Surf Lessons

 We had originally planned to rent kayaks and do the Secret Falls hike but we didn't book kayaks soon enough.  Six years ago when Ryan and I went, we didn't have to book in advance.  But things have changed I guess.  I was pretty bummed, but I tried to find something else fun to do on our second to last day and I came across surfing lessons.  Now, I have always wanted to try surfing, but a middle aged woman doing it is not as cool as teenagers doing it.  So I felt braver doing it with my girls.  Ryan opted not to, but once he saw the "wave" we were learning on he thought he probably could have done it.  He just doesn't have a lot of faith in his swimming ability.  Dylan wasn't interested and Kaden was too small.  It was SO FUN!

The boys came to watch and be our photographer because we were going to eat at Duke's after our lesson since it was right on the same beach.

Pictures don't do it justice but this is such a pretty area!  The mountains and the beach together are my favorite.  Can you see that one small wave out there?  Yep, that's what we rode.  And it was perfect.  There were paddleboarders out there catching the wave.  And some other elderly surfers, ha ha.

We spent a lot of time laying on our bellies on our boards, which was nice.  We would paddle hard with our arms, which made the girls pretty tired.  I had ran pretty far that morning so I had a couple muscles bugging me but I could still do it.  After about an hour I said something to Kylee about sunscreen.  She hadn't used any.  Our instructor was like, "it's early and not that hot, you won't burn."  Sure, this coming from a brown man.  Kylee definitely got burned on the back of her legs, which was nice to even it out because she was burned on the front from the boat.  Sadie too, just not as bad.  At least we had the rash guard shirts on so the legs were the only thing.  Kylee and I were using these GIANT boards which are easier to learn on I guess.  In the picture she is holding up the instructor's board, but the one she used is the same as mine.  GIANT!  It was a lot of fun.  Sadie asked if I thought we could rent surfboards and go do it on our own later.  But real waves are much different than the baby wave we were riding.  And the instructor was still pushing us and telling us when to go.  He had been trying to help me learn how to know when to go, so that was fun. But there was still no way we could handle real waves.

Dukes is a cool restaurant.  I love the indoor/outdoor atmosphere.  The views are awesome.  And the food is pretty good too.  Everyone enjoyed the Hula Pie of course.