Amature star gazer is a good way to put it for me. Like you're doing now I'll often sit back and enjoy the heavens. Before Google sky maps came along my wife, girlfriend at the time, and I had to use charts and the like to figure out what was what. It was much tougher to figure things out then. Sky maps is definitely cool.
Living relatively in the country I can see lots of stars just about any time. The beaches are only 10 minutes away and no real light pollution to speak of and they're a good spot to watch from. I do a lot of hiking and from the White Mountains you can see even more than around here. The most I've ever seen in the eastern US however is on trips to Acadia National Park 4 hours up the coast. On clear nights its pretty cool to see the Milky Way sprawling out across the sky. Supposedly the best star gazing on the east coast, or at least that's what they tell you.