The Weekend Report

Friday- Drove from Oakland to Sausalito through horrible unexpected traffic. We should have expected it but weren’t thinking about it because we never drive anyway around the bay at 5pm because of traffic! We ended up at our destination at 6:30pm about 30 minutes behind schedule so we really had to hustle to build our kayaks for a 7pm departure from the beach. Fortunately the other paddlers were happily milling around making final preparations and some other stragglers showed up at the last minute. About 7:15pm the Kinney’s were ready and all 18 of us stood in a circle to introduce ourselves and get a run down of the trip. We would cross Richardson Bay, go around Peninsula Point (on the Tiburon Peninsula) and then across Belvedere Cove. The plan was to head to a restaurant as the sun was setting behind us, arrive at the restaurant at dusk, then head back by the light of the full moon. On the way there, I got frustrated with myself because I was the slowest paddler on the trip. We never got lost but eventually everyone passed me. This is partly due to my inexperience and infrequent paddling and partly due to have a very stable boat that tracks well but doesn’t move a quickly as some less stable boats (http://www.folbot.com/kiawah.html (mine is blue) this is Grant’s https://www.folbot.com/cooper.html (in yellow)). But, as apartment dwellers with very limited storage, we don’t have as many choices for kayaks. We’re lucky that we’re crazy enough to enjoy such an expensive hobby. One member of the group got caught in some choppy water and flipped over. A swarm of 5 kayaks helped her get back in and in the process Grant and I caught up to the group. We all headed for a restaurant in a marina in Tiburon. All 18 of us sat in 3 huge booths, complete with wetsuits and paddle jackets. Everyone else in the restaurant was is suits and skirts ordering $20+ seafood dinners. We stood out just a little bit but the wait staff was not phased at all. After chocolate lava cake and a caramel apple crisp, Grant and I were ready to paddle back to Sausalito. We broke up into 3 pods, ours with 8 paddlers. Each boat had at least one light on board and we all shared the moonlight. The wind had died down a bit and the flood had slowed down making a wonderfully easy paddle on the way home. I look forward to going again sometime! http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/theaussiepea/album?.dir=/1b45scd&.src=ph Saturday- Grant finished putting together his newest recumbent and we took it for a ride around Lake Merritt (in downtown Oakland) in the early afternoon. At night we celebrated the 2nd annual Castleview Rooftop Kaboom Fireworks Show with Judith and Steven, our neighbors in Berkeley. KFOG 104.5 is a local radio station that puts on free concert and fireworks show on pier 30 in SF every May for the last 14 years. Last year I listened to the radio and heard the announcement of the fireworks show. We were skeptical that it would be any good but we went up onto the roof anyways. We ran an extension cord from the kitchen to the roof so that we could listen to the simulcast / soundtrack on the radio and make ice cream / banana smoothies. It was so cool. The booms from the fireworks were behind by a good 30 seconds (because SF is like 10 miles away) but we could definitely see the fireworks. This year we planned ahead a little bit. We made arrangements to go have dinner with our old neighbors and a new couple that had moved into the building (not into our apartment). We created the smoothies in the kitchen and poured them into yogurt containers for transport to the roof. We took a portable/battery radio so there was no extension cord and we remembered to bring chairs up with us. The fireworks got off to a late start which made me worried that I had the wrong time. They lasted about 25 minutes and then we just sat on the roof, soaking in the views that we have been missing since moving to Oakland. It was a wonderful night with old friends. Sunday- Super cool church, as always. The sermon was about loving your mom. The weather really warmed up today. Hopefully some time this afternoon Grant and I will take a walk to the rose garden. That’s after we call our moms… Happy mother’s day to you all!