Into the Deep: Love of the Ocean & Water
 

What a lovely idea for a thread.

I have loved the ocean since I was a kid.

When we lived in New Jersey, every summer my parents would rent a beach house at the "shore". We called it the shore back east.

You may picture a fancy beach house but it was always a little more than a shack a couple of blocks to the beach and my mother would weigh us down like pack mules to carry everything for the day, since we never went back until after the sun started to go down.

One summer, I was so excited to go but my brother and I had a fight washing the car and I kicked him in the shin and fractured one toe and sprained the other four. I was taped up in the ER and my punishment was that I couldn't go in the water and get it wet the whole week that we were there. :watereyes:

Then, we moved to Maryland and we would go to Ocean City, MD each summer. I loved it! Loved the ocean and walking on the boardwalk with my girl-friends. We would lay on the sand for hours and cover ourselves in baby oil ( :| ). To this day, if I smell baby oil, I can see myself at Ocean City.

I moved to California in my early 20's. I absolutely love that I am so close to the ocean. Whenever I need a pick-me-up, I jump in the car and take my pick of beaches. Out here, no one calls it the shore. We go to the beach here.

There are even a couple of campgrounds right on the beach in CA. It was one of my favorite things to do with my recent ex: reserve one of the ocean-front sites, take her RV, park it and look at the ocean for hours. I love the sound of the ocean, too. It is mesmerizing and so peaceful.

There is nothing else like the ocean.

If I ever won the lottery (if I actually ever bought tickets, for starters) I would buy an ocean-front house so I could sit on my balcony and watch the ocean all day long.

Thank you Anya, these are very sweet memories. I also grew up going to my aunt's beach house every summer down at Newport. I loved when she would take me into the gift shops on Balboa Island and I kept my seahorse and shell souvenirs as long as I could before they fell apart.

I grew up and have lived most of my life near the same beaches, and what a treat. There is no sanctuary for me like being by the ocean, all the sounds, sights and smells. And personal reflection.

The ocean has always had a calming influence for me. Each year, when the Christmas break started for school, my parents waited outside the school for me to get out for the day, car with camper in tow.

It's one of the only times this short, fat, freckled, carrot topped grrl was the envy of everyone. We were off to Florida for the break!

My Daddy had a very strong love for the Florida Keys.

Imagine a place where you can wake to the sunrise up from the Atlantic, then eat dinner as it set over the Gulf of Mexico. No wonder Daddy retired to the Keys.

I later moved there to care for him in his twilight years. Lived in Miami, but Daddy wouldn't leave his beloved Keys.

Ended up buying a home in the area so went to the beaches quite often. Few things are more calming than sitting on the beach at night just staring out at the lapping water.

Miss the beach. Wish we could be back near it's tranquility.

Thank you for this memory inspiring thread. We all need a peaceful memory to relax us especially at this time of uncertainty.

The Ghost & Mrs. Muir
 

http://www.winslowhomer.org/images/p...mmer-night.jpg

Years ago I saw this painting at the MFA in Boston. They had a Winslow Homer collection there for a couple of months. I was mesmerized by it. It wasn't just that it looked like the rocks at Fogland Beach in Little Compton RI or rocks on the 12 mile drive (I've seen it called the 10 mile drive, but I grew up calling it 12) in Newport RI, nor was it only that there were 2 women dancing on a beautiful moonlit summer's night while a bunch of women sat on the rocks and stared out at the ocean, although that many women hanging out together and dancing in the moonlight in 1890 seemed way cool to me, it was the way Homer somehow made the moonlight look like it was actually sparkling off the water. It was a fabulous painting to my decidedly untrained eye and literally took my breath away. It also taught me that I needn't care that I knew jack shit about art or painting and it didn't matter how other people felt about the painting. All that is really important is how a piece of art speaks to you.

I grew up surrounded by ocean. I lived between Massachusetts' North shore with its amazing beaches, Cape Cod with its breathtaking sandy beaches that are a part of the National Seashore, and the rocky coastline of Newport, Tiverton, Little Compton etc. I was pretty lucky. I miss the ocean more than I can say.

I was born in Daytona Beach, Florida. The beach has always been a natural way for me to relax. As a kid, we would go to the beach every weekend during the summer and even in the winter. I currently live in Bew Smyrna Beach, Florida and about ten minutes from the beach. I love the sunsets and sunrises here.

Thank you for starting this thread!

Zimmeh

That is one of my favorite movies!
Thank you for high lighting it.

love of ocean
 

I was born in Newfoundland Canada. The entire province is surrounded by the Atlantic ocean. There are lakes and rivers wherever you go but standing on high ground and looking at the ocean or walking the beaches on a windy day watching the waves crash on the rocks is my favorite. I go there every year I can and just breathe the salt air. It lifts me up so much.

Old Point Loma Lighthouse ~ San Diego
 

http://i66.tinypic.com/6g9a85.jpg

I am crazy over lighthouses and this is my favorite one, Old Point Loma Lighthouse, late 1800s, at the Cabrillo Monument in San Diego. It is furnished with Victorian furniture from the era of the last family who lived there. They lived off of the garden and livestock they kept there as well. The children would travel across the bay to school. I love their story.

There was no way I could capture all of the most vast panoramic view of the sea that I think I've ever seen from that hilltop. I've seen a lot of beaches and ocean views and this was the most unforgettable. I was in awe.

http://i64.tinypic.com/a9y5c0.jpg

This is Marconi Beach, one of my favorite beaches in Cape Cod. Pics rarely do justice to stuff like this.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com...152a478dd5.jpg

There are literally miles of beaches along the Cape Cod National Seashore.

You can camp at Race Point Beach and I remember my wife and I really early one July morning drinking iced coffee on the beach and watching whales spouting water about 50 yards off shore. The memories I have of my time by the ocean are some of the best of my life.

One of my favorite memories was very, very, early one morning paddling a small raft type floatie way out in Cape Cod Bay so far out that I could no longer see the shore and just floating and letting the tide take me for awhile. A sandpiper landed on my leg and rode with me the whole way while I paddled back towards land. It was awesome. Here's a pic of the kind of floatie it was
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...Ip76YBpCM22b9j

Step into Liquid...Loving the ocean
 

Step Into Liquid (1/10) Movie CLIP - It's All About the Wave (2003) HD

Love the ocean...am addicted to this documentary...Madre Mar...

Great thread gotoseagrl!

Greco

I love driving at night between Port Orange, Florida and New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Crossing Rose Bay, you will see the Prince de Leon Lighthouse lit up. It's very pretty and I've sent out a few post cards with its image. What I love about living on the East Coast of Florida, is that you can drive along A1A from Daytona Beach Shores to St. Augustine and just look out at the ocean. Flagler Beach is a non driving beach and its orange colored coquina rock beaches are my favorite. http://ponceinlet.org

That is the one thing that I never was able to do while living in Massachusetts.

Thank you because now I will be planning a trip to Cape Cod!

Zimmeh

you can hear the sound...close your eyes...

The only part of Florida I have ever been in the ocean is Naples and I loved how warm and full of life the water was. I had to be careful walking around in the water because i would crush the sand dollars which were abundant. I remember a ray jumped out of the water almost exactly where I was standing. My wife's step mother told us that only sharks make them do that. We made a day trip to Sanibel Island during that visit. It was before hurricane Charley split it in two, but we never went in the water. However from the top looking over a cliff I saw several sharks swimming with some boys who were body surfing. I doubt they even knew the sharks were there. I am totally in love with sharks. I respect them immensely but I also have great affection for them. They are awesome to see. I've spent years in the ocean, snorkling, diving, swimming, paddling my ass across Cape Cod Bay on a floatie and a variety of other water activities and I've only had the privilege of encountering up close and personal ten sharks in my lifetime. It was an awe inspiring experience every single time.

I would love to live where the water is warm and you can swim in the ocean all year. When I lived in MA near the ocean (which was most of my life) I swam from the minute i could stand to be in the ocean (maybe May) until the minute it was impossible for me to remain in the water without going numb, maybe the end of October. I remember going to an ENT for a bad ear infection and all he wanted to talk about, and dragged several students in for a look at, was something about the shape of my ear inside. He asked me if I my ethnicity was Northern European. I told him I was Portuguese and if my geography is correct that hardly qualifies as north. Then he asked me if I did a lot of cold water ocean swimming. Yep. Sure did.

But the water is great on Cape Cod for sure. What part of MA did you live? And what couldn't you do in the ocean?

I remember years ago when I went diving in Massachusetts waters as well as Newport and Little Compton, I always wore a knife on my leg. People teased me that there were no sharks what was the knife for. I didn't bring a knife to kill a shark for god's sake. You never know when you might get tangled up in something or other, maybe seaweed or some such shit. It just made sense to me. And there most certainly were sharks. Maybe not so many white sharks like you see today. The booming seal population has changed a lot, especially in Cape Cod waters and is infinitely more attractive to the white shark.

Massachusetts Bay has some unique properties I think. There's an underwater plateau, Stellwagen Bank, that makes a kind of nutrient filled more shallower area surrounded by deep water that is so attractive to tons of fish and mammals. I think it's what makes whale watching so awesome in the area.

I miss the ocean.

Aurosonic & Morphing Shadows - Ocean Wave (Gleb Stotland Symphonic Orchestra Mix)