We all turn. We all get his point. Tim knows when to wow us.

Blue water reflects a popcorn sky and the famous New York skyline, transformed into a surreal, jagged landscape of metal, concrete, and glass. The Empire State Building towers in the middle of it all. Ripples make the structures appear to move around, just as so many of the people inside them are milling about their daily grinds. The city becomes somehow smaller, manageable, a concert of mankind surrounded by nature.

"This," Peyre Cleveland says to his wife, Aleshka, "is pretty cool." The Clevelands moved to the Big Apple more than a year ago from Charleston, South Carolina.

"Who would ever think you could do this here?" Aleshka says. "It's just beautiful."

We sit with paddles draped over our laps under the same sunshine that glitters off the skyscrapers. The George Washington Bridge to the north looks like an Erector-set toy spanning the Hudson River.

Something this striking usually comes with a price tag. This time, however, there's no catch. It's free! We have departed from The New York City Downtown Boathouse, run by an all-volunteer organization dedicated to providing everyone with access to the Hudson River. From their base in Lower Manhattan's Hudson River Park, boathouse organizers supply flotation jackets, boats, paddles, and know-how for 13,000 kayakers each summer season. On a hot day such as this, when the river is 10 degrees cooler than the streets, city dwellers say it's well worth the hour-long wait to go on a 20-minute excursion near the seawall.

Some visitors look dubiously down at the water. But state reports, not to mention now-flourishing marine life, indicate that the Hudson is the cleanest it's been in decades. Tim tells us that harbor seals can be found on Swinburne Island, three to four paddling hours away, past the Verrazano Narrows Bridge that connects Staten Island to Brooklyn.

Tim's dramatic revelation of the city's reflection carries a message: Enjoy this. Slow down. Look around. We stop scooting along with such fury. We run our hands through the water and soak in the sun.

Skirting by Ellis Island reminds us of the ebb and flow of immigrants coming to a burgeoning city. Paddling past the Statue of Liberty, we become vacation pictures destined for tourists' scrapbooks. Onlookers at the base of the statue will be in ours as well.

Views of the skyline, Lady Liberty, and the Brooklyn Bridge carry an amazing impact from a kayak. You're only a quarter- to a half-mile from the shore, but you feel miles away, listening to the wind, the splashing paddles, the shrill seagulls, and your own healthy heartbeat. Whether you're a beginner or an expert paddler, kayaking Manhattan is a bragging right that can't be outdone.