Road Trip Day 23 - 2007-08-11

Check out the pictures I took today:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10306971@N03/sets/72157601388454613/

Today Paul, Lauren, and I went up to Point Reyes to go kayaking. We got out the door at about 10:00 after a breakfast of cereal and bananas. Then we stopped by Albertsons to pick up some sandwiches. I got a foot long turkey sandwich on a baguette, which for some reason they ended up cutting into 4 pieces and putting on one of those foam trays like you put meat on. It was annoying because it didn't fit in my cooler without disassembling the whole thing.

We drove up to Point Reyes, which was a beautiful drive, but when we got to the kayak rental place, they informed us that it was quite windy and that we should go out on the pier to check out the conditions for ourselves. Sure enough, it was blowing about 15mph and it was pretty chilly. We decided to have lunch while we figured out what to do. After lunch, we concluded that it was indeed too cold and windy for it to be very pleasant to be out on the water.

So we decided that instead we would check out the lighthouse on Point Reyes and fly a kite. Fortunately, there was a nice kite store nearby. I have always wondered how a shop like that can stay in business, but they were selling a bunch of kites when we got there. Probably due to the windy weather. I decided on a simple diamond-shaped kite, because I didn't want to be sitting around trying to figure out how to assemble a fancy box kite or something.

We drove over to the lighthouse, which was a windy drive with plenty of scenic views. The lighthouse was down a flight of 310 stairs, which wasn't too bad on the way down. It was pretty cool seeing this old lighthouse with its huge glass lens (see photos). After that, we headed back up the steps, which wasn't much fun. It was good to get a bit of exercise after the kayaking fell through, though.

After the lighthouse, we stopped by a beach nearby. There was a good bit of wind, but I had a bit of trouble getting the kite to take off at first. Eventually, I just started running down the beach, which seemed to do the trick. Once it got up about 30 feet, it started getting some clean wind that was able to keep it up there. Every so often I had to start running again though to keep it from dropping when the wind died down. I've always had a thing for kites, though I haven't flown them much.

Then we drove back to Paul's place, where we got showered and presentable. Since this was my last day here and the daylight was waning, Paul and I decided that we should pass clubs together at least once. He was the one I learned to pass with, so it's always cool whenever we get the chance to pass together. We were a little rusty, but with a bit of practice were able to do most of the tricks we used to be able to do.

After that, we headed over to an Indian place for dinner. The food wasn't great, but it was reasonably priced and there was plenty of it. Then we headed back to Paul's place to play some Mario Party with Lauren. I barely eeked out a victory when the 3-way star tie came down to the number of coins we each had. Luckily the bonus stars were in my favor today.

I have a long drive tomorrow, so I'd better get to bed.