Story to tell

It's been a crazy 3 weeks. I can't believe it's already January 2010. We had such an amazing trip to PA for Christmas and we are starting to get settled back in CA. Naps are a little off but we're getting there.
I have so many things to blog about. I took 1263 pictures and haven't looked through half of them yet. Our Christmas/PA trip posts will be coming this week. What I'm going to blog about tonight is what happened to us last night....

We decided to head to the beach for a walk yesterday. The weather's been beautiful here and after coming from 20 degree weather with snow we're trying to take advantage. We didn't take the dogs this time. Ty was strapped to me in the carrier and Jack was running all over the place. When we got the beach the sun was starting to set. As we walked down the coast, after about a mile or so, we saw a kayaker. (I hate kayaking and this always prompts a joke from Tom about the one time we went kayaking and I gave up because my arms were tired and he was left to paddle us in all on his own. This happened 7 years ago, but he still finds it necessary to remind me) We went a bit further and turned around. As we were coming back we saw the kayak washed up on shore. There was a 20-something year old and his mother with 2 dogs standing by the kayak. Tom and I walked past him and both looked at each other. Something didn't seem right. I walked back, asked the guy if that was his kayak. He told me no and mentioned that he thought someone was out in the water. I told him just a few minutes ago we saw a kayaker. At this point it's starting to get dark. We stood there watching the waves and I noticed something bobbing in the water. He was about 300 yards or more out but it was definitely something. The guy wasn't sure about calling 911 but I convinced him and said there was definitely someone in the kayak 20 minutes ago, just explain and let 911 decide. (I didn't have my phone) I followed what I saw bobbing in the water. He drifted pretty far down the coast. It was getting dark fast. After about 15 minutes the guy seemed to be getting closer to the shore. The waves were really rough. It was horrible watching someone out in the ocean struggling and all we could do was wait for help. Soon enough the kayaker made his way into waist deep water. Tom and the other guy ran out to help him in. He was a young guy, maybe 20 yo, and the first thing I saw was that he had dog tags around his neck. He was holding on to a large and very heavy book bag. It had to weigh at least 60 pounds. I don't know how he held on to it the whole time he was trying to get on shore and how it didn't take him down with the rough waves. We helped him up to the sand, sat him down and tried to get him warm. It's the Pacific ocean and he wasn't wearing a wet suit. He was shaking pretty badly so we wrapped all of our sweatshirts around him. By this time we saw a Coast Guard rescue boat. Then a set of paramedics found us and whisked away the kayaker. While we were waiting I tried to keep him talking. He was a soldier studying Russian at DLI. He's only been here 4 months and was kayaking to a spot to camp out over night. He was totally by himself. I'm so glad that the other guy was there when the kayak washed up on the shore. He started looking for someone which led me to ask what he was looking for. Even though the kayaker made it in on his own, it was pitch black and he had hypothermia. If that other guy didn't notice anything we all would have just kept walking by and he would have been on his own. That kayaker definitely has a story to tell, what a way to start out the year!