A few weeks before we left for Carmel, Barry signed up for a swimming race in San Francisco that was called The Shark Swim or something scary like that. Barry loves water and loves training for races and we were going to be so close to SF at the time, so it seemed like a perfect fit. Plus, who doesn’t want to swim with the sharks that live in San Francisco Bay? The weeks leading up to our departure we’d have different people joke with us about Barry REALLY swimming with the sharks and we’d laugh it off because of course he wasn’t REALLY going to be doing crawl stroke next to a shark….or at least we both nervously hoped he wouldn’t.
But like I said, the man loves to train and he equally loves the water and so he happily went along with swimming a few days a week and talking about his times and worrying about the water temperatures in San Franscisco compared to his swims in the pool and Martha Lake at home. It was all a perfect plan, until we actually got to Carmel. Our car ride down was a bit traumatic (with all the puke and screaming) and the idea of trying to manuever around the city, which was actually a couple hours away, just didn’t seem like such a perfect plan. Ultimately, we decided to abandon the Shark Swim for more low-key activities and fewer hours in the car.
One of those activities included Barry renting a SUP board and paddling around Monterey Bay. We had a bit of confusion about where exactly he was paddling to and I had a a few freak-out moments when I couldn’t find him ANYWHERE on the horizon. Apparently he found out where the boundary was and paddled to the edge of it, a couple miles away from our quaint little beach. I should have guessed that he’d paddle to the boundary…..why not, right?
But it turned out that Barry did indeed swim with the sharks because not two days after we got home did we hear in the news (well actually first from my dad) that a surfer’s arm and board had been bitten by a shark EXACTLY WHERE BARRY HAD BEEN PADDLING. Click HERE for the scary details.
Training for a race and a love for water aside, I am just glad that Barry had some safe water time that didn’t involve a shark.
