Kayak Escape

It’s hot, hot, hot here. But it’s not too hot when you’re on the water!

Today I abandoned my laptop and took Abby to Zilker Park, where we ponied up ten dollars and hopped into a kayak. I’ve never kayaked before, and I have no idea why — it was glorious! Like being in a glass-bottomed boat — but quiet, only the splash of your paddle in the water. The mayflies (I think they’re mayflies) are everywhere right now, hanging from the willows and water hemlock like a second set of leaves, than billowing up in grayish clouds when a bird or a breeze disturbs them. From a distance, they look like dandelion seeds on the wind — magical. (To me, anyway — Abby wasn’t too crazy about the ones who landed on her bathing suit.)

It was hot on the trail, but sweet, cool and shady under cottonwoods, sycamores, and pecan trees. (Particularly with all of the water running off the paddle into my lap.) We passed over an underwater forest of hydrilla and other aquatic plants, like extra-tall aqueous pine trees, swaying in the current, and little fish (perch? I should know) darting between them, joined occasionally by a bass or positively prehistoric alligator gar. Wow, they’re huge — tan with brown polka-dots, a long narrow jaw — and the marvelous thing about kayaks is that you just glide right over them, and they hardly notice you! And turtles, turtles, everywhere — including Snappy the alligator snapping turtle.

I’ve walked around that lake hundreds — probably thousands — of times, but saw it in an entirely new way today. (We even paddled over to my favorite ‘thinking spot’ — the voodoo pew on the other side of the lake.) And I’ll have to do it again.

(Tomorrow, however, it’s back to the keyboard…)

Oh — and by the way — the Cozy Chicks blog is up! Lots of fun stuff coming down the pipeline…