June is National Great Outdoors Month – What Are You Doing to Celebrate?

As if the sunshine and warmth of June weren’t enough to get you outside, here is the official Presidential Proclamation:

I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2008 as Great Outdoors Month. I call on all Americans to observe this month with appropriate programs and activities, and to take time to visit and enjoy the great outdoors.

So then, it’s my duty as good citizen to spend my afternoons outdoors enjoying all that it has to offer! Which is exactly what I’ve been doing.

Which is why I’ve been a little slow to post here and at Fertility Notes (sorry!) I am trying to do a better job balancing my time in front of a computer and my time engaging in the rest of the world around me. I did something this week (online, actually!) that I think will help with that balance, if not skew it in favor of the Great Outdoors.

I bought a kayak.

Oh yes I did. I’ve already mentioned that I love water (just not drinking it). But I’m not sure that I told you our apartment overlooks the mighty Susquehanna River, almost a mile wide, filled with uninhabited green islands, including one that’s a protected rookery for herons and egrets.

I’ve been staring longingly at the pontoons which amass in clusters all over the shallow water every Sunday afternoon ever since the weather turned. But I don’t long for the expense, responsibility, and burden (not to mention the carbon footprint) that comes along with a boat. For a few months now, this has been the conversation in my mind: I just want to get out there! How can I get out on the water?!?

Enter the fortuitous signage that I walked past early last week:

Wednesday Night Work Out starts in May!
Kayaking is a great low impact aerobic workout.
Join us for an after-work special to get out and enjoy the beauty
of the Susquehanna and get a great workout as we circumnavigate City Island or
explore the upstream islands.  Beginners/novices welcome!

Oh heck yes.

So this Wednesday, we waited for the clock to strike 5, picked up our CSA veggies and got ourselves to Susquehanna Outfitters, a/k/a, a little shack and a bunch of kayaks perched on a corner of City Island in time for the 6 p.m. launch.

Michael and I have taken plenty of canoe trips, but this was our first times on a kayak. In this case, a simple sit-on-top. For me, it was love at first paddle. And when we got to our turnaround point a mile or so up river, I wanted to cry, But I’m not done yet! I don’t want to go back!  All of the stress that had been piling on my shoulders throughout the week had just been shrugged off and into the water with the rhythmic motion of paddling. For those brief moments on the river, in a kayak, with a group but by myself, I think I finally understood what meditation really meant.

So for the last few days, the few times I have been at my computer, I’ve been scheming, calculating, trying to figure out the most affordable (yet still safe) vessel I could get. Fortune smiled upon me in the form of a fantastic sale at REI-outlet.com coupled with some unused REI member dividends, and a gift certificate to Amazon.com that I forgot I had. Less than 48 hours after my passion was ignited, two inflatable kayaks, some beginner’s paddles and two life jackets (mandatory here) are on the way. They will be here any day now.

And that, dear readers, is how I plan to spend the Great Outdoors Month. Paddling about on my river. Every single chance I get.

What are you doing to celebrate?

And while you’re commenting, you are signed up for this week’s Green Giveaway, right? A new soy candle winner will be announced Friday, June 20th.