The Great Escape

This blog post might be pretty long, but I will try to keep it short. (Don't read if its too long for you. I'll sum it up right here: I LOOOOOOOOOVED IT) Anyway, this is dedicated to my Kayaking trip with my sister's Greenway program. The Greenway Program is a program in the Visitacion Valley community which essentially helps that neighborhood more "pretty." They've built little gardens all over the community, I think theres 8 or 9 of them, each of them are about the size of a house and they're kinda connected.

Let's begin. I started packing up at 7:30 am on Saturday morning, got to one of the gardens where the group was supposed to meet at 8:10. The time that Everyone was supposed to meet up at was 8:15. I didn't pack much, I brought a lunch, a box of tissue, cell phone, iPod, camera, 2 bottles of water, extra pair of shoes, and a t-shirt. We were told that we are gonna be provided with dinner, breakfast, and Sunday's lunch. I wore a hoodie, a t-shirt, shorts, and sweats. The first person I met when I got off the car was Ryan, he's an alegbra teacher in his late 20's who is currently teaching at Big Viz (VVMS), people call him Mr. Mountford. I was a Chaperone, so I just called him Ryan, he doesn't care anyway, he's cool. Then a whole bunch of people came late, and a junior at Burton named Raymond came up to me and introduced himself, I thought it was weird because I'm not used to it, but it was cool. I met the rest of the crew individually later. I had a really hard time trying to memorize so many people's name's at once. Everyone checked in, turned in their fieldtrip slip, and Anne brought extra (super clean) sleeping bags for people who didn't have them. (I was one of em!) There were about 20 people from Greenway, all mature High Schoolers who went to Burton (most), Lincoln, Lowell, and Thurgood Marshall. So we left at about 8:45, Ryan drove the big van that held like 14 of us in there, and there wasn't enough room for the rest so they rode with Anne, one of the Greenway coordinators. Anne had some plans planned previously, so she just drove the other group of kids there. Luckily no more people went from this group, I think all the seats were occupied. Just as I got into the Van, I told everyone I forgot to bring the little casset thing to play iPods with, so we were stuck with the radio. People did bring their ipods and cell phones, but I don't think people used them. We passed the Golden Gate Bridge and exited on Sausalito/Merlin City. The directions sheet was really funny and confusing, but Ryan managed to get there after a little hint. We were directed where to park and everyone was told to leave their cellphones and iPods behind. Nobody whined, it was amazing how cooperative and nice these kids are. When we got the the Beach where the Kayaks were at, we met the ETC people. They are the "safety officers" that are supposed to lead us on this trip and many of the ETC people were High Schoolers too. The ETC leader's name was Shyann (I'm not really sure how you spell it, but that's how its pronounced). She is the most enthusiastic and energetic person I have ever met. There was a total of like 7-8 adults including me. Most people knew eachother because some of the ETC peeps have had previous trips with some of the Greenway peeps. So everyone was ready to Kayak, they had their windbreakers on and everything, the kayaks were lined up, but all of a sudden, the plans changed. The North wind was way too strong so ETC decided another plan for us. Shyann told us that we will take a ferry to Angel Island (aka Love Island) and kayak the next day, everyone was cool with that. The sucky part was we had to bring in all the kayaks back into the storage place. Each Kayak, depending on whether it was single or double seated required 6 or 8 people. There was also this wheel tool that made things easier, but that didn't come out til later. When the wheel thing is used, even 1 person can push/pull the kayak's themselves. We got back into the van and headed off to Tiburon, where we would take the Ferry to Angel Island. We ate lunch there, saw some "white angels" something similar to the Blue Angels then hopped on the ferry. The ride was really exciting, seeing the Island as the ferry approaching was even more exciting because it reminded me of an 8th grade trip to the same spot. Everything looked the same, maybe some things like the benches were renewed. There were a total of 29 people going, so we kinda made our numbers and we would have to remember that number until the whole journey was over, it was kinda like a way we would regroup. We hiked for about 20 minutes more or less to our camp site, it was absolutely insanely o-m-f-g beautiful. It was an area where the old naval troops used to occupy to defend the bay area from pirates who steal gold during the gold rush era. There was about 5 buildings, we used the one closest to the beach because that's the only one that can be used. The rest of the buildings are closed down to all visitors and protected by park rangers. The neat thing about the building we used is that only ETC is permitted to use it. We got there around 2:00 maybe. Everyone unloaded their stuff inside on the wooden beds with mats underneath each. The building was really old, a bit dusty too. There were some old rifles laying around and other stuff that the troops used. At the same time, there were lots of curious tourists who were walking in, which they weren't supposed to but hey, they didn't know. An old man who was dressed up in old fashion naval clothing was presenting a cannon used back in the day to the tourists. We were right in time to see it, it was right behind our camp building. Oh yea that guy has access to the building too. He asked a family of tourists to play around and demonstrate how the cannon cleaning/loading process worked. Then a lil bit after, he fired the cannon, one of the most amazing close up things that I've ever seen. The High Schoolers had freetime til 3 while Ryan and I joined the ETC to have a small meeting of what to do. At 3, everyone grouped up and we walked to the beach which was like 30 feet away to play wizards, elves, and giants. Wizards, elves, and giants is like rock, paper, and scissors, except with different symbols. The rules to the game was splitting everyone 2 groups and we have a line in the middle, and each group stands on one side or the other. Then there is a "safety" line about 30 feet on the left and right of the middle line. Each group huddles up and plans 3 actions, incase of similar figures, like rock/rock. So the 2 groups face eachother and on the count of 3, everyone has to do the action that the group planned. If your group loses, you must run back to your safety line while the other group chases you. If you're tagged, then you go to the other team. So giants > elves, elves > wizards, wizards > giants. Giants have their arms raised up like they're trying to scary. To be an elf, you have to basically bunny ear your forhead with both your hands, then wizards you stick your hands out (palms facing down) and wiggle your fingers. That game lasted for a while until we decided to do elimination, if you're tagged your out. So in the end, our side won with 4 of us remaining. The next game was only allowed for anyone under 18 to play. They had to form a circle, close their eyes and pick out a piece of paper with a type of animal out of a cap. Anyone over 18 has to stand around and make sure they don't bump the cliff or run into something. So they open their eyes to see what animal they got and they had to make the animal's sound to find the other similar animals. There was like 4 of each type. Then in those groups, everyone finds 5 things, and has to create a story after they build an art project with what they find. One group found a dead and dried up bird, pretty disgusting, but there were no flies or anything, it was like, dry-dry, didn't smell either. So after that, it was freetime til dinner, which was at 8. The ETC's cooked while everyone else was playing cards and stuff. Then there was also a little studying group because some of the peeps had hw to do, this was funny. So Ernie, one of the ETC older guys came up to Julia and Raymond who were studying for an AP Bio test and said "I teach AP Bio." Another guy named Alex was doing his AP Calc hw so Ryan helped him, then I just so happened to have my notes in my backpack so we all had a little extra tutoring on some stuff for a little bit on one corner of the room. I still don't get the limit problem with the square roots that I asked Jimmy, but Ryan didn't remember either and he is a math major. So I'm starting to think that problem I got on my test was bs. After a little studying, my sister and her friends were playing poker for pushups, 1 for every bet and 2 for folding lol. For the remaining time, we were playing on the beach and stuff. I met a ETC guy named Dana who also goes to SF state were throwing rocks at old metal poles in the water. He's probably the most mature, nice, and mellow person out of the whole group. The highlight of this time was the sunset. On the beach you could see Sausalito, the GG bridge, and SF. It was the most beautiful sunset ever and I just wished that she was sitting next to me. Before dinner, I had already met and talked to everyone, everyone knew eachother by now. There were a couple names of people from ETC that I just can't remember because they're names I've never heard of before. For dinner, we had burrito's. I was surprised how they cooked the food, it wasn't exactly as tasty, but it was good for firewood cooking. The only source of light we had were flashlights and candles because there wasn't electricity at all. This was another cool thing about the trip, being able to escape from the technology that manipulates the minds of everyone. I brought my cell phone tho, I didn't use it to call, but I used it for like a light source. We all cleaned our dishes and stuff after dinner, and went for a night hike. We saw deers on the way, which really reminded me of nature. Our mission was to hike all the way up to the highest point of Angel Island. It took like 2 hours to get up there, the hike was super adventurous. We got lost at one point and we walked on what we thought was a path, but instead it was deer tracks. Deers and racoons, maybe mice are like the only animals that live there, no snakes or anything, so I wasn't scared. I was happy I brought my phone because I used it to see where I was going lol. Without it, I woulda had a hard time. The moonlight was very bright, it helped more than I thought, but I needed the phone under shades. It was sooo tiring because we took the long route and got lost, but when we got up there, it was a Kodiak moment. I was surprised that everyone made it up. -Standing on the peak of Angel Island brings you the best view on earth- You can see the ENTIRE Bay Area- the lights of the cities and the bridges, it was unbelievable. We were up there for 15 minutes resting and just looking. For 5 minutes, Shyann was speaking in a calm voice and asked us to be really quiet so that we could feel, listen, and taste nature. I watched the faces of everyone and I really felt like this was something to be proud of. It took us an hour to get back down, everyone was exhausted but there was still a lot of laughter. I carried my sister on my back for 10 minutes and she fell asleep within 2. We made it back to the camp building, brushed up and went to bed. Some people slept outside, some slept inside. There wasn't a tent outside, but people didn't care. I slept outside too lol. Everyone took mats from under the wooden beds inside and slept on them. Sleeping outside was crazy, I dunno why I chose to, but half the people did. When I got in our sleeping bags and layed on the mats on the grass, it felt so peaceful. I lookd up and for once I saw the stars in the sky and the bright moon though I didn't really get a good sleep because partly I was scared. I was scared some deer might come lick my face or something LOL, or some rat might crawl in my pants, maybe even a raccoon attacking me. The whole night I heard noises, noises of nature- whether it be animals or trees. I was not used to it, but I tried to sleep. Then I checked my phone again, it was 5 am, I was nearly sweating in the sleeping bag, so I took off my shirt and that was the secret to the good night sleep. I woke up really warm in the morning and it was chilly. I stood up for 10 seconds and it was COLD. I ran around a circle twice to warm up, then brushed my teeth. I drank some black coffee because I was sorta tired, it helped. Dana and I sat there with our cups of coffee watching the sunrise, just as goddamn beautiful. He has a weird name yea, but I don't make fun of anyone for having that. My sister, a guy named Gier (pronounced jeer) and Raymond went to hunt for a dead jelly fish that Gier saw. Him and my sister are weirdos, but I followed to watch them. We climbed along the rocks on the shore, it was really fun, some parts were difficult. By the time we got back, everyone was waiting for us in a circle because breakfast was ready. They made my sister, Gier and Raymond do the teapot dance in the middle lool. Gier is Filipino and funny as hell. He always cracks up the whole group by singing. We had bagels w/cream cheese and fruit salad for breakfast. We also made our sandwiches for lunches. After breakfast, we packed up and headed back to the ferry. Gier was singing a whole bunch of crap again. The funniest one was when he was trying to sing "Touch My Body." He didn't know the lyrics so he goes "TOUCH MY BODY, TOSS ME AROUND, DO ME SOME MORE." We waited for the ferry by the port, while we waited we did some exercising and stretching games. So we ferried back to Tiburon and drove to the kayaking area again. The winds were still strong, but they calmed down while the ETC people + me and Ryan were planning. They asked for our suggestions and I said everyone wants to go kayaking, so we went with that. We had 9 double seated kayaks for our group and single ones for ETC to guide us. I was in the back steering and Diane was in the front. We had a lot of collisions with other kayaks, but they were funny. In the beginning, I thought our kayak had a hole in it because water started gushing in, but Shyann told us later that these kayaks are designed that way to balance out the water level. Ryan was the only person from our group who didn't kayak because he was tired from the hike so he didn't go along with a couple ETC people. There were 2 peeps from our group who didn't want to go far, so they had their own kayaks and played in the little safe zone with 2 ETC's watching them in kayaks while the rest of us explored the whole harbor. We went out, and got back at 2:30, then it was time to go. I didn't feel like leaving, I didn't want to leave, the trip was too fast. We cleaned out the gear and shared our best moment of the trip in a circle, for me it was the sunset. My camera's batteries died because I took so many pictures and played around with it a lot. I'm glad I recorded the cannon thing, I'll make a photobucket or something up soon and put everything on there. The camera was the only sucky part, I could've taken so many more better pictures, but oh well. On our way back I saw about 200+ sailboats in the bay watching the Blue Angels. The entire GG Bridge was filled with people and there was traffic. This trip really helped me a lot, it took me away, but too bad not long enough. It was really fun, especially experiencing nature and not having technology screw everything up. The weather these past 2 days has been the best yet, clear blue skies with no clouds, fog, or anything. The temperature and atmosphere was perfect, it's hard to believe that this trip was chosen at the perfect time. The fact that there is no electricity makes it so much more fun, plus the bathrooms had no lights. I hope I can do this again in the future, it was something I'll never forget and one of the funnest trips I've had in a while.

A Kayak: 700 dollars
A Flashlight: 5 dollars
A Sleeping Bag: 25 dollars
A String of Memories: Priceless

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard.