I love paddling!

I got down to the beach later than I wanted to and wouldn’t you know it, there was no parking available!  I didn’t really want to park across the street, so I just waited twenty minutes until someone left.  It was such a beautiful day…..just like yesterday….but since I was so late getting out, I paddled north in case the wind came up.  The “thing”  about paddling north is that although there are no boats to contend with, there are a lot more people out there on the water.  Several companies rent boards at Kalama Park, so that makes it a busy spot.  I paddled towards everyone else, but then stayed just south of them.  Suddenly two large turtles surfaced, one on each side of me!  I started talking to them…..”Oh Hi baby”…… “Good morning babies”……. I was oblivious to the fact that people were listening to me talking to the turtles!  This one guy paddles up and asks, “Is that how you get them to come up?”  Well I was startled and looked up and said, “Not really!”  It was too funny!  Pretty soon, I had counted five turtles and then decided to start paddling south, but a few minutes later two more turtles surfaced, this time both of them right next to me!  I was happy with seven turtles for the day!  I paddled on and ran into an old friend that I didn’t even know was a paddler, so we chatted and paddled back north until we were outside of Kalama Park again.  Then another big turtle surfaced just out from where we were sitting!  Eight turtles now!  I decided that I didn’t trust the wind since it still had not come up yet, and I paddled south again towards Kam I.  A few minutes later, the wind DID come up but it faked me out and was blowing from the south, which made me have to paddle against it all the way back!  By the time I went swimming, the wind had backed off and it was really nice.  I saw a lot of fish darting around down at the reef!  By the time I left, the wind had changed direction and was full-on trade winds blowing from the north and blowing sand too.  That’s a good time to go home!!