Kyaking

This is a photo taken while camping/kyaking on North Puget Sound, near Mount Vernon. I love the water, especially the wind and salty smell - birds diving headlong into the water to catch fish.

When you grow up near the water, it is difficult to be away from it for very long and when you come back to it -- all your senses are filled with it again -- sounds of birds and water lapping against a boat's hull as it makes its way upwind. The smell of salt and mud and sand on during a low tide. The feel of cool water on a hot day. The taste of the salt after diving off a sailboat.

Then there is also the solitude of being out on the water by yourself, pulling in the lines on your sailboat or letting the swift tide carry you back to your destination after struggling against it during the first half of your trip. This is what really clears your mind, taking away all the stresses of modern life.