Kayaking on Catalina

 One of the things I really wanted to do on Catalina, was go ocean kayaking. The kayaking I do is really just paddling around and site seeing, but I enjoy it. It doesn't remotely resemble the white water, flip over stuff. I have to say this was my favorite part of our trip. I really enjoyed seeing the wildlife.

 We were told that due to a "squidapalooza" ( a lot of squid in the water), they were inundated with sea lions, dolphins and pelicans this week. It was awesome for us. As we kayaked, we were pretty constantly surrounded by these guys, diving, and popping up to look at us. It was cool. We also saw dolphins, but it wasn't until someone told us how to distinguish what we were seeing that we knew that for sure.

 A pelican flying by. It is a big bird! I was strongly discouraged from bringing my camara along, just in case, I got it wet or tipped over. And while I got pretty wet on my lower half, I was able to keep my camera safe between me and my life vest.
As we paddled along, I looked up at the cliff and saw a pair of bald eagles! How cool is that? The photos are blurry, I had to zoom a long ways, plus I was bobbing up and down, but I had to include them anyway. We later heard that the Eagles had died out and had only been reintroduced a decade or more ago. They have 7 nesting pairs now and about 28 eagles. How cool that we got to see some! They are just getting ready to hatch eggs soon. You can watch them on a live cam at : www.iws.org

 The two paddlers/

 Beautiful scenery.

 Another visitor. It was hard to catch them. They were up and down pretty quick.

 The Eagles!