Emily told me she had a surprise for me after work. We both love to stay busy, but our schedules have been ESPECIALLY jam packed lately. Not only are we going to Kauai, getting married and honeymooning this year, but we also just bought our first house! Excitement paired with stress, less money and less time spent together.
We hiked out to a secluded area of Tubbs Hills (a place very special to us). Emily had prepared a little fruit and cheese picnic for us (complete with champagne and Oreos). We spent the evening sitting on the beach, watching the sun go down and watching the pontoon plane take off and land again on the lake. It was a lovely evening and I love her so much for how thoughtful she is.
On our way back to the parking lot, the sun lit up a small patch of flowers, so we set our stuff to the side and shot some photos of the beautiful spring setting that had seemed to come out of nowhere.
I kept telling Emily that this Spring seemed a lot more present and special. I’d never enjoyed and appreciated one more than this. I seemed to pay more attention to the different colors and flowers and was taken back by how different the landscape looked compared to other times of the year. I feel like I owe this realization to photography. Being more aware of compositions, colors and my surroundings helped me appreciate such a beautiful season! We were bummed we left California before the super bloom, but were grateful for our own mini-super bloom right here.
The following day, we decided to go kayaking. Emily had found her kayak at a garage sale at an amazing price, however I still needed one. Since I want to be taking photos with my underwater housing, I figured a sit-on-top kayak would be the most useful for me. With no bargain bin garage sales in sight, we grabbed a “fairly” cheap one from Walmart and headed to Cougar Bay.
Despite fighting off swarms of little bugs while launching, the trip was a scenic and relaxing one. We weaved between the wooden pilings that were once used for logging. They had been reclaimed by Osprey and were adorned with large nests and moss. We watched the birds talk to each other, reinforce their nests and hunt for food. Emily and I were surprised to hear some of their calls sounded like those of a songbird, which didn’t seem to fit their fierce appearance. I had my 11-24mm lens so photographing these birds would have been a bit difficult, but I’d love to go back with a telephoto lens to get some shots.
We took a few photos with my Ikelite Housing and then headed back to the truck. A perfect weekend.
