# Favorite Body of Water **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2005, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241 "2005-03-19T00:29:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/21 "2005-03-19T16:25:23Z")
[Lake Geneva](http://www.davidmetraux.com/images/adventure/switzerland/large/lake_geneva.jpg), Switzerland. And the Pacific Ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/22 "2005-03-19T16:59:53Z")
Sydney Harbour. It’s just got such a high possibility of being stunningly beautiful at any given time of day/year. The Tamar River, in Tasmania. Because I grew up on it. Especially the Cataract Gorge. Wow. The Pacific Ocean in general just because it’s my big blue and I love it. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/23 "2005-03-19T17:01:31Z")
I haven’t much experience of bodies of water. I’ll say the Irish sea in a storm. I love a rough ride. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/24 "2005-03-19T17:19:05Z")
Lake Baikal. It puts all other lakes to shame. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/25 "2005-03-19T17:24:16Z")
Oh, and [this](http://homepages.manx.net/lobley/silverdale_web.jpg) is a particularly favourite body of water from my childhood. My all time favourite place to visit on the Isle of Man when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/26 "2005-03-19T17:36:07Z")
I grew up on the shores of Lake Champlain, so I’m giving it my vote for sentimental reasons. Plus it really is an excellent body of water - scenic beauty, historical significance, interesting geography, and a sea monster - what more could you ask for? ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/27 "2005-03-19T17:37:59Z")
First the hints: It’s the largest lake _in_ Oregon. The dam that forms it was the world’s tallest at the time of construction. Give up? Owyhee reservoir in SE Oregon. Don’t worry, most Oregonians don’t know about it either. Hot, desert, steep lava rock canyon walls dropping down into cool water. ---
**Author:** ![siberia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/siberia/32/9129_2.png) [@siberia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/siberia)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/28 "2005-03-19T18:01:39Z")
[Redfish Lake](http://www.redfishlake.com/photo_gallery.htm) ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/29 "2005-03-19T18:18:30Z")
It’s a toss-up between [Lake Louise](http://www.paradiselodge.com/galhirez/images/Lake%20Louise%20TB_jpg.jpg) in Banff National Park in Canada, or [Moraine Lake](https://www.confmanager.com/communities/c47/files/hidden/moraineh400.jpg), also in Banff National Park. ---
**Author:** ![siberia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/siberia/32/9129_2.png) [@siberia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/siberia)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/30 "2005-03-19T18:30:45Z")
Wow! **GingerOfTheNorth** , that picture of Moraine Lake literally took my breath away. Simply magnificent! ---
**Author:** ![EmeraldGrue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dc4da7/32.png) [@EmeraldGrue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmeraldGrue)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/31 "2005-03-19T23:18:28Z")
I was thinking of maybe Lake Huron or Georgian Bay, or perhaps one of the gazillion of lonely lakes up in Kawarthas Crown Land, but… …it’d have to be the crick. The trickle that winds through my town. Sluggish and stagnant in summer, raging and muddy in spring, flooding the basin below the tracks and freezing in winter, clogged with debris and litter all year round. There was the deep spot where you could catch minnows, and where it passed through a very dark and slimy culvert, and the place where it made a kind of peninsula we built a fort on, and the quick-running part we sailed boats down, and…yeah. The crick. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/32 "2005-03-19T23:49:38Z")
And then there was [this spectacular lake](http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/ejjaniak/detail?.dir=/f334&.dnm=68e9.jpg&.src=ph) that I shot somewhere in Canada. Don’t know the name of it, but the colors were phenomenal. This photo is completely unretouched. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2005, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/33 "2005-03-19T23:49:51Z")
I’ve spent many hours sitting on the pier in Philadelphia where the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers come together. Watching the might of the river going by is so huge to me. One little bit of Lake Erie where my family spent a couple of weeks every summer when I was a kid. Way down a ravine 1000 yards from my house where a little creek runs by. Spent hundreds of hour goofing off there as a kid, and later sneaking beer as a teenager. My all time favorite is sitting on the patio overlooking my inground pool. My little corner of the world, martini in hand and all is right in the world. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/34 "2005-03-20T00:02:12Z")
Blue Mesa Reservoir. The contrast between the blue water and the stark Rocky Mountains is just breathtaking, and it just seems to go on and on as you drive along. There’s just so much geology, all naked and visible and uncompromising. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/35 "2005-03-20T00:05:30Z")
Lake Tahoe. We make an annual trip there. For sentimental, Lake Michigan. I’ve spent a _lot_ of time in and on that one. ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/36 "2005-03-20T00:15:45Z")
Although I am not much of a traveler, I will have to say that along the US Eastern Seaboard any of the Atlantic running from Kitty Hawk to Cape Hatteras is my favorite. [The Outter Banks](http://www.angellphotography.com/outerbanks.htm) There is tons of history (first flight, lighthouses, first attempt at colonization at Roanoke, etc) and tons of natural wildnerness that has been preserved. Serene, quaint in some areas, and generally a really unique experience. Ah, I love in there. ---
**Author:** ![MrO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/50afbb/32.png) [@MrO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrO)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/37 "2005-03-20T01:05:51Z")
Interesting question! I’ve rarely seen a body of water that I didn’t like. I like **yBeayf** ’s nomination–Baikal is one of the most mysterious, bizarre places I’ve been. I didn’t stay nearly long enough. San Francisco Bay is also beautiful, as are many places along the US west coast where cliffs overlook the sea. Another on my list is Lake Toba, a volcanic crater lake in the mountains of Sumatra, Indonesia. I spent my 38th birthday there, alone, and it was my best birthday so far. My favorite, though, would probably be the Andaman Sea, off the west coast of Thailand. It’s become far too touristy these days, but there are still islands where one can escape the throngs of backpackers. Of course I’ve been in love with Thailand for a long time–I even like the filthy canals of Bangkok. But the Andaman sea is one place I just keep going back to. I hope the islands there are recovering from the recent tsunami disaster. ---
**Author:** ![Kakofonous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9a140/32.png) [@Kakofonous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kakofonous)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/38 "2005-03-20T01:26:06Z")
My quick default answer is the Chesapeake Bay. The water, the sailing, the crabs, the built up western shore, the small towns on Eastern shore and the northern watershed / Susquehanna river area - love it all. I learned most of what I know of environmental concerns through the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. And for the sentimental, spent so much time there I know it inside and out, [Lake Marburg](http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/codorus.aspx) in Codorus State Park near Hanover, PA. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/39 "2005-03-20T02:14:36Z")
Some pics and articles on my favs: [http://my.tbaytel.net/culpeper/](http://my.tbaytel.net/culpeper/) Canadian North Shore of Lake Superior is toppers. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2005, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241/40 "2005-03-20T09:55:18Z")
In additon to those already mentioned (the **Pacific Ocean** and my beloved **San Francisco Bay** ), there’s also [Crater Lake](http://www.yenwen.net/CraterLake01/WatchmanTop01_2.JPG) in Oregon, which is the water-filled [caldera](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldera) of [Mount Mazama](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater_Lake_National_Park). I’ve been there in person twice, and when I fly from California to the Pacific Northwest, I always try to get a window seat on the side of the plane that will let me see Crater Lake from the air. Simply stunning! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-body-of-water/295241.md?page=3)