adventures on the river

I've been wanting to learn how to kayak for quite some time now, and it's one of those things I haven't gotten around to yet. When my friend Barb recently mentioned that she and her husband Steve go kayaking pretty regularly, I casually invited myself along.

Last night, the three of us rented kayaks at Mon Yough Outfitters in Millvale. Barb and Steve were kind enough to give me a quick kayaking 101 lesson (which was along the lines of- sit down, and paddle). Now, I don't mean to brag or anything, but it's like I was born to kayak. It just came so naturally to me, almost like I was a kayak prodigy really, that I was a little embarrassed when I quickly left Barb and Steve in my wake.

Ok, that's a lie. Really, the first 45 minutes or so I spent trying to keep from paddling in circles. After that though, I slowly started to get the hang of it, and really enjoyed myself out on the water. It was a beautiful evening, and soo peaceful and relaxing just slowly (and I do mean slowly) paddling along the river. If you've never been, I enthusiastically recommend it. You can rent kayaks by the hour in Pittsburgh (by PNC Park) and in North Park through Kayak Pittsburgh, and Mon Yough (where we went) also does hourly rentals.

I brought along my little point and shoot camera, and snapped a few photos while we were out. I wasn't certain that I wouldn't end up completely submerged at some point during our excursion, so I had the camera safely tucked away in a ziploc bag. The first photo (of Steve), is kind of hazy because I left the camera in the bag while I took the photo. :) The next two, you'll notice, are much clearer, as it was the end of our trip and my confidence was built up to the point that I was pretty certain the mere act of pressing the shutter button on my camera wouldn't cause me to topple overboard. (The first half of the trip, I wasn't so sure.)