So, I’m sure you all want to know all about the family and what we have been up to. I am writing this on the train to Glasgow to start our tour of Scotland. I am going to try to get caught up on the blogs since I have 6 hours. So I need to start where I left off. On Thursday morning all I could think about was how the family was going to make it from the Manchester airport to Bangor. It shouldn’t have been too hard, but they are from I.O.W.A (Idiots out wandering around) so I could help but worry. Needless to say they made it no problem (but I will get to that later).
So back to Thursday. I knew we would be doing some water activity because that is all we had left on our list of things to do. So, in knowing we would be playing in the water, I wore my swimming suit, I’m sure glad I did. The day was pretty crappy/rainy/misty/hazy when I got up. So a typical Welsh day. Sad par was, I told the family the forecast was supposed to be beautiful. You just can’t trust the forecast around here I guess! Anyways, Llion told us we were going to be playing in the Menai Strait and it was up to us on the equipment we wanted to use. We could take the canoes out or the kayaks. Since we had done the canoes already we voted to go with the kayaks. Now, I’ve been kayaking before but these kayaks were unlike anything I had been in before. These were sea kayaks so they were narrow and long. We had to sit in the kayaks on land and adjust where the foot plate was and then we launched.
The day out of the Menai was filled with lots of paddling on one side of the kayak. My kayak liked to drift to the left so my left arm got a hell of a workout trying to correct myself. The kayaks were all pretty spinny and sensitive to our paddling. It took most of us quite awhile to get used to it. By the time we paddled how I was able to go in a straight line for the most part. We were paddling with the tide, or so Llion told us, but that was iffy at times. The Menai Strait is like a river but it is connected to the sea so it changes direction of flow with the tides. Everywhere there is a stationary object in the water, the water is flowing in one direction on one side and the opposite direction on the other. This gave us a chance to play around and do some fun stuff. We got to learn how to paddle into the ‘eddies’ as they are called and swing our back ends around real fast and make like a u-turn with the changing direction of the water. We paddled quite a ways and the water wasn’t doing exactly what Llion it to be doing so we stopped for lunch. After we finished lunch we headed back out, and by this time the water had changed directions. It was really nice because we got to move with the current. We did some more playing around in the water. There was one spot where the water was really churning but Llion didn’t warn us. It was hard to see that the water was churning until you were in it. Llion said all of our faces were priceless. We all did fine though. We used all the techniques Llion taught us and no one managed to capsize. Leaning is a big deal when kayaking. If you lean the wrong way it is really easy to capsize, but most of the time you use the leaning to your advantage to help your turn. Eventually, all 8 of us held onto each other’s kayaks and we just floated with the current. It was really relaxing and calming. We all just kind of sat there and shot the shit. All we really needed was an ice cold beer and the day would have been perfect. I think Llion would have joined us too. Once we got close to the dock there was a man made tunnel we could paddle into, so we did. It was really cool and Llion told us at one time if was used as a swimming pool. After we docked, Riley and I decided we wanted to get wet. We had wet suits on so we figured we may as well put them to good use. So Riley and I jumped off the end of the dock twice. They water was freeing but it was so much fun.
The whole time we were floating I kept wondering if the family had managed to find their way to Bangor. If all went well they would have arrived on the train at 1:30. The train goes over one of the bridges we paddled under and a little after 1:30 I brought up the fact that if they made it they would have been on that train. I shouldn’t have worried about them because as soon as I got back to the center my phone rang and it was them. I was never so excited to hear my mom’s voice. She told me everything was ahead of schedule and they actually got into Bangor earlier than they planned. Les (the guy that runs the B&B they stayed at actually wasn’t there because I told him it would be around 2 when they got there. So, like the friendly people they are, they started wandering around and the guy who lives next to the B&B let them in. They sat there and shot the shit until Les came back. They have no problems making new friends in new places.
So after I got back, I got all cleaned up and finally met them at a pub around 5. Everyone looked great and of course they were enjoying a nice cold drink. We enjoyed a nice meal at Yates with our nice cold drinks that tasted oh so good after a hard day’s work (well travel and kayaking). We were trying to decide what to do for the rest of the night; take a guess what they wanted to do (and I can’t say I disagreed)? They wanted to hit some pubs and keep drinking. I knew of a few good places. We hit up the discount booze just in case we needed it to drink at the B&B. We dropped off the booze and then headed toward the pier. The sun was just setting so I thought it would be beautiful. It was already closed but they got a taste of the beauty of Bangor. The day actually ended up being quite nice after the rain went away.
After the pier we stopped at the Tap and Spiel pub for a drink. While there we played a game of pool. I had played pool over here before and it just isn’t the same. The balls and holes are smaller and there are red and blue balls instead of the multicolored stripes and solids like we are used to at home. I warned them that the last time I played, it was a never ending game, but we tried anyways. Just like the last time, it was a never ending game. It was mom and I versus dad and Aggie. We did have a lot of fun, but it felt like we played FOREVER! The family swore that Les said to say his name at the Tap and Spiel because they knew him, but they must have been wrong because no one seemed to know who Les was. We headed back towards the B&B when we walked past another pub; when we looked in the window there was Les! So we stopped in and had a round with him. It was a cute little place where we sat and shot the shit with some locals. Judy even found a few that would speak Welsh for the camera. We then made our way back to the B&B to have a few more. Eventually we were asked to keep it down; we just don’t know how to not have a good time! Aggie, Pat and Mom refused to let me walk home by myself, even though I had done it a million times before. So they walked me up Bitch Hill. Then I was worried that they wouldn’t be able to find their way back to the B&B, but they managed.
The half day that I got to spend with the family was awesome! The next post will pick up right where this one left off.
Until next time…
~Amy
No comments:
Post a Comment