To the inland ILX folks...

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How do you do it? I barely ever go to the beach (maybe thrice a year or so) but I think I'd go bonkers if I didn't live near the sea. I do fish in the Bay a lot, and I took a ferry home from work a couple weeks ago on a lark.

I was born in a port town, and as a child I could see the waves off in the distanct; and I live in a port town now. The furthest I've ever lived from the sea was Santa Rosa, about 40 minutes to the beach.

I like to visit the Great Plains and Badlands and all that.. but I'd freak out to live there.

"And the sailors say 'Brandy, you're a fine girl, what a good wife you would be...'"

― andy --, Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

great lakes

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

you know, i realize that i've never lived that far inland. i've always been within reasonable driving distance of a coast (three or four hours away at most).

― jody von oy (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

(i am including the gulf of mexico as "a coast," because it is!)

― jody von oy (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I'd go bonkers if I didn't live near the sea.

Pretty much my take too. I am deeply, profoundly satisfied by knowing that the land *ends* and does so right nearby.

Growing up in a Navy family, of course, has a lot to do with it -- aside from that weird time in upstate New York, all my life has been spent essentially within a few miles of the ocean or a deep bay (ie San Francisco Bay, one of the greatest things about the natural world ever). So it's what I'm used to -- I'm sure my dad felt the same way, seeing as he grew up in Carmel, California, also right on the ocean.

So I know it's a matter of upbringing with me, of what I am familiar with and what I know. The idea of being stuck somewhere just...continuing, land going on and on, no *edge,* no end, is profoundly unsettling to me.

great lakes

Wouldn't work for me, I think. I've seen the Great Lakes and they're huge and all, but still...I'd need the infinity the ocean provides.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

aside from that weird time in upstate New York

yeah, but even then you weren't THAT far from the ocean.

― jody von oy (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

the oceans aren't infinite resources.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

There are these things called lakes. They usually are a fair bit more enjoyable (and less dangerous) then the cold Atlantic.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I Love Democrasea

― Sven Basted (blueski), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Uh, swimming pools?

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, but even then you weren't THAT far from the ocean.

Perhaps, but when you're used to, you know, the ocean being five blocks away, or the bay to be just over a marshfield, then your standards are a bit different. ;-)

the oceans aren't infinite resources.

Of course not but it's all in a matter of perspective...hm, how can I explain this. Hold on, let me dig out an old post of mine.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:41 (twenty-one years ago)

fractal geometry teaches us that a finite ocean can still have an infinitely long coastline

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

(on a planet not our own)

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

humans really need to stop thinking about things on earth as being infinite.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

If you grew up near water, you're used to it. I'm not denying how mesmerizing water is, but I grew up in AZ, we had rivers for two months out of the year and that was about it, never saw bodies of water otherwise (I think there was a lake about 60 miles away, and there was a community pool that was open in summer only). It's just the way it is.

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, water reservoirs, bathtubs, and puddles.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

lake havasu!

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

We did most of our summertime swimming in the inland rivers because the Pacific on the Northcoast is perilous and cold. I loved the rivers; but there's something crazy and dramatic about the ocean - the rage, the fury, the smell, the sealions and shipwrecks and all that - that rivers and lakes don't share.

Wait! "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" is a lake song.

― andy --, Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, here it is. The key point:

And me? Well, I grew up near the sea, Navy family and all. I'm always used to the edge of the land, as I like to think of it. I like knowing that a continent ends. For me, some of the greatest and most intense personal pleasures of my life have been found while standing out on the edge of the sea, looking out across the ocean separating Olympic Peninsula from Vancouver Island while standing in the sunset on a western cliff on San Juan Island, or gazing out towards the Outer Hebrides from the Isle of Skye, right near the edge. These to me are personal, almost holy places -- societal programming via Romantic sensibilities and theories of the sublime, perhaps. But I cannot and will not deny the power and grace I feel there, where there is nothing but short trees if any, wind hissing through the grass, waves crashing on the shore and an endless blue vista reaching out to an infinity.

I got that yesterday, out on Taireoa (I hope I've spelled that right) Head at the end of Otago Peninsula. There the land and sea all blend, while the mainland of New Zealand is just right there -- the way down the water to Dunedin is a pocket of contained beauty, the founding of the city a logical consequence of colonial interest and personal practicality. I looked out, slightly to the north and west -- I could see sudden cliffs and mountains almost rising out of the water, and deeper inland the snow-covered mountains still there at the heart of the island, while the ocean swept out like a dream. Cormorants nested or flew in the air, and I was at perfect peace with everything. I could only imagine was a cold winter's night might be like, with howling winds and a storm rising, but my time there was quietly dramatic and haunting enough. Every last fantasy of building the ultimate getaway isolated from everything and surrounded on almost all sides by ocean came to mind -- a silly idea, of course. But not one to be ignored by my psyche, at the cost of denying who I am and what impulses I can feel.

And trust me, lakes have never given me that feeling -- not even Lake Superior.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Something the inland folks might not know: We all speak like the folks in "A Perfect Storm" or a bad Stephen King film - "Pep'ridge Fahms!"

― andy --, Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sure my dad felt the same way, seeing as he grew up in Carmel, California, also right on the ocean.

Although I'm sure there are many varied people in Carmel, I'm amusing myself right now with the notion that Ned's dad is Clint Eastwood.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Congratulations! You win the "Eight Millionth Person Who Says Something About Clint Whenever I Mention Carmel" Award. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I just finished a book about the history of Bohemian Carmel.. all these poets and painters and photogs and dancers colonised there initially, and there were practically giving away land... it was super cheap. Jack London used to party there.

Now you can't buy a tool shed for less than a million. No boho's anymore! Not even any dishwashers.

― andy --, Thursday, 31 March 2005 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I read the title of this thread as "[It is U&K that we flee the coast, so] TO THE INLAND, ilx folks!"

― OleM (OleM), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I live 30 miles from one of the arms of the Gulf of Mexico. I don't see it terribly often, though.

― What we want? Sex with T.V. stars! What you want? Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

On those odd years where I don't get to indulge in at least a week of beachfront time, I go kinda crazy.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:07 (twenty-one years ago)

the gulf of mexico's got arms?

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:11 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't quite remember the last time I was on a beach. No big deal.

― Jordan (Jordan), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm within rock-throwing distance of a major river right now. I'm comfortable with the fact that I could get to the ocean, Huck & Jim style, if I had to.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't really like the beach.

― n/a (Nick A.), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

That second paragraph is quite lyrical, Ned.

― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread is makin' me thirsty.

― 57 7th (calstars), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Every thread makes me thirsty.

― andy --, Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:28 (twenty-one years ago)

That second paragraph is quite lyrical, Ned.

Well thank ya. One tries.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Eight Millionth Person Who Says Something About Clint Whenever I Mention Carmel" Award

How many millions mention Doris Day?

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Far fewer.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 31 March 2005 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought the thread title said "to the ISLAND ilx folks..." and i was gonna say "Ahoy there!", but now i'm not gonna.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 31 March 2005 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Scott can we put on ScottFest 2005 in August on your island?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 31 March 2005 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

the gulf of mexico's got arms?
Yep, really long bastard tentacles that've been known to slap on the backdoor of the state capitol and get little Jebby shivering in his Depends.

― What we want? Sex with T.V. stars! What you want? Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Ma, Thursday, 31 March 2005 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

sure, ned. sounds cool. i like the name. is it you and dan doing a cappella cure covers?

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 31 March 2005 20:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I miss the sea. Growing up on an island, I breathed in the salty air everyday. Then I moved to Indiana, which (I guess) helped me to aclimatise to living in the middle of the UK. I don't miss it so much now, but smelling the sea air now just reminds me of when I was young.

― jellybean (jellybean), Thursday, 31 March 2005 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I rarely go to the beach, but I see the ocean several times a week and I really like knowing it's there, knowing that there's an endless horizon over that way.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 31 March 2005 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Hurrah! Spencer calls that feeling well, it's the knowing -- it's reassuring, really.

Scott: I'll have to ponder this.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 31 March 2005 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i've only seen the ocean from airplanes. oh wait, i went to beach in sydney. and then to coney island. is that the ocean you see from coney island?

― phil-two (phil-two), Thursday, 31 March 2005 20:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I could easily go the rest of my life without ever setting foot on a beach again. I like the sound of the ocean and can watch waves for a long time, but that just requires coastline, not a beach. And I can live without it.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 31 March 2005 20:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I once had a friend take me to a manmade concrete lake in central Nebraska. It was night with a quarter moon. Standing there, listening to the waves lap and just barely able to see the horizon, I almost could've fooled myself.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 31 March 2005 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, which of the Great Lakes did you see and from what vantage point??? I mean, Lake Superior and Lake Michigan are freakishly huge and, when you're standing on their shores, practically indistinguishable from standing on the shor of the ocean.

I used to have an apartment that looked out over Boston Harbor. It was nice but at the end of the day it didn't matter to me at all that the ocean was less than a football field away from my building's front door; our entirely land-locked place in the close suburbs is much nicer.

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 31 March 2005 21:15 (twenty-one years ago)

You never visited St Kilda beach then, Phil?

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 1 April 2005 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)

god do i ever miss the ocean :(

― jones (actual), Friday, 1 April 2005 00:13 (twenty-one years ago)

meh lakes more like

― jones (actual), Friday, 1 April 2005 00:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I live 1000 miles from the nearest ocean. I LOVE the ocean, but I take it as a given that it is something I only see during vacations, at most once a year. Makes it more special. That being said, I'd love to live nearer to it. Right now though I'd settle for being near a mountain. or a even a fucking hill.

― ()ops (()()ps), Friday, 1 April 2005 00:15 (twenty-one years ago)

the sea is a harsh mistress

― j blount (papa la bas), Friday, 1 April 2005 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

CARMEL, CA

― Poundstretcher (nordicskilla), Friday, 1 April 2005 01:34 (twenty-one years ago)

The ocean is right at the end of my street! (sorta)

― Poundstretcher (nordicskilla), Friday, 1 April 2005 01:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, which of the Great Lakes did you see and from what vantage point???

Superior at various points, Michigan up and down the coast in Wisconsin, Erie as well at one point I believe. Oh, and Ontario briefly. Yeah, they're big and all but just lack a certain something -- maybe it's the salt air.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 1 April 2005 01:39 (twenty-one years ago)

THE OCEAN SHE IS A HARSH MISTRESS

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 1 April 2005 01:40 (twenty-one years ago)

i like to imagine hstencil drinking half of the atlantic ocean. "man, that hit the spot."

do rivers count? chicago is near a lake, boston and new york near the ocean, in connecticut i wasn't *that* far from the coast, but in paris there was the seine and that's about it.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 1 April 2005 01:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I live about 150 miles away from the nearest bit of the Gulf of Mexico, which is pretty damn far for someone who can barely spare the time to go ten miles out of her way for anything. There are tiny, minor rivers and lakes around this area, but nothing even remotely resembling one of the Great Lakes or the Mississippi. I don't really mind; I'm not one for beaches or oceanfronts, though sometimes it can get a bit monotonous living here. I guess if I lost a lot of weight and wanted to put on a bathing suit and frolic on the beach, I'd think about it for awhile and then fret about how dirty those beaches are, where the sand might possibly end up, how much sunscreen I could apply so I don't tan at all (because I'm already dark enough, thankyouverymuch), how unclean that ocean water must be -- and I'd end up not enjoying my day at the beach one bit. I do have experiences with living near oceanfronts (near the Pacific Ocean), brief ones comparative to the length of time I've been alive, and I did like how the ocean's influence tempered the climate, made it more pleasant to live there, but I only went down to the beach a handful of times, and every time I felt like I would've enjoyed being at a sanitized swimming pool a LOT more.

― I am that unhip, naive nobody you always avoid. (Dee the Lurker), Friday, 1 April 2005 04:05 (twenty-one years ago)

i like to imagine hstencil drinking half of the atlantic ocean. "man, that hit the spot."

i am not one of the seven chinese brothers.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 1 April 2005 05:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the beach. Sacramento's not that close to beaches of any kind, but neither was my hometown of Colac when I lived in Australia. The difference was then that my mum had grown up near the beach, so as a family we'd go every chance we got, for summer holidays or even just for day trips, down to Lorne, Torquay, Warrnambool, you name it. Here, the only time I get to see ocean is when we go to San Francisco...and from what I can figure out the decent beaches are fair way away from Sacramento anyway. I'll never forget the first American 'beach' I saw was at Santa Cruz, and I was horrified. Not only because the beach was fairly unnattractive, but because there was a massive rip & people were swimming in it. Shrug. I realise now that this wasn't really representative of California beaches, but Australian beaches are like nothing I've seen. When my husband visited for the first time I took him to Port Fairy. Standing at the water's edge, he tasted the water. Just dipped his finger in the ocean, tasted it. "Hmm. It tastes clean", was all he said. I always thought that was cool.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 1 April 2005 05:38 (twenty-one years ago)

BTW, I love San Francisco bay. LOVE. IT.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 1 April 2005 05:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Folks in Kansas live near the ocean

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 1 April 2005 06:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned's right. The great lakes don't got shit on oceans.

― ()ops (()()ps), Friday, 1 April 2005 06:33 (twenty-one years ago)

but they're great.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 1 April 2005 06:38 (twenty-one years ago)

ILX, please by me one fast, strong hulled sailing yacht and I'll take you sailing round the world.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 1 April 2005 06:52 (twenty-one years ago)

You never visited St Kilda beach then, Phil?

oh wait, i went to the esplanade once. and i was told not to walk on the beach unless i wanted to step on a heorin needle... but there was a yummy italian ice cream place there

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 1 April 2005 09:26 (twenty-one years ago)

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