Catalina Underwater

This is the waterproof portion of our Catalina trip. Kim found these adorable little disposable Fuji cameras that come in waterproof housing. These cameras were so much fun to play with and made this great adventure very well documented. For that, I am so grateful. My first adventure out into the ocean with my wife on a kayak... :)

A little bird decided to float alongside us for awhile. And this water... so very blue!

We could see the bottom of the ocean floor from our boat, but we couldn't touch it with our 8' paddles, so it was a bit deeper than it looks. We just stuck the camera in the water a few times and shot blindly in the direction ahead of us. I'm surprised at how well these cameras rendered these scenes.

We even saw some little fishies! Bright orange fellas!

And some little grey fellas - these guys were super friendly and came right up in my face a couple of times. I know they are hard to see, because they blended in so well, but there are a handful of little guys here just a few feet away.

We beached the kayak on a quiet little beach and decided to go for a swim. This led to some super fun underwater portraits!

Me, by Kim. :)

Our beach!

Another pair of kayakers floated by and this one boat was empty and anchored just off shore. The solitude of this place was just amazing.

An underwater / above water selfie! :)

My fun wife! The goggles came in super handy to see the fish that were playing in the water with us!

We spent a good hour just letting the waves hit us and throw us around. These moments... life is just good.

Best birthday ever. This woman makes life so happy for me. And I love that we get to have these new, exciting, ridiculous experiences together... we never stop growing and learning and trying and exploring.

Fuji Quicksnap Waterproof, ISO 800, Developed by Alpine Film Lab!

An Island Birthday

I had a really new experience for my birthday this year. My first birthday in California, so it was an appropriate celebration. We took an hour long boat ride over to the island of Catalina. We climbed aboard the Catalina Flyer in the Dana Point Harbor and floated off to a little island getaway...

Bye bye Orange County, disappearing on the horizon.

And hello Catalina, appearing on the opposite side! :)

A friendly passenger saw me snapping all kinds of photos, and offered to take a quick shot of us together. One benefit of a cheap little plastic camera with only one button... you can hand it to just about anyone and get a good photo. :)

Pulling into the colorful harbor of Avalon in Catalina!

We stopped for a quick lunch at some little pub, then took a stroll along the edge of the land to get down to Descanso Beach to rent our kayak. It took weeks of my wife convincing me, and my own researching every aspect of kayaking in the ocean, to agree to possibly go do this. Once we got there, it looked reasonable enough, so we jumped right in. We rented a little two seater kayak, packed our necessities into a dry bag, and jumped onboard!

This is the beach where we landed our little ship! There are a multitude of photos from out on the water, but they will follow in another post. These are the not-waterproof-camera photos. :)

Wife and boat, on our own little beach.

A snack break on the beach. We paddled up to this island, then back out into the water, and then returned to this beach later for a break. We swam in the water, played in the waves, watched fish swim right up to our faces, and sat in the sun. This was really my first real "romp" in the ocean. I've never really let the water get much above my waist. This time, I was getting tossed by little waves, wearing goggles and swimming with fishies, and even got scuffed up by the rocky ground. It was so much fun.

Back on dry land, we changed into dry clothes and walked around a little. We stopped for some ice cream and made our way to our boat for our trip home.

Our ride pulling into the slip.

The trip back home was a beautiful sunset show!

So long for now, Catalina, we'll be back.

Superheadz UWS, Fuji Superia 400, developed by Alpine Film Lab.

Instant Storm Simon

Big waves and a gorgeous sunset. Storm Simon came to Huntington Beach for a few days.