August 28, 1999

Washington DC

Trip #46

7 Miles

MAP

Some trips aren't about distance. The sights are not important. Who cares what the weather is like. But the company is something to remember. This is one such trip.

My daughter made it clear she wanted to spend some time with her ol'man kayaking. I had been careful up to this point to always choose extremely protected water, but she was getting better and getting tired of the same old places. So today I took her to Gravely Point.

I figured we could watch the airplanes if she got bored. The first one caught her by surprise as we unloaded the kayaks from the truck. I think the loud noise may have scared her a bit but she soon turned her attention back to getting on the water. After helping her with her sprayskirt and giving her a push off, we were on our way.

As we got near the railroad bridge a train began to cross so we stopped to count the semi trailers on the back of the train. 124 trailers, which took a while to get across but Katie didn't want to continue until we finished counting.

We could soon see Roosevelt Island, which was our lunch stop destination. It would be a bit of a longer haul for her than usual, but I had my tow belt so I wasn't too concerned about the distance. She did really well and kept herself occupied by naming as many of the monuments as she could see, which wasn't a lot. We crossed the river so she could see the Lincoln Memorial a bit better.

The wind was blowing slightly against the D.C. shore and a lot of trash was floating on that side. Most of the trash was plastic bottles. This was a sharp contrast to the 15th of August, the day after a heavy rain where I found the water to be like a liquid trash heap. I suppose that the rain had washed the trash from the streets and into streams which eventually fed into the river. I had paddled through a lot of disgusting things when I saw a jelly fish! I couldn't believe my eyes so I went back and found out the fresh water jelly fish was a floating condom. Well, I guess there are advantages to rolling with the salt water jellies after all. Or at least, less disadvantages.

As we approached the Memorial Bridge the wind picked up and I had to hook up for a tow. I towed her near to Roosevelt Island out of the wind where Katie took over again. Just as we arrived at our landing site a couple and a lady with their dog and puppy appeared to play fetch with a tennis ball. We took our lunch a bit inland so as not to distract the dogs, and when we returned Katie played a little with the puppy. We returned to our boats and circled around to the west side of the island. With the wind at our backs I thought I wouldn't need to tow Katie any more, but she did ask for one between Memorial Bridge and 395. At the time I figured I had towed her a total of about 4 miles. When I got home and loaded the GPS track into the map I found I had only towed her 2 miles!

I was tired when we got back, but Katie, who yawed the first few hours on the water, was now well rested and wide awake. She played by the water as I loaded the kayaks stopping only to help me get one of the cockpit covers in place. A lady in a Loon paddled up and beached just as we were finishing up and as we drove off Katie remarked that we should have asked her how her paddle went.

This was no record breaking distance, or attempt to maintain speed. The trip did place me a few tenths of a mile from having 400 miles for the year, but even this was insignificant as spending time with Katie. Youth is so fleeting and I've watched her grow so much this summer. Before long it will be too cold for her to go and I wonder if her interest will be there next spring. For now though, I'll take what I can get.