by Jose Cruz

Created on: September 01, 2009

Cypress Island

My buddy Duncan had the idea of us going to kayak out at the San Juan Islands in Washington State. When I look back at this experience my senses seem to be reactivated with each image that passes through my mind. Duncan and I had invited two other of our friends, Katrina Todd, and Derby Ronnelus. It took a long time to gather all the equipment and supplies that were to be needed for this trip. The San Juan Islands were about 1 hour from where we were in Tacoma so by the time we got to our destination it was about 5:30PM. I can remember the beauty and excitement as we finally reached the San Juan Islands.

My eyes squinted as the bright light from the dawning sun shined blaringly in my face. The truck came to a screeching halt just before Duncan shifted the gear into park. I stretched out my arms upwards with a massive yawn as I released my tension from the one hour drive. We unloaded all of our gear and made our way down a path to the shore of the beach. There we all stood peering out into the misty, cool fog as the darkness began to cloth the sky. In the distance you could hear the vivid sound of the ferries as they sent out their warning horns. As I set myself into my kayak I felt the cold plastic brush up against the exposed parts of my body. Sitting there I could hear the whispers of the breeze as the coolness surrounded my body.

I grabbed my paddle and dunked it into the water with a dull thud as the water back splashed shocking my hands with the cold. With some force I began to make my way away from the shoreline into the misty fog. I could taste the fog with its cool refreshing texture as I began to disappear into it. With my buddies traveling behind me and to the side we all ventured forward. We only had a compass and map to lead us to our destination on one of the San Juan Islands. The evening was quickly becoming night as the land seemed farther and farther away. Fog was all around us thickening to the point where we could only see each other. We made our way out towards for what seemed like hours to one of the islands Duncan had pointed out. In the distance I heard some splashes not coming from our paddles but sounded like spouts shooting out of the ocean. I peered through the fog trying to catch a glimpse of what was causing this disrupting ocean noise. The fog was too thick to see anything of the sort.

Finally we came up on an Island just as the map had said. We peered up at the amazing sight of the rock face covered with trees. I

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