Kayaking on the Oakland Estuary

I went Kayaking with a small group of Ladies today on the Oakland Estuary. We rented Kayaks from California Canoe & Kayak [The picture above is from their website.] at Jack London Square in Oakland.

On Sundays there is a Farmers Market in Jack London Square in front of the Barnes and Noble, which incidently has a nice clean bathroom and a Starbucks. Under the Barnes and Noble there is a giant Parking Garage with Bathrooms on each end. The ladies room has four stalls and was surprisigly clean. I did not take my camera since I was planning to spend the day on a kayak.

There were a lot of cool things about the Kayaking trip. We were supposed to go to the first Alameda Bridge. I did not make it quite that far since I could not go more than 10 or 15 feet with out my Kayak turning on me. It took a while to figure out that my rudder was down and though I was not able to pull it out of the water, I did figure out how to turn it to the straight position. I made it just past the big boat (Ship?) at Coast Guard Island before turning around to head back. The water go really choppy and harder to row in but It was a lot of fun.

Along the way...

I got to see the Estuary from the water level and I was covered with Salt water.

I watched a group of teenagers training for sail boat racing. (Maybe I will try that, too.)

I was about 20 feet from a Harbor Seal until he ducked under the water.

I got to see the factories and piers from the water side for the first time.

And I got to end the day with a cup of Tea and a nice conversation...