im tired. worn out. ugh.

this is just a phase though i hope. energy levels should be back up and running after tonight since we sprung for a room in the Cliffside Bed and Breakfastin Scituate, Mass. Here’s the story as to how we got here:

We left Essex, waving goodbye to Lyn. The weather was great and we headed into the River to head to Gloucester. It was an easy paddle and we even made it under the bridge pretty easily. The current was a bit strong but we are strong too. We were heading to the backyard of Kacy’s parents house. Kacy runs Discovery Adventures and she kindly let us stay in their backyard as we paddled through. We called Lyn and Mike again and met them for dinner. On the walk there, we got a call from a photographer wanting to meet us so the local paper could do story! We’re celebrities basically. Here is a link to the story: Couple kayaking down East Coast has layover in Essex

After dinner with Lyn and Mike, we went right to bed. Early morning the next day. Woke up to paddle to Salem. The weather was fair enough. We had to actually use some seakayaking skill to get around the point leaving the Harbor. I had been having some trouble with my trapezius muscles and there were REALLY acting up on this day. I was this close to going to see a doctor as soon as we landed. When we finally did make it to Winter Island in Salem, we were displeased to find out that they had moved back thier opening day due to budget cutbacks. Great. Stuck. Tired. SORE. and a thick thick thick heavy fog set in. Dan and I proceeded to get to work on the blackberry, trying to find a place to stay for the night. As soon as we turned on the phone, we had an email from Christy back in Portland, telling us she had a contact in Marblehead, just across the harbor. Amen! Four hours later, Joyce picked us up and brought us back to her house in Marblehead. We enjoyed a rest day and DVR at her and her husband Stephens house. We felt ready for the next few days.

Joyce dropped us back off at 6am am we were able to finally meet our new friend Dane! He had planned on meeting us to paddle for some time and this was the day. We paddled from Winter Island in Salem, all the way to Nahant in a very short time. This was when we got our first glimpse of Boston. If you ignore the fact that there were HUGE waves for a short time, the paddle was great. Wind at our backs the whole time. After a surf landing, we had some lunch and then went to REI and then back to his house with his girl Michelle. After some showers, we went to eat some crazy crazy sushi. Dan and I put ourselves in their knowledgable hands and were able to eat unimaginably weird food. It was fun. Dane dropped us off the next morning and we were off once again. It was so fun to meet them both and REALLY fun to paddle with someone. Refreshing. Here is a link to Dane’s account of the day: Paddle with Dan and Bethany

From Nahant we paddled to the Boston Harbor Islands. We were planning on staying at a Bed and Breakfast in Lynn that offered to let us stay with them, but the conditions were too good to pass up in getting to the harbor islands. This is a link to the inn though in case you wondered about who was being kind to us along the way: The Diamond District Inn. The stay on the island was a higlight for sure. We stayed on Great Brewster Island in the Boston Harbor and we could see the skyline from our campsite. There were a few moments when we really had to be careful along the way but we were able to get across the chanels with no real problems. We had the whole afternoon to relax and enjoy the scenery.

Next morning we got up an paddled easily to Scituate Mass. We were able to help a kayaker who was in a bit of trouble along the way too! He was beached on some rocks in the water, out of his rec boat and cold cold cold. Dan helped him empty his boat and we got him back in. He headed straight back to shore.

In scituate, we were able to stay the night at the Scituate Harbor Marina thanks to Dobber. We went to the grocery store and even saw STAR TREK! The night was great and we were up early this morning to paddle. We got out of the harbor and started heading south and were met with a nasty headwind. After stuggling in it for a while and realizing that we would never  be able to make it all the way to Plymouth in those conditions, we sadly, (tearfully) turned back to situate to stay another night. This time we got a room in the inn.