Colin leaves for Greece today, in just a few minutes. How is it time for him to leave already?!? It's 45 degrees and rainy in Boston today; it can't be summer! But our dreary weather has two effects: (1) it probably makes it easier for him to pick up and leave for somewhere with nice weather, and (2) it perfectly represents how sad I, and the rest of Colin's friends, are to see him go. This departure is particularly tough since four of Colin's classmates/friends are moving away from New Haven to be with their partners next year. I had to say goodbye to those friends when I was in New Haven last weekend, and they threw Colin another goodbye happy hour last night. As Colin put it, "today marks the end of an era." Life will be very different when Colin returns in July.
But enough of the sad stuff. I think we're all just really jealous that Colin gets to spend a quarter of the year living someplace as beautiful as Naxos.
If you follow Colin's blog, you will know that he received two origami kayaks from Oru Kayak. Oru Kayaks are made from a single piece of lightweight, pliable plastic that can be assembled from a 25-pound cube into a full-size kayak. Before taking them all the way to Greece, though, Colin wanted to be sure these things were seaworthy. We found a couple shallow, quiet streams in New Haven where we could launch the boats for their maiden voyages.
Colin actually wrote a great post about our adventures on his blog (using some photos I took along the way), so feel free to hop over there to read it. But I'll include a little photo essay over here, too.
First, the set up.
This is what we started with. This bulky cube is actually a super lightweight kayak. The only parts of the carrying case that aren't used to assemble the kayak are the black straps holding everything together! Fancy shmancy engineering, if you ask me.
Mid-process. If you thought it was stressful to assemble a kayak from a large piece of plastic, try doing it with a rapt audience peering at you from the bridge above.
The finished product!
On the water! It was decidedly not spring according to the trees. But the sky was cloudless and blue, and it was warm enough to leave our jackets in the car.
Like a good herpetologist, Colin headed towards land to hunt for wildlife. If you look closely, you can see a number of turtles sunning on the shore to the right of the kayak.
On the prowl.
I've always loved turtles and was sad when Mom wouldn't get me one for a pet. I've since learned that they're really smelly, so that was probably a good decision on her part. But I still love holding them!
Our second trip took us to Lighthouse Point Park last weekend. We learned one key thing: kayaks are much harder to assemble on sand since they slide away from you every time you try to push things together. Consequently, it still took us a while to set up the boats, even though Colin had been practicing during the week.
From the little sandy beach above, we paddled up a brackish stream for about a mile. Colin paddled around the banks looking for wildlife, but all we saw was a pair of osprey, an egret, and a ton of fiddler crabs. The stream dead-ended at the New Haven airport, so we couldn't go very far and mostly just enjoyed floating on the water on another pretty day.
But enough of the sad stuff. I think we're all just really jealous that Colin gets to spend a quarter of the year living someplace as beautiful as Naxos.
If you follow Colin's blog, you will know that he received two origami kayaks from Oru Kayak. Oru Kayaks are made from a single piece of lightweight, pliable plastic that can be assembled from a 25-pound cube into a full-size kayak. Before taking them all the way to Greece, though, Colin wanted to be sure these things were seaworthy. We found a couple shallow, quiet streams in New Haven where we could launch the boats for their maiden voyages.
Colin actually wrote a great post about our adventures on his blog (using some photos I took along the way), so feel free to hop over there to read it. But I'll include a little photo essay over here, too.
First, the set up.
This is what we started with. This bulky cube is actually a super lightweight kayak. The only parts of the carrying case that aren't used to assemble the kayak are the black straps holding everything together! Fancy shmancy engineering, if you ask me.
Starting out. But look closely! What's wrong with this picture? Oh right, the neoprene casing isn't pulled over the back end of my kayak to seal it. Colin started pushing me into the water before he realized it. He almost sank me in my boat!! Luckily, Mill River is only 8-12 inches deep in this section, so I wouldn't have sunk very far.
Success! It's some kind of painted turtle. It was not super thrilled to be out of the water, especially when Colin tucked it under the rubber straps on the kayak to paddle over towards me. It looks a little grumpy here, doesn't it?
Our second trip took us to Lighthouse Point Park last weekend. We learned one key thing: kayaks are much harder to assemble on sand since they slide away from you every time you try to push things together. Consequently, it still took us a while to set up the boats, even though Colin had been practicing during the week.
Since we couldn't paddle very far up the stream, we decided to head downstream--that is, into the ocean! We paddled a hundred yards or so along the beach to the other end of Lighthouse Point Park. It was a little choppy, but the boats held up fantastically. Totally stable and solid, despite their origami origin. We had an awesome view from the water, too--since it was so beautiful out, there were tons of kids flying kites and playing on the playground on the beach.
Sometimes I forget that both Colin and I live in coastal cities. Even though there aren't many beaches in either Boston or New Haven (this photo crops out the barges and dredges and other industrial equipment in Long Island Sound), there are small parks like this one that we just don't take enough advantage of. Now if only Colin didn't have to take these kayaks to Greece. I guess I'll get to see them again in a couple years...
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