Well, another perfect day! I tried to beat the kids out of the house this morning, so they wouldn't follow me, but ended up putsing around the house too much, doing dishes, etc, so didn't get out until noon....the kids were all out playing already and wanted to follow me. I told them I was going off by myself today, though and headed down to the beach and out past the big tall rocks, to blow up my kayak (figured at least there I would be more alone). I did figure out how to blow up my kayak- I had rigged up my pump with a funnel to accommodate the larger hole, and finally figured out that the side panels had two different ways of opening- one way to let air OUT and one way to only let it IN. I tried to frustrate myself for awhile trying to get a full boat of air while pumping it through the release air hole....While I had started out with a perfectly calm ocean, by the time I finished, the wind had picked up a bit, and the waves had white caps on them....but- why come all that way to turn around before trying my new boat? I tried to get my boat a little further out, so it wouldn't scrape on the rocks so much, but the waves kept knocking it into shore before I could push off...and there was no way I was going to get far without putting on my spray skirt first- so I wrestled with that just a little bit, then used my hands to try and lift the boat from under me a little and push myself off....once I got going, though, it was smooth sailing! The waves went right over my kayak and didn't tip me at all. That little boat is quite steady! The only thing I really had to watch for were some rocks that came up and scraped my boat if I was on the down part of a wave.....i stayed pretty close to shore, as I didn't want to have a hard time getting back to shore- so I only went a couple hundred yards out. Surprisingly, the ocean was quite shallow there. At least in the little bay that I was playing in- quite a few spots my paddle could still touch! I hadn't been how sure I would like the ocean waves, as I had only really kayaked on the rivers- with few boats during flooding times to make waves- and Lake Superior one time, but on a very calm day with only a few big rolling waves. Surprisingly, I REALLY enjoyed playing in the waves, though! It was exciting and fun. I did get pretty wet, but the sun was pretty warm out and it didn't bother me. I wasn't sure how far out I should go though, so didn't go too far my first time, and then landed back where I had started. I put the carrying bag that my kayak came in, inside my kayak, took apart my paddle and tied it to my backpack, and carried my boat over my head back through town and home again. It wasn't very heavy...just a little bit like a sail though =) On the way home I saw Mark, who invited me over for pizza, so after washing the salt off my boat, I headed over to his house to visit and play with Sadie. I took a couple self-timer pictures with my camera to share...I couldn't take any out on the water with me, as I definitely would have lost another camera due to water damage! My O-Ring, water-proof box kept it safe and with me while I went, though! That was definitely a good investment for me =)!!!!!