Kayak Surfing

Not making much progress on my drive up the coast, but I am having a lot of fun. Got up pretty early yesterday and checked out of my hotel. Went back to Humboats and rented a kayak for the morning to do more paddling around Humboldt bay. Returned the boat in the afternoon and struck up a conversation with a guy in the kayak rental shop. He was up for some kayak surfing, but didn’t want to go solo (that’s not really safe – although I do it from time to time). I agreed to join him. I rented a surf boat and we spent the afternoon on the beach.

Turns out he has a big old run down house on the beach on the north end of town. He offered to put me up for the night. In return I bought him a quarter keg of amber ale from the lost coast brewery. That seemed to me a fair trade for lodging for the night. It also seemed to bring out all his friends. We got a bon fire going on the beach and stayed up to the wee hours of the morning. I slept on the back porch in my sleeping bag with a view of the ocean.

The next morning I got up before anyone else and explored the kitchen – I found the basics, flour, butter, eggs. etc. I went to the local grocery store and bought a bag of oranges, a pound of bacon, some buttermilk and a pound of fresh ground coffee. I whipped up a batch of buttermilk pancakes, with bacon, fresh squeezed O.J. and coffee. There were a bunch of folks that crashed overnight, they all came to the kitchen as the bacon smell made its way through the house. Everyone seemed to appreciate the effort.

I spent the morning on the back porch lazing over coffee and the paper, and borrowing their WiFi. There’s a light drizzle this morning, and I’ve decided to stay out of the rain. Later today I’m continuing my drive north.