Prepare for a long trip log :)

So on Saturday I finished with the Breakwater Spring Break trip that we took, we sea kayacked around the San Juan islands in Washington state, specifically Orcas Island. It wasn't a Trip any of us wanted to go on, we actually viewed it beforehand as a 10-day nightmare trip when we just wanted to be sent home to relax for a bit.
We packed and went, having a bit of fun on the drive there, which was quite beautiful and I actually did not distract myself with music much.We finally got everything underway a couple days later, and had a pretty nice time, of course we each had our troubles (My shoulder got screwed up) but had some laughs, some fun, and some interesting times.

I will certainly never forget the island we had the longest paddle to: Sucia Island, with a 12 mile paddle. at first look the lsland was just a facade of dirt, ruts, driftwood and rocks, but when directed around a side by one of the guides the water suddenly turned ice smooth and clear enough to see to the bottom (about 10 feet, but still) and the view turned to a beautiful inlet cove with trees running down to the water and a sea otter who popped his head up to greet us, then swam to shore and watched us go by. The second we beached and were finished putting away and setting up, I started looking around, this island, with a name in Spanish meaning "dirty" or "trashy" according to the signs, was stunningly beautiful, the topography, the views, the best trails for running I've ever seen or been on, , just an amazing place. We took an extra day there to rest (and had 60 mile per-hour winds wake MOST of us up at midnight) and had an art competition and other fun things, it amounted to a very relaxing and nice stay on a beautiful island. I will go back someday.

To finish it all off, we had long and hard crossings until the third to last day, in which we reached an island 5 miles away from our start/finish point, we had an opportunity to stop if we wanted to and make it a relaxing 2 day paddle with 2.5 miles each day and a stop at James Island before we were done, but on the day we were to leave to try the full remaining 5 miles, the weather turned against us.
The guides gave us a pep talk of "We know you can do this, you've done longer and harder, so addle hard and we can make this a one day trip and have an extra day to relax; although if the weather turns bad, we may have to come back." I and the rest of the students took it to heart, and I mean that: I was in the heaviest boat, my shoulder still screaming as it had been at me, my arms and core tired, my hands not wanting to grip the paddle, but when the guides started to talk about turning back, i blatantly refused, I said "have fun, i'll keep paddling for Lazlo Island" (our start/finish point), my kayack/paddle partner agreed, then some of the others started to, finally we were all dedicated, we came to the point were we told out guides "You wanted to motivate us, we're motivated, the sea is spraying us in the face, it's windy and rainy and the waves and current are pushing us back some but we will not turn back." At this, I started to feel very happy and proud, because we were all in the same mindset, were all working together and dedicated to the same cause, no matter how tough it was (we probably did more like 6 miles of paddling at least by the time we finished the 5-mile crossing), and in the end we did it, together. It was an amazing trip, a 55-mile paddle we were told by our guides (WOW) and something I truly think brought all the students together.

I just wanted to tell a little about the trip :)
I'm back now and sorry if i didn't get any messages or updates sent, my parents are here for a visit, so i get a break, then everything returns to normal.


Oh, and the first night apparently I was purring in my sleep and John (one of the guides) was yelling at me to shut up and i slept through it XD