So after a wild and woolly afternoon of mountain biking (and falling) with Gary, we got back to the cabin, took Harley for a quick walk, threw on our swimming trunks, and headed to the kayak launch deck. We'd book ourselves a 3-hour tour (not of the sinking-ship Gilligan variety, thank goodness!)
After a quick lesson in paddling and self recovery, the team at the deck helped us launch our kayaks and Mike and I, with map in hand and candy in our stuff sacks, headed off into the sun.
With no real agenda, the world was our oyster. The three hours passed quickly, and yet we managed to pack all of this in:
- We followed the shoreline of the sunshine coast, checking out coastal houses, oohing and ahhing about the size of people's decks and boats.
- We paddled in and out of small groups of islets.
- We saw a seal in the distance.
- We watched a heron stand guard.
- We saw the neatest cluster of orange-billed blackbirds from maybe 6 feet away, and they didn't even blink.
- We picked electric purple Sea Stars (starfish) off the rocks and placed them gently back
- We saw two bald eagles nesting just above our heads. They came out onto a brand and sang for us. It was beautiful.
- We bet who could put the most Sour Gummys in their mouth at one time without vomiting or crying. Mike won. Hands down.
- We splashed around.
- We raced.
- We got turned around. We misread the map. We eventually found our way back.
The water all days was a sea of small rippled. Clouds were scarce. And the sky was a minty blue.
After almost three hours, we reluctantly paddled back to the bay and to the resort, our only motivation really being that me missed Harley and we had an upcoming massage that – after a day of mountain biking and paddling – was desperately sought.
We steered into the bay, and banked our boats, thanking the outfitting company for lending them to us without a guide.
We headed quickly back to the cabin for a ball-throwing session with Harley, then put on our robes, and moseyed on down to the spa. To our delight, our massage was booked outside, in an open tent, on a cliff, over looking the ocean, as the sun set.
Yes.
It was that idyllic.
Side by side we let our respective masseuses turn us into jelly as the sun beat down on us, keeping us warm, and the laps of the ocean waves soothed our thoughts.
It was incredible.
By the time the hour was up, we were both asleep.
"Take as long as you need," said one of the masseuses as she left the tent so we could change.
We took that to mean "take as long as you want" so we lay on the tables and slept some more and enjoyed every ounce of the experience.
"Uhm, are you almost ready?" she inquired 15 minutes later.
"Oh!" we jolted awake.
Apparently, we're not allowed to adopt that massage tent as our cabin for the night.
Too bad.
We got dressed and literally shuffled back to our cabin, played a fierce game of Yahtzee, and dozed off to sleep.
Never have I slept so soundly.
