Wrangler Dani

You might remember a very long time ago when I bought Louise, my sunshiney ocean kayak. Adam and I have gone on numerous adventures with Thelma (his kayak) and Louise – down the Grand Canyon, numerous early-morning harbor tours, Mission Bay, Newport Harbor, one excrutiatingly long paddle from Dana Point to San Clemente, the Salton Sea, Lake Perris and I’m sure many more that I’m just not remembering at the moment.

Now, however, it might be time for Thelma to move on and Thelma 2.0 to step in. You see, Thelma is a Cobra Kayak, a cheaper and less-snazzy sit-on-top ocean kayak. She’s been wonderful for our many adventures, but she has two drawbacks: she doesn’t have a lot of storage (making overnight trips difficult) and she isn’t as well suited for fishing as a Hobie kayak like Louise.

So, we’re considering investing in a new Hobie (either an Outback or a Pro Angler) so that Adam can fish away to his heart’s content and (dream of my heart!) we can go on a multi-day paddle trip somewhere exciting. A couple of weeks ago we tried out the Pro Angler in Dana Point Harbor, and while it was sturdy and generally beautiful, it was also GINORMOUS, very heavy and a bit unwieldy for one man and his weak wifey to haul around. So we’re going to test out the Outback this weekend and hopefully we’ll have better luck with it.

Kayaking has long been a passion of mine and more of a vehicle for Adam to catch fish and be outside than anything else. However, in the last few months, both of us have gotten downright obsessed with kayaking and have been going for any excuse at all. I’m very hopeful that a bigger kayak will lead us to even better adventures.

The weather is perfect today – a soft breeze, warm sun, I can smell the salt water from here and I even think I hear a sea lion, down in the water. Tonight we’re making fish tacos (from the bass Adam caught yesterday!) and tomorrow we’re going to try out a new kayak. Yippee ki yay – Summer is here!