Mountain Sports is my favorite gear store in the area and I bought my first kayak from them. They don't have the biggest selection of boats but way better than Galyans, and are MUCH more knowledgable. They have some used boats, which could save you some money. They were pretty ignorant of sit-on-tops last time I talked with them - I was in the market for one and consider a sit-on-top to be a really good choice for most paddling occasions in this part of the country.
I'll be happy to make suggestions because I didn't know what I wanted when I started kayaking, e.g. I thought I wanted to paddle rivers more, but arranging a shuttle can be a lot of trouble and the rivers around here are mostly stagnant pools separated by places where you have to get out and drag your boat across gravel. So I do most of my paddling in lakes and flat rivers where I paddle up and back to my car. And I never dreamed I'd think it was a good idea to have a 20' long kayak, but my 16'6" one is too short to be really fast
