Apple orchard

Today I found myself paddling across Tomales Bay by kayak with a group of friends. We scared up some boats from the guy who knows how to get things, while Sea Bass and Caitlin packed us a lunch. We set out like a band of pirates across the bay, over the kelp bed where the dragons (and sharks!!!) hide and paddled to our new island.

Climbing and sardines and kelp wars, a game of big booty and 1 beer later, we paddled to the other side of the bay for lunch. Sea Bass called Stick War! And the boys all grabbed sticks and fought to the death. We bouldered around the crumbling rock, using barnacles for foot holds and scraping our feet against the stone for balance. Scraped bodies, breathing in the sun we were happy as clams.

We fought a mean wind on the way back, though the thrill of surfing waves and feeling the swells of the water outweighed the burning in our arms and frustration of being blown backwards and in circles. The other double kayak almost sank; we submarined ours in the back of a wave and almost went in.

We finished the day with a swim in the pool and a soak in the hot tub in the apple orchard at Sea Bass's. he played bar tender and we threw apples into the pool for apple bobbing, and pulled them directly off of the tree for a taste of early summer bitter sweetness. It was the kind of day you want to have everyday. The kind of day spent playing with good friends in the sun, a kiss under the apple trees. It felt good to feel the breeze on my mostly bare skin, to close my eyes and feel the sun and see the warm pink glow of the afternoon on my eyelids; to breath in the all the smells of warming raspberry leaves and grass and apples.

A game of ultimate frisbee carried us to a sushi bar where we filled our bellies. On the walk back we picked apples and plums and blackberries for dessert before we headed home to wash the remainder of the salt off our bodies and climb into bed.