How Far Are You From Salt Water?

[haha]

I grew up in the upper South. No salt water anywhere around, except on occasiaonal trips to Florida or the Gulf Coast. But after I left home, I have usually lived within walking distance to salt water. It is an easy walk to me now, about 1 mile.

How about you folks? Is this an issue for you? I got used to the smell of seaweed and tide flats, and it is comforting to me.

Ha

 

[OldAgePensioner]

Lake Michigan is brackish I think. Yeah, the smell of salt water is a potion to be taken in full measure. After a little sojourn in SF, I think its SD or Baja for me.

Ahh, SD sittin at the Green Flash in Pacific Beach with a burger, a Margarita and a teenie.

 

[VoyT]

   I've spent my life (so far) as a landlocked Midwesterner .. the nearest large body of water to me is Lake Michigan, and that's about 21/2 hours away...

   I always enjoy visiting the ocean -- and I wouldn't mind living near some type of water someday, though I'm not sure about being in a hurricane area.

    DH grew up on the East Coast, and he periodically feels the need to go somewhere with a beach....

 

[cube_rat]

The ocean is down the street from our house.

 

[cj]

Chesapeake Bay.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

i'm a 3-mile bike ride to the beach. we have no seaweed smell. the beach is raked every morning for the tourists. too bad the raking machines don't pick up the little tar balls too. sometimes on a hot summer days they melt into the footprint. ah, nothing quite like the smell of fresh tar on an ocean breeze in the morning.

 

[MJ]

Although I have always been not too far from salt water, I have had a preference for (clean) fresh water. I had a large piece of property in upstate NY which had a small brook going through it so I had a 1/2 acre pond built. I always enjoyed spending time swimming in that small body of refreshing water.

 

[haha]

My all time most loved water was Jones Beach, NY. Second Venice Beach, third, Huntington Beach in Orange County.

Ha

 

[Brat]

As the eagles fly: about 375 feet out from my living room window, 108 feet below.

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Can I get two votes? My hearth, home and heart are in the Pacific Northwest, where I grew up. I can see Bellingham Bay from where I sit right now. My residence most of the year is in Calgary, where I can see the Bow River (it ain't the Columbia, but we takes what we can get)--about 800? miles as the crow flies from the Pacific.

Certain smells remind me of my childhood:
- deisel oil on salt water,
- tide flats with seaweed drying in the sun,
- sandy beaches with seaweed, little sea critters of all kinds and driftwood drying in the sun at low tide,
- fires on the beach using driftwood for cooking hot dogs and Mrs. Olson's clam fritters,
- salt spray on the deck of a ferryboat,
- and the smell of my grandmother's lemon sugar cookies coming ot of the oven
(but we were talking about The Sea, weren't we?).

 

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

Trees, mountains and water (prefereably salt water) make us happy. (It was pretty grim in Chicago.) I hope we can get at least two out of three in retirement.

 

[Martha]

A short walk down to Lake Superior. Our third floor apartment has a nice view of the lake.

Like the smell of the lake and watching the waves. I do not appreciate that the big cold lake delays spring here by weeks.

But the crocus are in bloom.

 

[Arif]

Closest salt water is the Pacific Ocean about 45 min. away. HOWEVER, in a few months that distance should be .3 miles away

 

[nnkrealtor]

about 2 miles from the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay

 

[unclemick]

Up until Katrina - Lake Ponchartrain(brackish) was under the back porch. 1-1 1/2 foot Gulf tide.

Now - maybe 1000 miles away as the crow flies - close enough for a while. On a big hill - well above the Missouri flood plain.

heh heh heh

P.S. We ducked cooking for Easter - just bringing four store bought pies - 15 people - small gathering enough cooks.

 

[sgeeeee]

After flowing across the dessert, all water in Pheonix is salty. We're about 170 miles from the Gulf of California.

 

[Evelyne]

2.4 miles to Puget Sound.

 

[wabmester]

My all time most loved water was Jones Beach, NY. Second Venice Beach, third, Huntington Beach in Orange County.

You live near the Sound now, but it's not on your list.   Any special reason?

I couldn't tell you which was my favorite.   I prefer the sand and sun of La Jolla to the rocks and gray skys of Puget Sound, but Puget Sound wins for having fewer people, more biodiversity, and the ability to put my kayak in the water just about wherever/whenever I want.

We used to have a little place right on the water in Port Orchard.   A stream terminated at the Sound nearby, so that created an interesting estuary with lots of water fowl.   We could put the kayak in from the backyard and paddle over to Blake Island.   We had a nice protected harbor with a view of the Seattle skyline.

Would have been perfect, except the shallow harbor was subject to algal blooms every summer and gave the place the not-so-great odor of Sulphur Dioxide.     Probably not the smell of the sea you were thinking of.

 

[haha]

You live near the Sound now, but it's not on your list.   Any special reason?

Absence of warm water and semi-naked women. Otherwise, Puget Sound, the Straits and the WA Pacific beaches are beautiful, and as you say they display huge biodiversity.

Ha

 

[Outtahere]

I'm about 10 miles from the Atlantic, two miles from a river that flows there, half mile from a stream and about 500 yards from a small pond. I go to the ocean a couple times a week when weather permits and always stop by the stream when walking the dog.

 

[Nords]

Within a few miles in every direction.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

8 feet from the preserved lemon bin in my fridge.

 

[AFloat]

Does living on the water count? We live on our boat in Anacortes, WA. We have a house overlooking the water in Anacortes that we are cleaning out to sell. In the summer there are few places nicer than the PNW, in the winter that’s up for debate. It’s been a very cold and stormy winter up here. It’s currently in the low 40’s, blowing 25+ mph with a light rain.
We just got back from a road trip to Tucson and then back up Hwy 1 in CA. It’s nice to see the sun and feel warm for a change. I’ve told my DW that we’ll stay around here for a couple more years and then I want to move South. If we want to continue on the boat then we might take it to Mexico, if not we’ll look for a place in the SW or maybe Mexico. I love the water but I also like to desert. It’s nice to go outside without putting on polar-tech and rain gear. We’ll see what we feel like after a few years.

 

[astromeria]

6-7 miles to the closest beach at Isle of Palms, SC (but a couple miles further to my favorite stretch of that beach). We have to go over the Intracoastal Waterway to get there, so we're maybe 4 miles to salt water. And the tidal marsh is probably only 2 miles through the woods across the main street that leads to our neighborshood. We're also across the street from a pretty 40-acre manmade lake.

I grew up going to Jones Beach every Saturday or Sunday in warm weather and occasionally the rest of the year. That salty, tangy air is more intense than the ocean air here in South Carolina--perhaps becasue the waves crash harder and it's windier off Long Island(?). AH, the smells of my youth...that lung-clearing ocean air!

 

[rs0460a]

Currently, 90 miles.  However, with global warming in the next few hundred years, whomever "owns" my land will probably have beach-front property... 

- Ron