Kayaking on Monterey Bay

Todays adventure, kayaking! And oh my was it an adventure. :) Tyler was so wonderful to take me, I thought it would be easy and loads of fun. Well I was in for a surprise. First the kayak was much heavier that I thought it would be, they look so light (we had a double kayak). Second, trying to sync my paddling with Tyler was so hard. I was in the front because I am lighter so Tyler was supposed to follow my paddling, I was all over the place. :) Then you are supposed to go straight. Our kayake had a habit of going left. . . towards the beach. Oh well :) Once we got a mile out the waves weren't as strong, it was more swells than wave.
 So a mile out is really a mile down the shore line, we had a limit of where we could paddle and you can't go to far out in the sea but you can paddle about two miles down the shore line. Anyway, a mile down the shore is where the kelp forest starts. I have to confess it was creepy. Kelp growing up to the surface and you can't see all the way down because the water is not clear. It gave me the heebies geebies that something would pop out of no where and I would freak out and tip over! I just really do  not like deep water, even the deep end of a pool freaks me out thanks to my second grade teacher reading a story about a shark escaping an aquarium and coming in a pool from the vent in the deep end!

 Once we got to the Aquarium we saw so many otters. There are about 20 otters that live by the aquarium. Today they were not all together in a raft. A raft is a large amount of kelp on the surface that the otters float in :) Even thought they were not together we saw to mommy otters and their pups! Sooo adorable! At one point a mommy was eating something, probably a crab and she had her pup next to her in a raft of kelp so it wouldn't float away. She finished her grab and then dived down for another one, her pup was so cute just floating there waiting for it's mommy. Trivia about otter pups, they can not sink! Their fur is too fluffy for them to sink :) So they are completely safe being on the surface as the mom dives for food :)
 On our way back to the kayak rental, we saw seals! They were cute but kinda freaked me out. They are VERY curious and can get close to kayakers. One followed us for a little bit, I was not thrilled. I was worried it would scare me or bump our kayak! But we made it back with no problems :)
  All in all I did have a great time. It was hard to paddle against the current/waves but it was amazing to see the otters!