Have you ever visited an ocean?

[jennifert9]

I've been to the Atlantic when I visited both North Carolina (Cape Hatteras) as a teen and South Carolina (Hilton head) in my early 20s. My brother also used to live in Virginia Beach so I've been there a few times...
I visited California for the first time this past summer and saw the Pacific for the first time. We first saw it outside Los Angelesat Manhattan Beach and it wasn't much to see. There was lots of seaweed in the water and it was just grayish looking.
BUT, a few days later we headed south to San Diego and Mission Beach and it was AMAZING!! The water was so clean, nothing growing in it. You could see your feet even in 10 - 15 feet of water, as well as the sandy bottom. We loved it!! The waves were huge and swimming was so much fun. Until your eyes started burning from the salt....

I would love to see Souraya respond to this...she's probably seen every body of water known to man!

And KBlaix, Lake Ontario is my backyard! I grew up in Syracuse, NY about 30 minutes from the lake and went to school in Oswego, right on the lake! My favorite body of water in the WORLD, is the St. Lawrence River!! Spent all my summers there and hope to have a vacation spot there someday...

[Barbara]

The Atlantic on both sides, the Pacific (which I love best in Oregon and Washington ), the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and the South China Sea, the latter one on a sailing ship

[MaryJae]

I live about 5 minutes from the Beach...the Atlantic Ocean.

[Buddy Blaze Lover]

Yup, we visited the Atlantic when we went on vacation to Florida a long time ago, and we used to live 30 minutes from the beach in California, which was obviously the Pacific.

[4 Dog Mother]

I have seen the Atlantic many times - my parents went to Florida every summer for vacation during my teen years, Carl lived in Melbourne for a year which is very near the ocean just this past year and I went twice to see him. I have also seen the Atlantic from several spots along the East Coast, Boston, Cape Cod, Maine to name a few. The gulf around the Tampa area (before I joined Pet Talk, Kay) and from Galvaston, Texas. When Carl and I were first married, we lived in an apartment is Asbury Park, NJ just 3 blocks from the ocean.

The Pacific I saw several times with my parents and more recently when Carl and I went to San Francisco and with the kids in San Diego.

[pitc9]

Never....

But I live about 7 miles from Lake Erie! (icky... )

[Laura's Babies]

I grew up in Virginia so I have been to the Atlantic Ocean a number of times. Went to San Fransisco and got to see and step in the Pacific Ocean and now live close to the Gulf Of Mexico and have lived in Pensacola, Florida on the gulf. (I spend a lot of time on the water at work but not on any ocean)

[gkristian]

when we lived in Sydney, Australian our house was about 5 min walk to the beach, but now where in hobart, tasmania adn the beach is still very close (only about 20min walk), but the only difference is that the water is colder down here

[Karen]

I grew up in Massachusetts, lived here my whole life, so have spent a lot of time in the Atlantic Ocean swimming and playing, or on it in a boat.

Have seen it on the Gulf of Mexico side, too, on a Florida visit. I have been in the Pacific Ocean off the California Coast, and way out in the middle of the Pacific, swimming in Hawaii, and we drove around the Big Island, so saw it from many many vantage points.

[wolfsoul]

I go to White Rock almost every year and visit the Pacific Ocean. I don't enjoy the beach though.

[Orca]

I've been to the Atlantic - my campus is right on the coast. And on a trip to Costa Rica, I went to the Pacific and Caribbean.

[Sirrahsim]

I visited my husband down in Biloxi when we were still dating and got to see the Gulf of Mexico. That was my first experience with a massive body of water.
Last summer, my husband and I drove to the Izu Peninsula which is on the eastern coast of the main Island Honshu, Japan. The Pacific Ocean is absolutely beautiful from over here, but unfortunately we neglected to check the weather forecast and managed to arrive shortly before a typhoon rolled in The water was icy cold and there were a ton of surfers taking advantage of the massive waves that the typhoon was sending into the Shimoda area.
The picture below was taken while we were walking along the Shimoda harbor. The weather is so gray because the typhoon was getting closer.

[Lilith Cherry]

I've seen the Atlantic from both sides ;UK ( North sea , Irish sea) and USA, Atlantic city. The Pacific from Vancouver and from China, Malaysia ( South China sea, East China Sea) The Indian Ocean (Andaman sea) from Thailand and Gan Island, the Mediterranean from Spain and Cyprus, and the Persian Gulf frpm Bahrain.

[Soapets]

The first time I ever saw an ocean was when I was in college and my Religion and Life Fellowship (RALF) group went on a "retreat" to Europe. I was a student at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, NE. We drove to Chicago and flew to Baltimore, then over the Atlantic Ocean to Luxembourg. It was also the first time I had ever been in an airplane.

Wading in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Italy during that retreat was the first time I actually got close enough to smell and see and feel the saltwater of an ocean or a sea.

I lived in the Boston area for three years, 1987-1990, and made it a point to visit the ocean LOTS of times then. People who live there sometimes take it for granted, and don't seem to appreciate it as much as people who aren't accustomed to it do.

Last summer my husband and son and I went back to Boston on vacation. My son had been born in Boston in 1989, and had visited there again in 1992, but didn't remember the ocean from when he was there when he was real little.

We went deep-sea fishing on the Atlantic Ocean from Gloucester while we were there last summer. It was a lot of fun, and it was fun being a part of that experience with my son. He got to see the hospital he had been born in (Brigham and Women's), and the house we lived in (in Malden) when we first brought him home from the hospital after his birth. He identifies with Boston now, whereas before when we talked about his being born in Boston, it didn't really have much meaning for him. Now he is proud of that fact.