Kayaking in a Salt Marsh

We spent one of our afternoons in Jekyll,  kayaking in a salt marsh. The 4-H Tidelands Nature Center offered 3 hour guided kayak tours which appealed to everyone in the family.

There was a little nature center at the Tidelands which we had visited the day before when we stopped by to make our kayak reservations. Here is a picture of the kids at the touch tank. 

Here's Hannah on dry land, all ready to kayak.  We had never kayaked before, so we chose to have 2 tandem kayaks rather than single ones.  There was one other family in our group. There kids were a bit older, so they all had single boats.

James & Chris listening to instructions. 

And they're off!

After we had kayaked for a while, our guide had us gather together so she could talk to us about the marsh ecology a bit. 

Our guide had us get some mud from the bottom of the river/marsh and put it on our faces.  The mud was likened to mud used in spa facials. Or so she told us.

Chris didn't put as much mud on his face. 

Hannah loves a good facial!  James refused to put any of the mud on his face.

There were tons of little creeks off of the river. Some where very narrow.  At one point, our guide split up the group by family and had us each take a different creek. Our creek became so narrow, we couldn't turn around, so we had to paddle backwards.

Here is one of the more narrow creeks.  At this point, we were still able to turn around.

 We stopped for a cool-down break. We were able to wash off the mud, too. Most of the adults stayed in the kayaks because we weren't sure how easy it would be to get back in the kayaks!

 Chris & James taking a paddle break. In our kayaks, the kids were in front and adults in the back.

We had a blast! Although we carefully sun screened before going, my thighs were sunburned.  There was a lot more room on the kayak than I thought there would be. Chris is already looking into more kayaking trips for us.