Moonlight Kayak at Jack London Square

I have done several kayak trip in the past, but tonight I did something different. A kayaking trip at night!

I arrived at California Canoe and Kayak in Jack London Square at 5:30pm. Launched at the from a dock at about 6pm. Got a quick lesson on getting into a kayak from a dock from our tour guide Su. He taught new technique that I had not seen.

We left Jack London Square docks and went right, towards the bay. Our first stop is USS Potomac, FDR's presidential yacht. It was not a very big boat, so I was a surprise. According to Su, while the boat has 2 chimney structure, one of them is fake and hide an escalator. (FDR was wheelchair bound...remember?).

Next to USS Potomac, was a ship label "RELIEF". According to Su, this ship was a floating lighthouse.

I was quite excited, as I had not expected seeing any historic relics during this trip. Took out my camera and tried to snap a few shots when I realized...battery have no juice!

We then saw a yacht leaving the harbor in Alameda, right across the water from Jack London Square. This was the evening cruise from Commodore Cruise, which I had taken just 2 weeks ago while attending M & S's wedding...

One thing I did notice is the area around the port of Oakland is very quiet. Besides the few people at Jack London Square and the cruise, there was no one on the street.

We paddle away from the bay towards east. On our right are houseboats in the Estuary. With the fairly quiet water and the warm glow of the lights from inside the houseboats, the whole setting had an romantic feel...

Further up the Estuary, are several dry docks. Su explained these are Kaiser docks. It seems that the Kaier family, before getting into medicine, were ship builders. The docks were used to maintain World War 2 boats.

At this point, we had been paddling for a while. I was actually feeling a little hot with a fleece sweater and wool hat. I started around the sky, but did not see any signs of the moon in the sky! Jokingly, I paddled to Su and said I want my money back. "It is supposed to be a moonlight kayak", I said...

Su plead with me to be patient. We paddled further inland and stopped near the Coast Guard Island while a few of our paddle mates docked. I was casually chatting with a few other paddlers when my kayak turned west...

From behind the Oakland hills, there it was! Round, a little fuzzy and red from the dust of the Southern California fires, was the moon. When I first saw it, the bottom 1/5 was still hidden by the hills, but it rapidly rises above the horizon. Against the backdrop of the Oakland skyline, which is not too busy, it glowed...

I was reminded of the Tang poem "海上生明月"(Moon rises on the sea), but for the life of me cannot remember what comes next...(which by the way is "天涯共此时", at the same time across the land）

At this point, our paddle mates joined us and we cross the Estuary again towards Coast Guard Island. Su had all our kayaks group together as he handed out cookies and sparkling apple cider. We looked at the moon, in the calm and quiet water, while eating cookies and drinking cider. It was a great feeling.

After another 20mins or so, it was time for the trip back. We went in between Coast Guard Island and East Bay, west towards the Bay and Jack London Square. I started noticing there were several restaurants on the Bay, but while driving along 880, we tend to miss these locations.

After another 25mins of kayaking, all of us got back to Jack London Square. We unloaded safely and changed into dry clothes. I had gotten friendly with a couple. Turns out the wife works at Pixar and is friends with a former co-worker of mine. Both of them has a software background, but also worked in animated film production, so had interesting stories to tell.

We were all hungry and decided to have dinner at Kincaids. The restaurant was near the dock and we had a good whiff of the food before heading out.

I would describe the restaurant as a steakhouse, even though it had a good selection of seafood. Despite the time and our attire, we were promptly seated near the window, from which I had a great view of the Estuary. I ordered the sesame crusted salmon with rice and sauteed vegetable. The food was pretty good and we had a good time. Please see my review on Yelp for details on the food.

Left Jack London Square at about 11pm, tired, but very happy!