O is for Ocean
Martha’s Vineyard
I have always lived near the ocean. Well, near enough, anyway. We can be at a couple of different beaches within 40 minutes. And we can be on Cape Cod in under an hour. I guess, when you spend your whole life living near the water, you take it for granted. So I want to use this post to write down what I love about the ocean.
Plymouth Beach
I love to listen to the sound of the surf. When I was a kid, I used to spend a lot of time on Orr’s Island in Maine. And I loved falling asleep to the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks.
I love walking on the beach and finding beautiful shells and unique rocks and sea glass. Years ago I found a rock that’s shaped like a heart and it’s been sitting on my bedside table ever since.
Old Silver Beach, Falmouth
I love to swim in the salt water and ride the waves. A couple of summers ago Dale and I spent a day at Goosewing Beach in Little Compton, RI. The waves were fantastic and we had a blast in the water that day. I was exhausted by the time we went home.
I love to eat at restaurants that are on the water. There’s nothing more relaxing than drinking a cold beer and admiring the ocean view.
Nelson Beach, Plymouth
I love to knit on the beach. It’s relaxing and soothing and a great way to pass the time.
I love the availability of fresh fish. Lobsters and clams and fish aren’t always cheap around here but they are always available and they are definitely fresh. We had someone give us two freshly caught stripers a couple of weeks ago and we had a fantastic meal of fish cooked on the grill.
I guess mostly I just love being at the ocean. Whether it’s eating or relaxing or knitting (or all of the above) I truly love the ocean.
How about you? What do you love about the ocean?
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I love the ocean’s vitality, it’s crispness, and the sound of its waves, especially at Thunderhole in Baxter State Park, ME. As a kid, I got to swim at Misquamicut in RI, probably once a summer (before good highway access, 6 kids crammed into a ’62 Chevy Impala convertible – I can now appreciate why the folks didn’t take us more often). The body surfing there was a lot of fun, though one time it took me for a very impressive tumble and I’m surprised I got out of it. The ocean will challenge you!
I love that crunchy-hair thing that I get after swimming in it. And I love that I live so close to it that when the wind is blowing in the right direction I can smell that ocean smell!
I can’t imagine living more than a few minutes from it.
I love the physical echo you can feel while trying to fall asleep after playing in the waves all day.
The smell of the ocean, the stickiness of the air.
I love drifting up and down on the waves, just past the breaker line. I love watching the kite surfers at sunset.
Love the ocean. Hate sand. Now in MA, that’s not that big of a problem…so many rocks. Kevin and I got married by a JOP at the beach.
Yes, I love the ocean too. It’s very hard not to relax when you go there. And the smell…mmm there is nothing like the smells at the beach. I haven’t been to any ocean in a long time. I should really do something about that.
You’re killing me, Carole. I spent my childhood in southern Maine and spent many, many summer days at Goose Rocks Beach. For me, it’s the salt air breeze. Ahhh!!
Damn you! I just wrote this same post in my head on the drive home yesterday for my O entry, so proud of myself.
I love the ocean too, especially Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester. The crashing sound of the waves hitting the shore at night. And how when you look out, you just see the distance and the world feels infinite and limitless. And, of course, the seafood. Since we don’t eat shellfish in our house, we LOVE eating shellfish at the beach.
The salty smell of the ocean, the constant breeze, the warm sand in your toes. Cold beer and lots of steamers. What’s not to love.
I can’t wait to head up to Hermit Island in Maine this August.
The smell and the feel of the air :o)
*sigh* I wish I lived closer to the sea.
There is a small beach a block from Smith’s unlces house in Marblehead. I love to walk among the rocks and on the bit of sand and feel the wind, smell the air and watch the waves. The beach is a mesmerizing and magical place. If I didn’t have the mountains the beach would be the other place I’d want to live.
Me too me too! Just love listening to the ocean!
I’d never seen the ocean until I moved to LA during college, and I adored it from the start, especially the sound of the surf.
I’m a shore-lover too. Nothing compares to the salty air, the crash of the waves, the indistinct line where sky and water meet. Even off-season–I won’t pass up a walk on the beach at any time of year.
Growing up we owned a place in Galveston and I loved falling asleep with the windows open so you could here the water and feel the breeze. Wonderful post!
I love the color blue. Blue on blue.
Everything – best of all, you can yell all your troubles into it and it will swallow them up, take them out to sea and NEVER tell them to another person.
wonderful post Carole – I love the power of the ocean, and the way the air is filled with energy. Oceans are truly amazing.
We’ve lived on the Gulf for so long that I sometimes forget what the real Atlantic is like. This was a great post, Carole. As usual, you photographs are beautiful.
I like to listen, too. Mostly, I like to just watch those waves come in, go out, come in, go out, come in, go… you know… and think about stuff, like how those waves come in, go out…
; )
i love the smell of the ocean. even when it smells bad. and how the air is just cleaner near the ocean. i love the ocean in the fall and winter and the way the waves crash on the rocks and cliffs. although i rarely go to the beach, i can’t imagine living that far from it for any long period of time. i like to know that it’s right “there”
I love the sound. It’s so soothing and constant. It’s one of those things that’s just there. I wanna live on the ocean!
Well, I love walking along the shore (provided it’s not near a water treatment facility). But swimming in the ocean gives me the creeps. Fish toilet. 😉
I love the smell of the air and the feel of the sand beneath my feet. And I especially love the ocean off season, when it’s quiet and there’s hardly anyone around–usually because it’s so damn cold.
The smell. The salty air. The sound. The amazing colors. The ever-changing sights. . . . sigh . . .
I love that it’s so utterly different from where I live and spend most of my life. Sure, we have the great inland sea of Lake Superior, but there’s something special about the salt water, knowing it stretches to different continents…
I love the infinite surf, the timelessness of waves moving in and out. You can cast your troubles and cares on the water, and send them away. The contemplation of the water calms. The smells are the smells of my childhood. The light is different, and the junction of sea and sky changes endlessly.
“O” is for OMG, those are gorgeous photos. I love the ocean for the fresh salty air, and the open expanse of the endless ocean. And knowing that we are here, and there is someone way over there thinking the same thing.
I love the smells. Sunscreen, the salty tang in the air, the slightly fishy smell on some beaches. I especially love the beach in the winter. The beaches are pretty empty and you can walk the shore forever believing that you’re the only one around. I love it.
I think I like the sound the best, and the breeze when there is one.
I remember the first time I was in Plymouth, and saw the “rock.” Major disappointment…….
Ooh, I should have guessed that this would be your O! Well, the ocean over on this side of the country is much colder, so loving it for swimming just isn’t the thing, but I do love the power of the waves breaking against the shore and the rocks, and of course, the birds.
I love watching the waves come in and go out, while the sandpipers chase them. I love the smell of the ocean, and how the sand feels between your toes. There really isn’t anything I don’t love about the ocean; I’m a Cancer, and wish I lived closer to the ocean.
The smell, but I really hate the sand and the salt. Bicycling past the beach does me.
😉
Lobster, Clams, Cod and Haddock,the way cocoa butter smells…only at the beach, sanddollars and starfish,the cool from a dip and dripping dry after, sun on my skin…love it all!
Sadly, I have never lived closer than 4 hours from the ocean. But a trip there every year (okay, not once in the past 6 years) is a major event for me. My stepmother and I are taking my daughter to Maine in August. Only for 2 days, but she’s never seen the ocean and is convinced it will be just like the small lake we go to here in VT.
I was trying to explain to her the difference between the lake and the ocean and one of the main ones is the sound of the surf. And the saltiness of the water. This kid will be wave jumping within 5 minutes of hitting the beach. (I have intense memories of the salty water smell at the Jersey shore and I’ve never smelled it like that anywhere else. I’m wondering if it was my childish smell receptors, which hold so many memories, or if Seaside Heights had something nowhere else does.)
Spending a day at the beach, then showering and changing (and bringing a sweater for later, of course) and going out to eat on a wharf somewhere and being a total tourist also have great memory associations for me.
Can’t wait till August.
OK, here’s the thing. I love you for the hats you knit for me but now I have to hate you for showing me that gorgeous beaded bracelet and leading me to the Earthfaire site. Yup, I’m doomed or should I say my credit card is gonna wear out. Really though thanks for the hats, they are so darn cute.
Okay, now I’m envious. You’ve always lived near the ocean? Sigh…I’ve always wanted to live near the ocean. I love everything about it. Rocky beaches, the salty smell, the little critters you can find in the sand when the tide goes out….etc….etc.
I love sitting and watching the colours of the water changes, as wind anbd clouds move overhead, and as the sun shines through the waves. I grew up very near the coast too, and we used to camp on Plum Island and fly kites all day long when I was a kid. Other favorite beach is just north of Marblehead, can’t coome up with the name, but it is less a beach and more an explosion of granite, we would wade in tide pools and collect chells and rocks and take naps on the warm rocks.
I grew up near the ocean and then lived right at the ocean …..then I thought I would love to live in the mountains, which I do, but now I miss the ocean. Silly me. Once the kids are grown, I am going back 🙂
What I miss most is the smell of the salt air and the gentle clanging of the buoys as I lay in bed. Skinny dipping in the dark is scary…..you can feel the presence sharks in the water….hehe
Seagulls……I LOVE them!