You get blues and greens in Lake Huron/Georgian Bay – all around the Bruce Peninsula (gotta be a sunny day, though). The Great Lakes have plenty of color. It mostly depends on the light and the water conditions, the number of zebra mussels, etc.
I grew up in the Central Valley of California, so I’ve always been within a short day trip of the Pacific Ocean–while also living in a distinctly “prairie-like” environment so I guess I’ve had both experiences! I’ve swum in the Pacific from both sides AND in the middle (Left Coast USA, Hawaii and Japan) as well as the Sea of Cortez and the Sea of Japan. I’ve swum in the Gulf of Mexico from both sides (Yucatan and Florida) and have swum in the Atlantic, also in Florida. I crossed the English Channel by ferry but didn’t get my tootsies in the water, but I’ve seen that side of the Atlantic as well. I’ve never been on the ground near one of the Great Lakes, but I flew over Lake Superior and couldn’t see either bank for the longest time and it impressed the hell outta me. I love the ocean to walk along but prefer to swim in fresh water, although swimming in warm Pacific water is something to remember. My impression is that the Pacific is an infinitely wilder ocean than the Atlantic, but then again I don’t have nearly as much experience with the Atlantic so I could be full of it–and not for the first time, either!
So far I think the coast of Oregon and Washington is the most beautiful in the world, but the coast of Japan is a definite runner up. Guess I just prefer the wild, wooly, wooded type of coast to the sunbathing beach type.
Can I double dog dare you to go swimming off Cape Cod this May? Please? 
I think the warmth that Flander is referring to is an artifact of the particular portion of the Atlantic there. Similarly, if you go to a protected and shallow body of water in the Pacific, say the Sea of Cortez, you’ll find it fairly warm.
SmartAleq, I didn’t do much time in the Pacific, but the impression I’d always gotten from the goats* was that when the Pacific got interesting it was very interesting. There is, of course, the famous WWII Typhoon that sank several DEs and I think one DD. The Atlantic has a reputation for being generally more stormy.
*Goats: Lifers, old salts, the enlisted guys wearing brown Navy uniforms who hung out in the Chief’s mess. Which was also known as “The Goat Locker.”
Technically, I’ve seen the ocean, while I was in DC years ago; it went something like this: “Okay, look way way down the river. See off in the distance there, where it opens up wide? That’s the ocean.” And that’s the closest I’ve been. Never been to a beach, never swam in salty water, none of that. I was born in California, but moved to New Mexico at the ripe old age of 6 months, and I’ve lived in NM and TX ever since.
That being said, in maybe a year or so, I’ll be crossing an ocean, so that’ll seal up this hole in my experience; my wife and I are adopting a girl from China.
The question made me think about a movie called Swimming from a few years back. The movie takes place in Myrtle Beach, and the main characters talk off and on about how to escape the town they grew up in. Mostly they talk about going west, but one character says several times that she’s afraid to move somewhere “where you can’t just go swimming any time you want to.” Of course, during the movie, she never once goes swimming, which I guess is supposed to say something about her character. Anyway, hijack over. Never been to the ocean.
Either someone is pulling your leg, or you are pulling mine.
One of my favorite places on the entire planet is on the beach in Nags Head, N.C., where I go just about every summer. I love the ocean. I can’t imagine my life without seeing and being beside an ocean, even if only occasionally.
Haven’t read the whole thread yet, so apologies if someone’s already mentioned this, but JFK once gave a speech in which he noted that the percentage of salt in human blood is roughly the same as in salt water. The sea and we, he suggested, are inextricably linked.
If it’s anything like Ocean Beach, I wouldn’t go in the water after a 500-gallon soap spill if I were wearing a wetsuit made of Purell. I’ll take your word for it.
Pretty common on both coasts, I’d bet. I go to Sunset Cliffs fairly often these days, but it used to be that I was hesitant to go east because I couldn’t just go to the beach any time I wanted to, even though I never actually went to the beach.
Well, the trip was to DC, but the part I mentioned happened during the “driving all over looking at stuff” part, including parts of Virginia. Still, they probably were lying to me, or I’m not remembering it clearly. It’s been about 16 years, so the details are a little hazy in my mind.
Well, it empties into the Chesapeake Bay, and it goes around a rather large curve prior to its arrival there.
That’s why I suggested doing it on the Cape, rather than inside Boston Harbor. (Well, that and more continuity with the ocean than the harbor waters…) But we’re good either way.
You can have 'em! 
I have a fear of water-if I can’t see the bottom, I don’t want to be anywhere near there.
When I first saw the Pacific Ocean (at 21), I was standing on the beach in Southern California and my older brother said “Just think … next stop: Japan.” It really wasn’t until he said that that it really hit me - that’s the freaking OCEAN!
I saw the Atlantic when I was 15, though.
Just as an aside, I spent many months on different trips to Tibet. The Tibetans were always interested in the Ocean, and every once in a while I would run into someone bragging about how they had seen the sea. It was one of those things to do in life once if possible just because it’s there.
I remember being amazed by various Great Lakes during childhood trips. Some years ago, I changed planes at O’Hare (sp?) & flew over Lake Michigan. It’s really big!
How about a thread for those who’ve never seen a really big lake? Every lake in Texas is the result of a river dam. Except for Caddo Lake, which is nothing like the Northern glaciar-scoured lakes.
(I’ve seen the Atlantic & Pacific–briefly. And the Gulf of Mexico many times–I’ve lived in the Houston area most of my life. Do gulfs count? Does Galveston Bay count?)
This is not exactly true. When the conditions are just right, it is entirely possible to surf Lake Michigan.
I would like to see more answers to the OP’s follow-up as to why you haven’t seen the ocean, and I don’t think that “not gotten around to it” is a real answer. I’m curious about why people haven’t gotten around to it.
OK, so **GoodGrief **can’t stand deep water, fair enough. But what are some other reasons? If you live inland, do you never travel? Or if you do travel, never to the coasts? Or if you do travel to the coasts, you just don’t think seeing the ocean is worth a side-trip from your Aunt’s house?
I grew up low-income in Nebraska but still managed to visit both coasts a few times before my mid-twenties. So growing up inland isn’t really a reason why you don’t see the ocean, but other factors may be (eg. financial, hate to travel, family obligations, no desire, etc.). I’m curious what these are for people.
Since my mid-twenties I’ve lived in both Seattle and New York, and have vacationed on beaches - Hawaii, Mexico, the Mediterranean. I can’t imagine living far from the ocean now, but when I went back to Nebraska for my high school reunion I was surprised at how little some people have traveled. Some haven’t ventured much outside of their home towns. I just don’t get that.
Well, I suppose the “why” starts off with a lack of opportunity. Like I said, I was born in California, but my family moved when I was six months old, to New Mexico. Ever since then, I’ve lived in NM or Texas. My extended family all live in inland states: Arizona, Colorado, and Minnesota. At the very closest, getting from anywhere I’ve lived to a coastline would take, what, 15 hours, one way? Without a solid reason to go there, that’s just not gonna happen. My brother recently moved to Sacramento, but I doubt a trip out thataway is in the near future.
It’s not that I haven’t traveled. I’ve been all over the plains and midwest, pretty well everywhere in a rough quadrilateral from Arizona to Montana to Illinois to Louisiana. I’ve been to the DC/Maryland/Virginia area twice; the first time was during high school under strictly controlled conditions, so I couldn’t just take off on my own, and the second time was during an extremely freezing March, so a trip to the beach wasn’t on the itinerary. And I’ve been to Orlando once, but didn’t get near the ocean.
I’m assuming, by the way, that the Gulf of Mexico isn’t considered “ocean” precisely, although I’ve never seen that either. “What,” you say, “you live in Texas and you’ve never been to the Gulf?” Well, no. Texas is freakin’ huge. It takes all day to drive from one end to the other. And I’m up in the panhandle. So, until I have a reason to go, I won’t be heading that way, either.
And finally, there’s the additional factor that all my life I’ve been an enormous pasty land-whale-esque chunk of manmatter, which means swimwear isn’t my wardrobe of choice. That being the case, I don’t look at beaches as being all that fun and a great place to go. I’d probably be just like, “Huh. Yep, there’s the water. Okay, me and my Levis are going back inside.” So, there’s another reason why I don’t plan my vacations around “time at the beach.” I’d much rather go on an Alaskan cruise than a Caribbean cruise, and I prefer the mountains to the beach.
So, that’s why I’ve never been to the ocean.
Salt doesn’t have a smell.
I’ve been in ships hundreds of miles from shore, and the “ocean” smell almost completely disappears there. You get it back when you hit shallower water and the beach - it’s the odor of decaying dead sealife. It is a nice smell overall.
I grew up on a river - saw it almost every day growing up. I didn’t see the ocean until I was seventeen. Later, of course, I joined the Navy and saw quite a lot of it - including the Med, the Black Sea, the Atlantic and Pacific, the Caribbean and the Panama Canal.
Old joke: A Texan brags to a Vermonter about his ranch. “Why, I can be in my pickup all day and still not get to the other side of it!”
“Ayup,” says the Vermonter. “I had a truck like that once.”
Or as the old poem had it, “The sun is riz, the sun is set, and we is still in Texas yet!”
I’ve spent most of my life thousands of miles from the ocean, which has a lot to do with why I haven’t seen the ocean. Yes, I’ve traveled, but not to a place where the ocean can be conveniently viewed. Yes, I’d like to see it at some point, but meanwhile there have been other things that have been more of a priority for me, for better or worse. I’d also like to see the Grand Canyon and Washington DC, too, but I haven’t gotten around to visiting those places, either.