LOL!
That’s funny. Your wife must know my wife. 
I don’t see anything wrong with being a renaissance man. But anyway, your interests are actually pretty complimentary. In fact, I dare say that paddling sort of relates to and pulls together the others.
Cycling and paddling and pretty well cousins - one being terrestrial human-powered transportation and the other being aquatic. “In the Same Boat” has some great articles on combining paddling and cycling. I, myself, am an avid bicycle enthusiast. I bet a lot of pnet posters are.
Woodworking skills are very useful for canoes. I recently muddled through a thwart replacement project with some very Busch League carpentry. You’ll be better off. Plus, if you have the inclination, you can make your own paddles or other canoe-related stuff when you can’t paddle. I saw directions for making a wanagon box somewhere on the web that would be just the bomb.
And bird watching…the connection is pretty obvious I think. Got to get out to the birds somehow. Along with fishing and camping, birding has got be one of THE things to do in a canoe.
So good luck with the wife. Remind her to be happy that you aren’t taking up motorcycling or hang gliding or scuba diving or any of a hundred other hobbies that are far more dangerous and expensive than canoes.
Western NY State
I live South of Rochester, NY.
local CL ad
http://rochester.craigslist.org/spo/3028322364.html
A Wenonah Sandpiper solo in Kevlar for $500 seems like a steal to me. Only 36 lbs and in your area. Read the reviews:
http://www.paddling.net/Reviews/showReviews.html?prod=709
The reason why
Bigger boats are heavier and more difficult to move around. If your declining-size series continues long enough, you’ll have to squeeze into a little rubber ducky in the tub
That Sandpiper is royalex, but it’s
still a good price if in good condition and it’s a preferred small creek and stream boat here in central IL. Too bad the mold is dead.
Like Yellowcanoe…
…I like to paddle too much to wait for the perfect boat. Borrowing and renting you don’t get intimate with a boat, and I’d rather get to know a mediocre boat than wait and not be paddling as much. But paddling’s about as important as breathing to me.
buy a cahep one now
Buy a cheap one now and enjoy your time. You can always use it for a loaner for friends later.
We are renting a something
and at a really attractive rate…300 bucks for sixteen days including dropoff at the end that is 500 miles from the start.
Saves hauling a boat in a car or trying to stuff our Pakboat and gear in a Forester for a two month trip.
I really don’t care what the something we rent is.
I saw a Monarch in Maryland on Craigslist. While it is a boat I would like to have, I will continue to paddle something else.
It took seven hours to drive from Baltimore to New Haven today with floods and accidents and I will never drive back that way willingly again…Boat or no boat.