Sunday, January 24, 2016

Kayaking

The weekend came and it was time to go on my third date with Calvin.


Calvin found out from a conversation we had that I ha never been kayaking. He took it upon himself to take me. It's one of his hobbies, he even owns a kayak that he got on one of his vacations in Hawaii. He told me that he was going to use his kayak and was going to rent one for me. I had done my own research on kayaking and knew by then that we could get a two person one. I would've felt much safer that way considering I can't swim. Plus, I thought that would be romantic. I pitched that idea and he liked it. He hadn't thought about it. See, Cal! You need me!


I was to meet up with Calvin at his. He was going to drive us to Sunset beach. I was looking forward to it for more reasons than one: I'd always wanted to go to Sunset Beach because I followed the soap opera, Sunset Beach. Have you? I still remember Meg and her eyebrows and the hot Ben and his evil twin.


I arrived at Calvin's nice and early. He made us breakfast on the barbecue. We had talked about prickly pear before. I am from a part of Uitenhage fondly called eTolofiyeni (prickly pear in Xhosa - my mother tongue), named after all the prickly pear that grows naturally in that area. Calvin being the plant doctor that he is, he knows all the trees in the world. He  made us nopales, I didn't even know you can eat that! I only know it of it's medicinal purposes, it's an anti-inflammatory, you warm it up over some fire or the stove, wrap it up on a thin cloth or napkin and put it on the swollen area. These are the 'leaves' of the prickly pear tree, not the fruits themselves. When they are completely dry, off season, they are great to start a fire. They are nice and light and airy. That's the farm girl in me, not the Beverly Hills side. Never forget your roots! No pun intended. I enjoyed the cactus, it has a very different taste. I can't compare to anything I ate before.  I sent pictures to my cooking sister, she asked for the recipe. She wants to try it too, because, like me, she didn't know you could cook it.


After breakfast, we headed out to The OC. That's where the beach we were going to kayak in is. I was anxious. I really cannot swim. Now, I'm gonna have to ride it out in the middle of the ocean. Is this a good idea? Fck yeah!  Why not?


We went and rented safety vest and a kayak. Calvin bought himself a new vest to replace his. Apparently he lent it to someone who never returned it. Poor blue eyed, Cal! We took off our shoes and got on the boat. Oh Lord, have mercy! This is it, Brookie, do or die! We kayaked in the Huntington harbor. It's nice and quiet over there, just kayakers like us! I was excited to be, once again, doing something I had never done before. And to be with this guy that I was getting more and more fond of my the minute! It was a good day.


Calvin taught me how to paddle, I did ok. We then did it together, I did one side, while he did the other, like one was doing left, the other was dong right. It was fun. I felt like I was on one of those cool The Bachelor dates. Only, I already got the rose on a previous on-on-one haha. Yeah, I just quoted reality TV.


We kayaked deeper and deeper into the see. We passed one or two bridges over us. It was cute. Kinda like being in Venice under that romantic bridge. I still need to go there, by the way. Have you been?


After a nice round of kayaking, before we went too deep, I was ready to turn back. While on our way to, Calvin took over the paddling and paddles so fast, the boat was rocking so hard! I was so scared. I was that person screaming so loud, when everyone was having a chill time. It would have been embarrassing if I embarrassed easily, but I don't, so all good! I did freak the freak out though. I was certain, I was about to drown!


After the kayaking experience, check! we returned the kayak and my safety vest and headed to the reggae place. It's a nice restaurant not too far from where we were. We found a nice parking spot, saw a clothing rack outside a store, went to check it out. They had a 50% off sale on some of their items. Calvin told me to pick something I wanted. I didn't want anything, plus they had nothing in my size. I told him that I would have loved a sarong if they had one, but they didn't. We saw a nice, vintage Lincoln parked close by. Calvin's first car was a Lincoln, he still speaks fondly of it, so he posed for pictures on the random one we saw in the parking lot. Nice shots with a couple of palm trees in the background. I made one of them black and white. It looked even cooler. I later sent it to him.


We walked into the restaurant. It was packed. It's really cool inside, it has fish ponds, if I remember well, they have fake plants around the fish pond, it looks very like you're on vacation somewhere, so, of course, we posed for pictures in front of all that. I was wearing this house dress, that I had taken along with me to get comfortable in after out date at Cal's. It was turned out to be too hot for the outfit I had on, so I immediately changed as soon as I got to Cal's. That's what I ended up having on all day. We had drinks in the restaurant, by the bar. My gosh, it was so packed! I had virgin Pina Colada, Calvin had something exotic, he always does. He knew I don't drink, so he took a sip in my drink to check if there was no alcohol before he passed it on to me. I thought that was so sweet. The drink was delicious!


After that, we went towards the side where they play live music. We had to pay to go in there. We arrived just as the band was setting up. Apparently, the band is from the same town Bob Marley is from in Jamaica. Do that info what you will! I have heard that when some South Africans come to The US, they claim to be related to Nelson Mandela, so hey. I had ribs for lunch. So, so good! They were falling off the bones. We were the first ones in that side of the restaurant. It got packed in no time there too! In about an hour, the band finally started to play! Just as they did, Calvin grabbed my hand and took me to the dance floor. I loved how he didn't even give me time to think about it! We danced and dance and danced. We danced to about three songs, none stop. It was a great! A lot of the people were on the dance floor, there were a lot of interesting dance moves, but who's to judge? all clean fun!


We stayed for about an hour after the band started playing, most of which was us waiting for the waitress to bring the check (bill). We, or should  I say, Calvin paid and we headed back to LA. It was a day well spent.


We arrived at his place. I was already comfortable in my house dress.


Calvin's friends came by. They went straight to the backyard. He has a nice situation in the back, big park table with attached benches, they all sit there and chill. I laid in bed and told Cal to go enjoy his friends and wake me up at a certain hour. He would keep coming in to check on me every 20 minutes. That was sweet. I would sometimes pass out and feel a kiss on my forehead while I was in lala land.


That evening, he came to lie in bed next to me. I was gonna get up later and drive home. I don't know what happened but I woke up from a deep sleep at midnight with Calvin passed out next to me. I went, 'Oh my Gosh!' He woke up and said, "Oh my gosh!" I told him it was midnight. I couldn't even ask him why he didn't wake me up, he was out as well. He told me not to drive home at midnight but to spend the night. We got under the blanket and went to sleep. Like two babies.



















9 comments:

  1. Must have been loads of fun. I have done river rafting. And we did it in rough waters. I can just imagine how exhausted you were. And I am sure you were sore from peddling too. Good work out.

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    1. It was tons of fun! Can you swim? I would've died.
      I was, girl! I did most of the paddling. I think Calvin wanted me to feel useful lol

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    2. Yes i swim well. Lol you must learn how to swim. You will live kayaking more.

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    3. If I wasn't staying inland I promise you I would have learned how to surf by now.

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    4. I know girl! It's in my to do list.
      I'd like to surf and skimboard. Oh and dive with sharks.
      When you go on vacation, you can take a surifing. Make a date of it

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    5. The only reason I haven't learned how to scuba dive is the fear sharks. Oh and running out of oxygen while down there. Surfing I would definitely do

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    6. I know right but what if the oxygen tank runs out?

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