"They sound like idiots"

For several months now, I have been bugging Brandon to take me kayaking. We thought our honeymoon would be a perfect time. We called the kayak rent shop and asked about conditions vs. skill level and such. He said the sea was a bit choppy and that, especially since we were inexperienced to sea kayaking, it would be difficult to row against the current and wind, but you should be fine.

"Is the bar open today?" I asked. (The bar, for those who don't know, is a place where the river and ocean meet. On days that is it open, boats are allowed to roam the sea, on days that it is closed boats must remain in the harbor area.)
"Yep, it's open" he said.

Brandon and I felt pretty dang cool clad in our rented wet suits and carrying a tandem kayak down toward the harbor. We had to wind down a stair case, passing several people who, no doubt, were thinking to themselves, "They must be so hardcore. If only we were as cool as that."
I figured I'd be nervous, but it was worth the adventure. It wasn't that bad actually. It was really fun rowing out and getting comfortable with the rhythmical waves and it was even cooler once we left the Depoe Bay Harbor and got out into the open ocean.

Now, let me explain something. This is no river kayak; as dinky as those are, sea kayaks are even more so. There are no sides to a sea kayak. It's as though you are in a very narrow canoe with a cover over it, so that the place you sit is almost level with the edge. There isn't anything that you sit into (there there were some chair-like things that you strap, simply just for you to have something to lean back against). So it really is just you and the sea and nothing in-between.

As we got farther out, the waves turned into swells, but we were still having a ton of fun (mostly because we felt so hardcore). Before too long, we capsized. But not a big deal, we were very calm and climbed back in (which proves to be rather tricky). Right after, a whale watching boat drove by and asked if we were doing alright (which, of course, we were) and advised us not to go any father out: the wind was picking up and the swells were getting bigger.

In the course of turning around, we capsized again and as we were just about back in the kayak we flipped over a third time. Bu calm and cool we remained. At this point, the swells were...oh somewhere between 6 and 8 feet. I successfully climbed back in, but Brandon couldn't: the swells were too frequent. The same whale watching boat made a circle around us and announced, "We're coming to pick you up." While I was thinking, "that is a great idea" Brandon was thinking, "Now, I will just swim to shore, tugging Angela and the kayak."

We climbed into the boat, saw a whale (which, turns out, we were headed right towards in our kayak), and then were returned to harbor. Once we unloaded, the Coast Guard came to talk to us. After checking our condition, they told us the bar was closed that day and asked us where we got the kayak. Fortunately, he did not fine us the $1100.00 for disobeying the rules, since we didn't know, and got upset that the same shop continuously rents kayaks out to inexperienced people and tells them the ocean is safe for the day. And then he let us go.

Since we still had the kayak and wet suits, we kayaked around the harbor for a while, which had plenty of sea life, and ran into a few people who asked, "Are you the couple that was kayaking out in the sea??" Yeah, that's right, we're famous.

To top it off, we told Marshall (Brandon's brother) this story, who just happened to go out to Depoe Bay the following day to show a friend the Oregon Coast. They went on a whale watching trip, and were chatting with the captain who said, "Yeah, you never know what you'll find out here in the ocean: whales, kayakers,..."
Marshall: "You saw kayakers?"
Captain: "Yeah, just a few days ago. We had to pick them up; the sea was dangerous."
Marshall: "They sound like idiots!"
Captain: "Yeah."

Either way, we felt cool. Perhaps we should have been nervous...