On August 13, 2000, Michael and I went kayaking at the La Jolla caves. It was great, but I was very bad at kayaking.

Michael and I have decided to take turns planning weekend activities. We're going to try to do something new every weekend. We figure that it will be fun and we'll see more of California this way. This was my first turn. I looked in the San Diego Reader (a local weekly akin to the Weekly Planet or City Paper) and found an interesting ad. It said "guided tour of the La Jolla Caves: no experience necessary".

We had a short lesson on how to paddle and how to get past the surf, we got life jackets and we met the team at the beach. I think that the Pacific Ocean water is pretty cold, especially at 10 a.m. when a breaking wave is coming directly at your face. This was the first time that we'd been in/on the water since we'd been in California. It was invigorating, but we needed to try to concentrate in order to maneuver the kayak.

Truth be told, I was a disaster in the kayak. Apparently I was "knifing" the water - - meaning that I wasn't carving the water correctly. This caused us to wobble and we tipped over. You're thinking: so what, probably happens all the time. Well, not exactly. No one else in our 17 person group tipped over. Just us, and all because of me. It was so embarrassing. Getting into the kayak a real chore. I had to try to shimmy into the boat while Michael pushed me up from the water and the guide tried to pull while simultaneously steadying our kayak and his. One time - - oh yeah, did I mention that we tipped more than once? One time I'd successfully gotten back in and I attempted to stay perfectly still. Michael hopped back in the boat, but overcompensated and over we both went again. So was that 2½ or three times that we tipped?

Let me describe the scenery. I really liked it. I could see small sharks, fish and others in the group saw sting rays below the water. In one environmentally protected area of the cove there are some salt water goldfish called "Garibaldi fish". There are some caves that go back a little way. We went into one that doesn't go back very far. We also watched snorkelers, cliff divers and other kayakers.

We had a lot of fun and managed to get a few good pictures with a disposable waterproof camera. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

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