Mondays Nora comes to take care of Matt

She helps him take a semi weekly shower, shave, takes care of a bunch of things that keeps the house in good order, Matt in good shape

I had a plan to go check on the Sausalito property outdoor space refresh that is in progress while Nora was with Matt yesterday

Beth reached out Sunday and we made a plan to meet to hike in beautiful Madrone Canyon in Larkspur before I went to Sausalito

The weather was good, not super hot or sunny but not too cool

A waterfall was in play, not hugely, but there was beautiful water running

This hike is magical, its like a fairy tale forest where a lot of great memories of hiking exist for me, for us

We hiked up Dawn Falls, across the Southern Marin Fire Trail and hit Lady Bug Trail to head back to the car

What a beautiful, long, wonderful hike we had, well over 10k steps, lots of good elevation too

We were famished so we had a French lunch of salad and baguette at Left Bank

But my day wasn’t over…..I headed to Sausalito to get an eyeful of what progress was made–they are in progress…..so I will need to come back

Then, being in Sausalito, my next planned stop was Napa….I wasn’t sure if I would make it all the way to Napa at 5pm to paddle

The traffic angels were with me and I made it at 5:05pm

There were 5 outrigger canoes out, which means there were 27 or so of us paddling

A beautiful late afternoon on the water, we paddled a good 6 or 7 miles down river and back

I sat in the 2nd seat, right in front of a native Hawaiian Charlie, who taught me even more about being a good outrigger team member

I am learning that each of the 6 seats in the outrigger has a different role

Usually, I am in seat 4 or 5 and my only job is to follow, paddle on the correct side, in rhythm with those ahead of me, focus on good stroke technique

In seat 2, I am still following the team mate in seat 1, but I am leading the stroke cadence on the opposite side of the outrigger for the rest of the team members that are seated behind me

There are other tasks seat 2 has to do, especially when pulling away and to the dock and turning sometimes, but mostly seat 2 is following the stroke pattern of seat 1

More than you probably ever wanted to know about outrigger canoeing, but the take away here is this is an activity where I thoroughly enjoy “following”

Seat 1 and I chatted about the different seats and the roles last night, how the canoe feels different depending on what seat you are in

My take: I only want to be in seat 4 or 5 and sometimes 2 because those are following positions

Seat 1 sets the pace, seat 3 counts the strokes and controls the side each of us paddle and seat 6 is the steersman, the one really in charge of the outrigger

Me no need to lead, me only want to follow in the outrigger

By the time I made it home last night I was a tired puppy!

This morning as I type this blog, after having taken an Aleve a couple hours ago, I still feel yesterday

Needlesstosay, my outdoor “me day” is a good antidote to burnout, really good antidote

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