach we were camping at, a guy in another kayak asked us if we saw the orca. He pointed it out, way across the ocean. And sure enough, even though it was so far away, we saw it's fin surface, so huge and magestic, and heard it blow the water out of it's blow hole. It must've been huge for us to see it from so far away. We sat in stunned amazement as a whole pod came our way and went right past us. The rest of the way to our campsite (which we had been getting rather impatient to reach) we saw whale after whale and we were there in no time. It was SO cool!!!
Our beach was a small secluded bay with no other inhabitants except for one family way around the corner from us. There was a picnic table and a fire pit, and we had everything totally to ourselves. Kyle worked at getting a fire started while I set the tent up and everything. Kyle found his fire starting to be quite a challenge because every thing was wet, and he kept saying he wasn't a scout and didn't really have a dad, so he didn't know what he was doing. He knew about as much as I did though. He finally got some tips from the other campers around the corner and found this brambley stuff that would light on fire easily. I made us tinfoil dinners and we sat and got warmed by the fire. It was fun. All the while whales kept passing our beach, and we could watch from where we sat around the fire. At this point it was cloudy and the air was quite damp. I was already wearing my hoody (which I snuck along) and sweat pants.
Kyle had a few surprises, like he bought a portable dvd player for the occasion and rented some movies. He also brought jiffy pop which I'd never had before and proved to be quite good. We settled in our tent where I hogged the blanket and watched the bucket list. It was alright. Then it was sleeping time. This is where the trouble started. We were lying on a velvet mattress which stuck to our clothes, and the blanket barely fit over us, if we huddled as close together as we could. I couldnt sleep. It rained. I tied my hood around my face so that barely my eyes, nose and face were showing. At one point I just started crying because I was so cold and uncomfortable being so jammed up against kyle and I couldnt sleep. It felt like I hadnt even slept yet, and it was 3am. I have just endured one too many terrible raining camping trips where we are stuck out in the middle of no where and I don't want to do it EVER again!! When we finally woke up, it had been raining consistently all night. Kyle didnt think he could get a fire started. Everything was wet. We were relying on the fire to cook our food with. We decided to go back. We packed up everything all wet. We started our paddle back. The water was thankfully calm like glass. Eventually the raining stopped. We wondered if we were making a mistake. We decided that we'd go back and see how much it would cost to get towed back to our beach after we got some fuel for fires and a sleeping bag and stuff. On our way a pod of dolphins passed us. They seemed so small compared to the whales. It cheered me a little. It was just so neat that we got to see all the marine life in the wild. It's like a dream. By the time we got back, I was soaked all through my hoody and I was frozen. I could barely walk, something to do with being pregnant and sitting for so long doing something that my body was wasnt used to. The kayak guy said it would be 200 dollars for a tow back. That was more than what we'd spent renting the kayak for three days. We sat defeated not knowing what to do. We didnt even get to go to the actual spot where all the whales supposedly are, called Robson's Bite, where the get up and rub themselves on the rocks and stuff. I was so tired of paddling, and all wet and cold, I had no desire to paddle back and then reset up all our wet gear.
I'd now like to take this moment to let you all know that after experiencing all this, we didnt have our camera with us. As we were leaving the house, I asked Kyle if he had it, and he didnt, so he jumped out of the car and went and got it. I assumed he packed it in the backpack with the rest of our stuff. So while we were out on the water I said we should be taking pictures and it turned out he left the camera in the car. I was so disappointed. He was quite defensive about it and said that I could at least take some responsibility. But I refuse to, because I didnt know the camera was just sitting loose in the back seat of our car. So I don't even have any amazing pictures to show for it.
We called it quits then and there. We stopped at a gas station and got some hot chocolate and we spent the rest of our time in courtenay at a cheap motel.
And that's the sad ending to our anniversary weekend.
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Sarahstottle posted @ 8:42 AM