Grew up in MI, too - can’t get more than 88 miles away from the lakes, I think the deal was.
I’ve seen the ocean twice in my life. Which is sad, since I live in NY. I love the ocean, though.
We have a lake, Lake George, which isn’t too far, but VERY touristy.
I’ve lived within 5 miles of the Gulf and Tampa Bay (my home is on a pretty narrow peninsula between the two) since I was 3 years old, and I haven’t gone more than a week without seeing at least one of them. I cannot imagine living much farther away from the sea.
My entire internal map expects to have water on three sides, and when I’m far away (even Orlando far, which is only 90 miles) I feel disoriented. The idea that you can drive in any direction and not hit water within 15 - 20 minutes is just insane. I mean, without the water there, you can just keep driving and driving, and you might get lost, and you could just end up 100 miles the wrong way and then what? :eek:
I have been to many places in the eastern half of the US (Atlanta, SE Indiana, Nashville, Knoxville, DC, Savannah, all over Florida, and NYC), and I only ever felt instantly comfortable in places with the sea nearby. Rivers help a little, but I need to be near the ocean in order to feel OK.
Qadgop: If you think the ocean was harsh, you should try swimming in the Dead Sea. It’s so loaded with chemicals that you can float in it with much of your torso above the waterline and read a magazine without getting it wet. But you do have to shower afterwards. And don’t get it in your eyes. I’ve seen all of the Great Lakes close up but never touched them.
Calm Kiwi: I was born and lived for many years within a 3-minute walk of the Atlantic Ocean and have lived within 7 miles of it all my life except for a few years spent about 130 miles from it and about 6 months about 70 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. I lived on a ship in the the Mediterranean Sea for nearly two years and also sailed from Boston to San Juan and back thru a typical January tempest off Cape Hatteras that put the ship in drydock for several days. So I’ve seen the sea at its worst (save for tsunamis).
I did get quite a thrill tho’ after a transcontinental train trip when I got off the Skunk Train from Willits, CA, in Fort Bragg, CA, and walked down and put my toe in the big pond.
Thank you all. This thread was almost poetic (yes I know that makes me sound like a doofus). It is wonderful how our enviroment takes a hold on us.
For me being away from the sea just seems odd…I also need Rangitoto (an Island in Auckland harbour). I am actually jealous of those of you who haven’t seen/been on the sea…your first time is something you will remember.
I watched a doco tonight about the aftermath of the tsunami in Sri Lanka. It was heart breaking to see people who had lived on and by the sea for so many genrations, afraid of it now.
I love the sea.
What Gum said, although I grew up on the other side of the water. The North Sea coast may not get the best weather, but it has an imposing beauty that takes my breath away.
After that, I lived in Plymouth, and could see the sea from my bedroom window. The coastline there is gentler, greener than up North but still beautiful.
Now I live in London, and while I love it, I miss the sea so much. The smell of it, the feel of sand between my toes, just the sight of it fills a space inside of me I didn’t realise was empty.
I’ve lived mostly in Auckland, but I spent three years as a kid living in Eastbourne, a suburb out of Wellington. We had a house almost on the beach. It looked out on Cook Strait so it wasn’t always inviting, but I spent as much time as I could in the ocean.
I still live in Auckland, and don’t spend nearly enough of my weekends on Auckland’s black sand beaches, but every time I stagger home after a day of being pummeled by waves I feel… more myself. Better. I go to sleep and there’s a body-memory of waves.
In the summer, a bunch of my friends and me go up north to a batch. It’s a minute’s walk to a sheltered bay. I spend a lot of my week well sunblocked, floating on my back.
The sea, and beaches, are the calmest places I know. I can walk up and down a beach with my ankles in the sea, and it’s the easiest way to get out of my head and into a calm state that I know.
I grew up in Rhode Island, about 45 minutes from the beach. Tiny RI is so quirky: even though nothing in the state is more than an hour away from anything else, lots of people who live there have two homes. They live full time in or near the capital, in the northern part of the state, and have a “beach house” along the southern shore. My aunt and uncle do this. He’s a charter fisherman, so he lives at the beach house all summer. My aunt stays up in their Providence home during the work week and spends three-day weekends “down the beach.” My family visited them all the time during the summer. We’d spend the day at the beach then have dinner at the beach house.
When I lived in NYC, I was a short train ride from the beach at Coney Island. I was amazed to discover that some of my friends had lived in New York all their lives (or, at the very least, years) and had never been to the city’s beaches.
Now I am lucky enough to live in a condo complex with a private beach. I don’t swim in the ocean that often, but I love walking on the beach or spending an afternoon sitting on the boardwalk watching the waves and reading. Having the ocean right there, hearing it while I’m lying in bed, is comforting. Except in hurricane season.
I was just walking past a TV at work and CNN is reporting another quake in offshore Indonesia, Sumatra I believe, of 8.2. For some, that fear may unfortunately be justified.
I grew up in Hawaii, in an area a few minutes’ drive from the beach. My father bought our house because there was an unobstructed view of the ocean, so I saw the ocean basically every single day growing up. I could also hear it when I had my bedroom windows open at night.
I live in Chicago now, a few blocks from the lake. I think I’d feel a bit claustrophobic if I didn’t have a large body of water to look at on a regular basis.
I grew up on the east coast, by the Atlantic Ocean… then moved to the west coast, where I am now near the Pacific Ocean. I can’t imagine a life without water nearby, especially an ocean (or bay, sound, etc). It’s kind of my navigational system: if I know where the water is, I know which direction I’m going.
I don’t know if I could tolerate (for very long) living somewhere in the middle. Maybe some big, big lakes would help. Great ones, perhaps. 
I would love to live on island. Though my sense of direction might get screwed up and I’d walk in circles all the time. 
Yes, I love the Ocean, used to live less than a mile from it.
I grew up along the North Shore of Boston, in Ipswich. It has a fantastic beach, one that draws people from miles around. Long white barrier dunes, and a nice view of an island across Ipswich Bay (Plum Island).
I want(ed) nothing to do with it. Hot sand, which gets in your PBJ sammiches, and in your shorts, salty green-blue water that crusts on your skin when you get out, and crowds. yech!!!
When I wanted to go swimming, I found the nearest source of fresh water, rivers/ponds/lakes. I go away to the mountains and lakes, and AWAY from the ocean.
I’ve moved further inland, and now have a house in a neighborhood with a private beach on a largish pond in town. I’m a fish, so this suits me well!
For me, swimming/lounging should be done by a lake/river. But if I’m heading for some SCUBA, then it’s the ocean for me, (With a grumble about the salt film later) otherwise, fresh water.
But, I’m a wierdo anyway… 
-Butler
It sure burned my eyes when I automatically opened them underwater in the ocean to see what was going on.