Although I didn’t go kayaking for the first time until I was probably a tween, it feels like there was never a time before it.
The first time I ever went was on a river with my grampa, and I brushed against the reeds and grasses so many times that I ended up with a boat full of lanky river spiders. They were crawling all up my arms and legs, and, as you can imagine, that absolutely scarred me. So although I did not give up kayaking, to this day I still prefer to stick to kayaking on open ponds.
Before 2021 the ocean seemed very far away to me.
Although it’s only just over an hour’s drive from home, my family and I rarely made our way down to it. The days and nights spent by the crashing waves of Charlestown beach were mostly during our one week of summer camping every year. We would spend all day in our hot campsite at Burlingame, just counting down the minutes until it was time to gather our towels and put on our swimsuits.
It was a salty, sandy, windswept occasion, and oh, how we’d soak up those evenings. Driving back to the campground in our damp suits, and rinsing off in the steaming-hot, coin-fed shower stall before we went to sit around a campfire…it’s a warm fuzzy memory that will forever be sitting comfortably in the back of my mind.
2004, click on the photos to enlarge them
We’ve had multiple birthdays, day-trips, and holidays since I made my resolution to start taking more candid photos (you can read my post about that here), and so far, I’ve been successful in capturing the year.
Now while Riley Mae is lugging around a 5-pound birding camera, I go on hikes equipped with a straw hat, fanny pack, and my trusty old point-and-shoot camera from 2014.
Honestly, I’d say I’m aging pretty well.
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art by jordan rae 