kayaks are my friends

you'll have to forgive me.....

....i was going to sit down and pound out this entry three hours ago. "wake me up when the pictures are ready to post," i said. instead, my photoshop guru (i, quite honestly, have no idea how to resize my pictures) fell asleep.

so, i guess you'll have to come back to check out some of the 150 or so (i was quite restrained, i think) pictures from our kayaking adventure. in the meantime, i can bore you with details:

~there is something like a 16% sales tax in lake havasu city, arizona. no, you do not get kissed first. (not even a handshake, generally, and you should not waste your time looking for a nice bouquet of flowers or a thank you note in the morning.)

~we used wacko for this excursion, and i highly recommend them if you're planning on being in the area.our kayak rental (plus the shuttle up to the starting point and back to the hotel from the end of our voyage) cost us $45 each. (flowers and thank you notes were not necessary.)

~since i had no desire to be trapped in a flipped kayak, we requested the kind you sit on top of. (don't worry, i'm sure i took at least 12 pictures of the kayak alone.) i am proud to report that when i wound up immersed in the colorado, it was my idea, not the kayak's. (yay, me!)

~along our route (topock gorge south to castle rock), we saw a series of indian pictographs, several really cool rock formations, about 100 chicks in bikinis, and (estimating here) 150 or so implants. (i'll have to double check that last figure with the boys in our expedition, who were certainly paying more attention to that sort of thing than i was.)

so, after a wobbly start, which smoothed out into an enjoyable trip, i'm ready for another round of kayaking. during the 3 1/2 hour drive back, i read an article in national geographic traveler about a island off of belize where one could kayak in crystal blue waters. if i start saving up now, perhaps i'll be able to afford the $1400 price tag in a year or two.

next time, however, i will keep a few important things in mind:

~sunblock hands. (they're just a little pink right now.) ankles could probably use a little spf 30, too. (ouch)

~find a slightly less ugly hat. (it kept the sun off my face, but i'm sure i look like a total dork in my pictures. i don't consider myself to be a particularly vain person, but i need a slightly more stylish- yet still practical- chapeau next time.)

~post expedition, consuming two large tacos and a tasty seafood chimichanga all in one sitting may not be the wisest idea. (huge gas bubble about an hour later.... though the food was quite tasty at the time.)

as i mentioned earlier, i have pictures of just about everything (except the seafood chimichanga), which i'll try to put up in the next day or two.

stay tuned for tomorrow's adventure- either hiking around phoenix or down to degrazia's museum outside tucson, followed by an attempted border crossing in search of pesos and cheap tacos.

adios, amigos.

**update (uh, yeah...just a few months later- i'm a little behind on my photo posting duties)


scenery along the colorado


stowaways! bodhi, f-stop, and alaska the gnomads.
that anklet bit the dust on a hike a couple of days later.


kayaking's not supposed to be glamorous, is it? if so, i believe i've failed miserably.


i am pleased to report that bodhi has since learned his lesson: don't drink and dive.



the views were amazing.


see? glamorous.


scenic overlook by the hidden pictographs...makes you want to jump in, doesn't it?


not very toned, but having a great time, and that's what's important, isn't it?


as you can see, the gnomads really pulled their weight on this excursion.