Patterson Reunion Wednesday July 6
Great Dave, Great Lucie, Little Lucy, and Pat went to the UCSC
botanical garden, and saw many California and Australian displays.
The rest of kayaked the Elkhorn Slough again, but this time we rode the
tides. We started at the Moss Landing Harbor at low tide, and then rode
it to Kirby Island, about 4 miles away. Since we went from side to side
to see things, we probably paddled 5 miles. Based on last year, it was
much easier going with the tides and without a headwind, even if we
went a longer distance.
We saw lots of otters, harbor seals, herons, brown
pelicans, white pelicans, baby seagulls, and “LBBs,” The latter
stands for Little Brown Birds, which are sand pipers and sandlings that
are so hard to distinguish that the professionals just count them as
LBBs. There was even an otter who thought he was a harbor seal,
as he slept on the beach with scores of other seals instead of floating
in the water with his kin. Where do you find an otter family counselor?
We also saw a rare “Skimmer” bird in the Slough, which the guide had
only seen once before. It flies just above the water and can drop its
beak to grab a fish without slowing down.
We even tried eating some pickle grass, just to prove that we could
survive in the wild if we were left on our own. (However, some of us
would require the wilderness version of the Toto washlet.)
There was also a fair amount of kayak humor on the water, which
typically involved flipping up the rudder, the occasional decoration
the other kayakers with seaweed, and then a helpful sharing of water to
clean the other kayak.
