Saying it's been a beautiful October is quite the understatement. In fact, the best beach days of the year were on the first few days of this month - five foot waves and 80 degree weather at Misquamicut, with water still warm enough to spend an hour bodysurfing. It's cooled off a bit since then, but the sun has been shining and it's been great to be outdoors. Yesterday I enjoyed the day by going kayaking for the first time. It was a four-hour historical tour of the Mystic River on rented kayaks, down to Six Penny Island and then back, a distance of six miles or so, with stops here and there to learn about the significant colonial-era events. I find history fascinating, so this was a great combination of exercising the mind and the body. Kayaking was a lot of fun, especially once the water became choppy at the mouth of the river. It wasn't completely foreign to me, as I've done a bit of river canoeing with my best friend Jf, including one time when we brilliantly misjudged the amount of daylight we had and ended up finding our was back in the pitch black. We did manage to find our boat launch that time, after a few heavy impacts with some rocks we couldn't see. The canoe (since named "The Noreen" after his wife) held up pretty well, considering.
P.S. Here's a pic of me actually on the kayak, courtesy of the Conn. Coastal Kayaking folks.