Kayaking with Tender Foot

Saturday morning I took a trip out to Figure 8 Island here in Wilmington with some of my favorite people, Bob and Mary! I told you guys how excited I was to take my first kayaking trip. All summer long, people have been talking about kayaking and stand up paddle boarding and what a blast it is, along with the great workout. So of course, when Bob invited me kayaking, my little fittie ears perked right up!

Did someone say workout???

Sign me up!

So after working a half day Saturday morning, Mary took my TRX class (what a trooper) and then we headed to her house to change, grab the food and meet up with Bob. I played tug of war with Mary's pup while she prepped the coolers!

As soon as we got the kayaks over to the water, they coached me on how to get in without tipping my kayak. I had the food in mine after all, so it was extremely important I do NOT tip.

Although I didn't get the stroke down perfectly, I certainly got a good upper body workout in! Kayaking is hard in the sense of trying to get used to working less hard to go faster/more efficiently. I so badly wanted to row and pull as hard as I could but this isn't the most efficient way to kayak, hence why my upper body got so tired. However, it was still awesome! I loved every second of it. 

It took about 40 minutes to kayak over to Figure 8. We pulled the kayaks up about 20 feet onto the shore and pulled out our little chairs that we had bungee corded to the kayaks and hung out. Mary had stopped at Temptations Every Day Gourmet and picked up lunch for us. She's so sweet! I had the fiesta veggie wrap, a vegan wrap loaded up with mango, cucumber, red bell pepper, black bean and corn relish, mixed greens and this super tasty citrus vinaigrette sauce. It was delicious! I definitely will be visiting that restaurant again at some point.

Pictures I found online, but just to give you an idea of the homes around Figure 8!

Mostly VACATION homes might I add.

After we ate, we went for a long walk down the island. One of the best parts was the fact that there were hardly any people out at all. There were so many beautiful houses and I was shocked to find out that most of this multi-million dollar homes were just summer vacation spots for people. What a life! Eventually we got to the ocean which is so warm it amazes me every time. I am used to the ice cold Pacific Ocean growing up in the Pacific Northwest. The water here is so nice and warm. It was so enjoyable to just walk and talk, picking up shells as we went along. We also saw several jelly fish so that was exciting. 

One of the highlights of the trip was walking back to the kayaks and listening to Bob cry as his poor little feet happened to find every sharp piece of shell in the sand. He is now known as "Tenderfoot" by myself and Mary which I'm sure he is absolutely THRILLED I shared that with you all. :) 

The tide was out of control quick while we had been gone. Thankfully there had been a couple people who anchored their boat nearby us who actually moved our kayaks for us while we were gone. Otherwise, they would have been gone. We would have been swimming home. Then I would have REALLY gotten a good workout in. On the way back, it was a much easier trip as the tide was in our favor.

Mary is so funny. Her daughter lives far away so I think this causes her to "mother" me a little bit every now and then. It's really funny and makes me laugh. She made me get in the kayak and take a picture to send to my mom because she said "I just looked so cute."

The trip was really fun, I am so glad I got to join them on it! Thanks Bob and Mary!