Canoeing became this city kid's later love

Maybe if I had spent more time at summer camp as a kid I'd be less of a burden on my partner when we go on canoe trips.

- BRENDAN KENNEDY

This thought occurred to me just now.

I love camping and paddling a canoe, but I only really started in earnest after I met Natalie, and my outdoor skills are not exactly of the highest calibre. (If I were on "Survivor," I'd be the one desperately seeking an alliance as soon as the plane landed.) I'm not totally useless. I now know how to lift a canoe over my head, light a camp stove and mix a decent bag of gorp. But my knots are pitifully limp, my orienteering is generally suspect, and my J-stroke could be charitably described as herky-jerky.

I was a suburban city kid, and the summers when I was old enough to be on my own but young enough to not yet have a job were mostly spent biking to the local Becker's for slushies, swimming in the public pool, and playing endless games of burby and road hockey.