Kayaking

Rachel and I went kayaking this afternoon after the hangout. Nicole had found a Kayak Pittsburgh outfit at Lake Elizabeth, on the north side, not far from the aviary or the Children's Museum (for those who've been). But when we got there, there was some kind of festival going on, and a two- to three-hour wait to get a kayak. We decided to drive up to North Park, where there's another Kayak Pittsburgh outfit. There, we still had to wait for more than an hour, because they were initially short of tandem kayaks, and then when the kayaks came back, they were short of children's life vests. But in the end, the wait was worth it.

I paddled Rachel all around the lake, including under a bridge and into a little arm where we saw a blue heron, first standing in the water under a tree, then squawking and flying behind us to land on the other side of the water. We paddled back under the bridge and headed toward the spillway, and there was another heron (or possibly the same one) standing there as well.

We spent just under an hour on the water, and I think Rachel enjoyed it. She trailed her hand in the water for a while. She wasn't very happy when I splashed her with the paddle, though. I probably shouldn't have done that. But she splashed me first.

Kayak Pittsburgh has a third outfit under the bridge by the baseball park. We might try that some time, too. In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't settle for Lake Elizabeth. It's tiny, and there's not a lot to see from the water.