A Great Day Off

I took a day of vacation today to volunteer at the Bolsa Chica Wetlands first kayak clean-up of the season. I used to do the clean-ups and the educational tours when I was unemployed, and I really miss everyone there. It is a great group of people who both work at the conservancy and volunteer there. So today was a good excuse to get out of the office, see everybody, get some exercise, and do good for the environment. And it was a flawlessly perfect Southern California morning: clear blue skies, high tide on glassy waters, and temperatures in the high 50s. We had eight volunteers who had never kayaked before, so I taught them the basics and set them on their way with plenty of trash bags -- and life jackets! I got to take off by myself in a 2-person kayak. That gave me a lot of extra room in the boat to load up trash. I gave myself the prize for the best thing fished out of the water: a 4-foot long traffic pylon thingy (technical term) probably used to mark a race route or block traffic from tree-cutting, along with the yellow caution tape that was wrapped around it. It was full of water and really heavy, and after a few tries, I finally hauled it into my kayak, without tipping over! WooHoo!! The really weird thing was tennis balls--tons of them! I must have picked up at least thirty balls. I'd see one floating in the middle of the bay, and I was hell-bent on getting it. I was kayaking in circles chasing after these damn balls. Another kayaker told me he picked up at least 25 tennis balls. I wondered where the tennis tourney was--and who dumped all the balls. Other than the trash, it was beautiful out there. There were lots of ducks, a great egret who made a sliding water landing right in front of me, and a bunch of jumping fish. I love being out there on these clean-up days--the only time humans can be in the restricted waters of these protected nesting grounds. It was so much better than being in the office!!