Friday, July 10, 2009

Soft Sea Breeze, Gentle Waves, Jagged Cliffs, and...Vomit


That's right. Mr. Pete and I ventured into the world of sea kayaking before. We've been out before but it was in Key West in a little bay or channel...a little estuary. This, my friends, was the open ocean. It started with a quick paddling lesson from our guide Mike. Then we ventured into the water and made sure to angle our kayaks toward to horizon as we plowed over waves and out into the open sea. I started to feel a little warm and vomitose early on. I get motion sickness but I've never, you know, wretched. Just felt really sick and kind of blah and then recovered. I vomited around 10 times while we were out at sea. The worst part was that I wasn't really able to take in all the cool stuff around me. We paddled into caves, spotted sea lions sunning themselves on some rocks, and even did a little hunting tour for leopard sharks. In the end, Mr. Pete and I convinced our guide to let us go back early. We left him a nice tip (maybe he will share it with our tour group since they had to listen to the vomiting sounds as Mike pointed out the various forms of sea life). He had some great suggestions for sea sickness. Keep paddling, keep your eye on the horizon, or maybe jump in a swim around a bit. After asking about the sharks in the area several times, I hopped in to the FREEEZING Pacific for a little nausea control. It did help. I was so shocked by the drop in my body temperature I momentarily forgot to empty my stomach's contents into the ocean.


So we arrived back on shore soaking wet (we tipped on the way in to the beach), with broken sunglasses (I leaned over on them after I was done puking in the ocean), and bonded. Mr. Pete took good care of me and didn't even flinch when I whined, "just don't talk to me, it makes me feel nauseous.



More on this awesome trip later. I'm still recovering on the couch with a salty snack.

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