Beginning of September always and usually starts with a long three day weekend. A simple description: Labor Day in the United States is a public holiday celebrated on the first Monday in September. It honors the American labor movement and the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, laws, and well-being of the country. I can totally run with that. Sometimes honestly, I feel like I work more than I’m actually living my life. It’s nice to have a long weekend.

If I had planned earlier, I honestly would’ve chosen to travel somewhere further. Alas, with David’s not so firm schedule, I had to wait last minute to see if he got the day off. Luckily he did, that meant three day weekend for us! I originally thought maybe go to Catalina Island to do some kayaking or cliff jumping, but after checking the prices of the ferry cost– it was wayyy too pricey for a last minute trip ($140 round trip for two people). I ended up finding a great and pretty cheap place in Long Beach. Kayak Rental charged only $10.00 an hour and charges as you go (e.g. if you kayak for 2 hours, you pay for 2 hours, if you kayak for 1 hour and 10 mins, you pay for an hour) instead of paying up front and feeling rushed at the end to get back to shore.

There’s a parking lot across the street that you can park at that’s actually really cheap. It’s roughly 25 cents for 20 minutes or something. We only paid $2.00 for almost 2 hours and walked across to the kayak shack by the beach. There’s tandem and there are solo kayaks, we decided on tandem since I really wanted to take video and pics. After signing up, there was a 5 minute safety and route video that we had to watch before we threw on life jackets and went trekking out into the ocean.

It was my first time kayaking and I didn’t realize how much coordination it actually needed. I’m a clumsy person… Hahaha. It took awhile for me to get the hang of it (after going into the wrong direction multiple times and almost hitting other boats LOL). It was definitely an arm workout. We went through the Naples Canal, which was a really nice area that’s surrounded by beach homes and paddle boarders. It was clean and well kept and the people living there were very mellow. We got to see some people jumping into the ocean by the bridge that we crossed as well, that was fun! The excursion was more than delightful. The day and weather was beautiful, not too hot or too cool, no clouds in sight, and blue skies. It was more than I can ask for.

The overall excursion was cheap and easy to handle for a last minute decision and was grateful that they were opened on a holiday!

Here’s my video of our Labor day fun for some kayak shots!

Rating: ★★★★★
Address:
5411 East Ocean Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90803
Hours:
April through September
Open every day 9:00am to 5:00pm (closed if bad weather)

October through March
Open every day 9:00am to 4:00pm