Day 11: Sunshine Coast

Quote of the Day: "You need to die broke. The last check you write should be to the undertaker and it should bounce!"

Walking the trail

Yellow Berries

Estrella and Bev

KECH on a hike

          After falling asleep watching Sleepless in Seattle, we woke up at noon. Despite the late time of day, we began to discuss our mood (which was a bit UNDER the weather) and our options for the day.  With a small bowl of oatmeal and a cup of tea, we sat around the table hoping that we hadn’t caught any sickness from traveling or transitioning through severe weather changes. Katherine stayed back in the house during our planned activity so that she could relax and prevent any further illness. The rest of us (Bev, Christina, Haley, and I) loaded the car with the kayak supplies and the yellow kayak itself and took off to what we believed would be a day on the water. The first kayak rentals shop was closed for a short lunch break so in the meantime we took our own single-person kayak down the road for a quick spin. Our quick spin at the next nearest inlet ended with Haley’s calf far into the quick sand and resulted in her sandals breaking. Nevertheless, our experience at the inlet consisted of much more than sunken feet in the seaweed mud. Beverly, with her own personal kayaking skills, reminded (more like taught) us the fundamentals necessary to take on the kayaking challenge.  Each of us went out for a spin around the anchored boats and through the floating seaweed. After placing the kayak back on the car, we drove back to the house to pick up Katherine and my camera (which I felt empty without). We drove off to Provincial Park and looked for another kayak rental that could potentially rent us a two-person kayak for two hours rather than four hours. Seeing that the kayak owners were not yet available, we instead had a picnic lunch on the park grass by the ocean shore. Admiring the park’s variety of scenery (beach sands to green grass to forest trees) and the clearer sky, we sat around the table and shared in insightful conversation. I felt enlightened by Beverly’s knowledge and Katherine’s responses as Christina and I rested on the grass. They discussed everything from the current Spanish Revolution to nuclear arms. To Beverly’s surprise, the KECH girls were also well traveled. She was excited to learn about Haley’s Bolivian heritage, Christina’s roots to China, Katherine’s half- Korean background, and my Mexican ancestry. Bev admired our cultural awareness. Afterwards, we packed up our trash and left no crumbs behind (as Yosemite Institute had well engraved in Christina’s and my own mind).  We walked on the park trail and encountered a rushing and refreshing creek. In the midst of talking about the abundance of blackberries on the sunshine coast, Christina spotted an orange berry (apparently normal). 

            We returned to our car and back to home where we freshened up and finished cleaning our uncomfortably dirty car (between the dead bugs on the windshield and the fallen pretzels between the seats, dirty is an understatement to say the least). Dinner, once again, was awesomely well prepared and delicious. We learned more about each other’s past and hopes for the future around the dinner table and discussed our passion (and lack of interest) in books and movies. The rest of the night was relaxing. Our discussion about film motivated Katherine to record all the movies she has watched (upon Christina’s suggestion).While Katherine was absorbed on icheckmovie.com, Haley, Christina, Bev, and I finished Sleepless in Seattle and Up in the Air. Between discussing radiation related issues, the beauty of Bolivia, the difference between literature and nonfiction, and the option of VHS movies on Beverly’s organized list, the KECH girls learned about each other in a way we could have never replicated while in the bustle of a big city.

 Bests

• picnic on the coast
• forested hike
• newly clean car
• conversation at dinner
• watching Sleepless in Seattle

Worsts

• Haley breaking her sandals and getting tanned
•  not being able to Kayak today