I do work on my day off...

Some people say it's dangerous to have a "fun" job, because eventually, it won't be fun anymore. I work for a kayaking company. And I go kayaking on my day off. This might not last for long if "what they say" is true.

On my last day off, Stephanie and I paddled in Sitka Sound. Alison and John let us rent kayaks for free, as long as we don't use ones they need for tours. The above picture was taken on Abalone Island, one of the many small, uninhabited islands in Sitka Sound. It was a beautiful, sunny day, but it was also very windy. That usually happens in Sitka. The cloudy days are calm and the sunny days bring convection winds (the sun heats the land, warm air rises...the uneven warm/cool of the air causes wind. Am I right?)

We decided to paddle into the wind, so the wind would be at our backs on the return journey. It took 2 hours to get from Crescent Harbor to Abalone. It was pretty rough. The whole time I was thinking, "I better be burning A LOT of calories right now. And my arm and ab muscles BETTER be really toned after this." (I sound high maintenance, but that was the only thing that kept me sane as I paddled 2 hours in a headwind.)

But the island was nice. We settled down on the beach, sheltered from the wind by some volcanic rocks. We ate our picnic lunch and did some beach-combing. Abalone is a great beach for this. It's very rocky and since the tides change so dramatically, lots a cool shells get washed up and dried out. Abalone, clam, periwinkles, dogwinkles, anemone skeletons, sea glass, limpets, etc. Some beach booty:

Also while we were at Abalone, we saw an eagle snacking on a rock:

There are soooo many eagles here, and we've seen a few nests on some of the islands in the sound. They often make nests in dead trees, because there's no foliage to get in the way of their view. They like to see what's going on around them. Something I didn't know before I got here: Eagles mate for life. And the same couple will come back to the same nest every year. They continue to add sticks and such to the nest year after year. Those nests get really heavy. There was an eagle nest in Florida that was built on a rock ledge. The nest became so heavy that the rock ledge broke. Supposedly, it weighed 2000 lb.
I'm looking forward to more paddling this week, as I have 3 days off in a row! May is a slow month for cruise ships...