Helmets and waivers

When Cas and I were just starting out on our journey as a couple, we spent one glorious summer going on dates.  So many dates.  Sometimes, we went on two dates a day.  I’m annoyingly into fairness and equity, so I insisted that I pay for half of the dates.  I was also a teacher with a whole darn house all to myself, which meant I had a whole darn mortgage all to myself.  Needless to say, I found lots of things to do on Groupon.  It was a time when every adventure was available there, at a discount.  These days, all I seem to find on Groupon are salon services and oil changes, but that first summer of Heather and Cas took us on an outdoor ropes course, a trapeze, some go-karts- lots of things that required a helmet, the signing of a waiver or both.  It became a joke with both my family and his.  One year for Cas’ birthday, my mother presented him with a helmet of his own, as she had surmised he was often wearing one when going out with me.  At our wedding reception, Cas’ brother Chad presented us with a pair of waivers to sign during his toast.  Needless to say, we developed a reputation as a helmet-wearing, waiver-signing couple.  Now, whenever we are presented with helmets and waivers, we get a good laugh out of it and gleefully sign away.  Yesterday, we got to do it again.  In fact, as we checked in at the desk of the kayak tour place, we were directed to scan a QR and sign a waiver before they even really talked to us.  

With that done, we marched to the back of the strip mall location and were issued wetsuits, snorkel masks, flippers, life vests and… yep.  Helmets.  I mean, we were so darn geared up.  Also, not many people in the world can really pull off the wetsuit look.  Cas and I were both pretty happy when we peeled them off three hours later.  But the gear was a good idea.  The wetsuits were immediately necessary when our kayak flipped and we were dumped out into the chilly water.  San Diego is so much cooler than you expect Southern California to be in July.  The water is quite invigorating, to say the least.  We were given a couple kayak.  We’ve always kayaked in solo boats, but this place had us paired up.  The staff pushes your boat out to the water, you hop in, and they shove you through the waves.  Unless you fall out, then they let you hop back in and give it another try.  Yep.  We fell out.  I guess that was for the best, because after that, we were all good.  But I saw the utility of the helmet at that point- though the kayak didn’t hit me in the head while flipping, it really could have.  

But we rowed to a series of caves on the side of some steep, stone cliffs.  We hopped out of our kayak and we snorkeled.  Cas loves snorkeling, and I have tried to get more into it.  I enjoy looking around under water, but I spend a lot of time trying to get used to breathing the right way, and I live in constant fear that my marginal swimming skills won’t suffice.  Is 50 too old to take swimming lessons?  Question for another day.  But I kept my life vest on and bobbed around, occasionally sticking my face into the water.  It was pretty cool, and it had the benefit of being less nerve-racking than trying to pretend I was some kind of pro.  But that was pretty evident when I struggled to get back into the kayak.  Oof.  I was not the most graceful in that one.  I had to get one of the guides to help shove me back up into the boat.  So also on my list with the swimming lessons, maybe we do a little upper body strength training.  Pulling my wetsuit-clad body out of the water, using the strength of my arms is not as easy as everyone else made it look.  I was properly embarrassed by my inability, but on the bright side, only one of the people who saw me look dumb trying to do it is going home with me at the end of this trip, and he likes me enough not to judge.  

We rounded out the day by having something that basically amounted to deconstructed sushi spread over some kind of fried wonton chip.  It was as confusing as it was delicious.  It was also perfect, as we really needed to sit down, have a bite and rest after that much rowing.  When we were sufficiently relaxed, we decided to take a city bus for a while, then hop off at a spot called Old Town.  We ended up at an outdoor plaza where a Mexican-style band played everything from Margaritaville to Credence.  We stayed for a tune or two, then hopped on a light rail train that deposited us in Little Italy, where we got back to our hotel.  I was pretty tired or wearing a swimsuit under my clothes, and I think Cas was glad to get into some regular shorts.  It was getting kind of close to dinner time, and that wasn’t far off of bed time.  We kind of used up all the energy we had on the kayak adventure, and this morning, we have some muscles reminding us that we did something completely different than usual yesterday.  When we got back into regular clothes, we went out for tacos and margaritas, then we came back to the hotel and flopped on the mattress.  Big day.  

Today, we have a sunset cruise to do later, but I think we may start out at the farmers market for a bite.  Still not sure what else happens today.  We’ve had several ideas, but we’ll decide after we eat.  But seriously- check out these helmets.