4th of July Paddle

I started my 4th off with an ODC kayaking trip in Long Beach (the same group I went rock climbing and played ultimate frisbee with a few months back). The way the Outdoors Club works is they send you emails for genres of events that you indicate interest in (like climbing, camping, mountain biking, etc) and then you are free to sign up for as many events as you want, as often as you want. Somehow four days off a week has suddenly become an insufficient amount of free time for me and so I haven't signed up for anything lately but when this invite came through my inbox it reminded me so much of Florida that I couldn't resist. I tried to get a few friends on board but everyone was either hung over, working or home for the holiday so I said screw it, decided to chalk it up as a good scouting trip for a possible future group activity, and went anyway. Long Beach is further south than I have been so far, about 45 minutes away on the 405 freeway (our apartment is star A, the kayak rental place is star B):I had to get up relatively early to make it for the 8:30 launch but we were well rewarded with a waterfront Starbucks stop at the midway point of our paddle. I remembered my camera but didn't know anyone well enough to hand it off so I put it on a timer, set it at the front of the boat and ended up with a crotch shot... oh well, at least it nicely highlights my festive shorts.