Living near water

[lastmanstanding]

For 3 years I lived in the last house of the road to the beach. Sea was just a few meters away. I would walk on the beach late night with friends, and that's something I enjoyed a lot. Breathing sea breeze gives life, just like the misty wind on the hills. But rivers going through cities is something I don't even go near.

 

[TastyReuben]

Where have I lived near water...

Grew up with a small creek running through the property. I used to swing across it on a grapevine (like Tarzan), hunt for crawdads under the rocks, and hike up and down it. I once drank from a small pool of water in the creek, and then found the remains of a dead dog a little further upstream.

Upstate NY, lived on the shores of Lake Champlain, more or less. We had a beach on the AF base - never went to it once in five years. The most interaction I had with the water was taking the ferry over to Vermont. My to-be wife's dad had a boat, and one summer, we all went out on Mirror Lake (very near Lake Placid), and I was bored stiff.

San Antonio - famous for its riverwalk right through the city - smelled bad and looked very dirty to me. We also went to Galveston, which was just about the dirtiest city I'd ever been to, and South Padre Island, which wasn't much better, and smelled bad.

Worked in Oxfordshire (RAF Upper Heyford), and the only water I remember there was a nearby canal with canal boats. Moved to Cambridgeshire and lived within a 10 minute walk of the River Ouse, very nice and gentle. I rather liked that one.

Delaware, just flat and marshy and smelly. That's what I remember of that.

Minnesota, The Land Of (slightly more than) 10,000 Lakes - it was hard not to live near water there. Our house was one street back from Prior Lake, and I used to walk the dog down there, and we had a sizable (public) pond that butted up against our back yard. I used to walk around Lake Calhoun at lunch sometimes (just like Mary Tyler Moore did in her show's opening credits). Drove over the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers pretty much daily.

Where I live now, I'm about 10 minutes from two lakes (either direction) and a river that features a lot of drunken tubing in the summer.

As a kid, the first time I saw the ocean was when we went to St. George Island in Florida. Very upscale, wealthy community...and it smelled like an outhouse to me. We also went up to the UP (Michigan) and I liked taking that bridge across, that was thrilling, but the water didn't do much for me.

 

[MypinchofItaly]

Sounds amazing all those rivers and lakes you can swim in! We have a lot of lakes and rivers, but can only swim in the ocean. The rest is too polluted.

If you ever have a chance you're welcome to visit us, we're less than a mile from the ocean. I just haven't visited much yet because of the strain we've been under and the constant pain in my hernia that made walking in the sand harder.
However since I am on a low fibre diet the pain has subsided mostly, so we've been to the beach for the first time in months last weekend. We've promised each other to go every other week from now on. We both love the smell (sorry Tasty ) and the energy of the beach. It's very relaxing for both me and my husband. Might be because we're both fire signs (I am leo and he's aries) so we can use a little cool off time once in a while.

I would love to visit you in any case, with or without the ocean

How wonderful though, living less than a mile from the ocean and be able to enjoy it whenever you want. I also loved Amsterdam for its endless number of canals, just as I love the magic of Venice. Just think that until the 1950s Milan was criss-crossed by canals, which were then closed off and paved over to become streets and avenues. There are two important ones left, the two Navigli, Naviglio Grande and Naviglio Pavese. I love walking along the Navigli, just as I loved sitting on the banks of the Seine in Paris and enjoying a small plate of cheese and a glass of wine. I can't not mention Rome then. The Tevere has the same magic on me.
The first time I saw the ocean was in Portugal. I took off my shoes and put my feet in the water. Bad idea, they became two blocks of ice but hey, I liked it anyway.

I would love to show you the real Milan with its canals (well, only 2) as well as our lakes and the river Trebbia which is spectacular. Here it is a couple of photos of Trebbia river (South of Lombardy). The water-colour is like this for real.

 

[Mountain Cat]

I live near water.... that I can't really access these days. There's a steep ravine on the property next to mine, and a really nice stream rushes through it when there's enough rainfall or snow melt. There are also springs hereabouts that feed it. Unfortunately, I can't handle steep ravines with my knees any more, but I enjoy listening to it. (The property there is owned by a nature preserve, so I could go there if I wanted, or could.)

Oceans are nice, but they do have a habit of carrying away landscape and (more importantly) houses that perch near them, and sometimes those houses weren't built to perch near the ocean, but over time...

It was also a lot less pricy to purchase land where I have it, than along the ocean, or even along a regular lake.

However, I love the jagged coastline of Maine. I like that landscape over the sandy beaches further south on the east coast of the US. Growing up, we vacationed a bundle of years at a rental cottage on the Maine shore. The first couple years we set up a badminton court in the back yard. By the final year we were there, half of that court would have been down in the tidal zone. So, no more badminton.

I loved it there - we'd hunt for shellfish and sea spinach, and I wish I knew then that sea urchins were edible. Dad befriended the lobstermen, and we got to go out on the lobsterboad (though we could not do anything whatsoever to help, by a reasonable state law.) My parents had an opportunity to buy several acres on a nearby point, for next to nothing, but decided against it, deciding me and my brother would never be interested once we became adults. (They were wrong, and nowadays such land is not affordable.) That particular point was well-elevated on rock so that part isn't going to be washed away in the next 50 plus years.... There would have had to be a steep stairway down to the ocean, but with a railing it could have been do-able.

 

[caseydog]

Sounds amazing all those rivers and lakes you can swim in! We have a lot of lakes and rivers, but can only swim in the ocean. The rest is too polluted.

If you ever have a chance you're welcome to visit us, we're less than a mile from the ocean. I just haven't visited much yet because of the strain we've been under and the constant pain in my hernia that made walking in the sand harder.
However since I am on a low fibre diet the pain has subsided mostly, so we've been to the beach for the first time in months last weekend. We've promised each other to go every other week from now on. We both love the smell (sorry Tasty ) and the energy of the beach. It's very relaxing for both me and my husband. Might be because we're both fire signs (I am leo and he's aries) so we can use a little cool off time once in a while.

Rivers here are WAY better than they were. There was a time that a river was so polluted, that it actually caught on fire...

Cuyahoga River Fire - Ohio History Central

CD

 

[caseydog]

Where have I lived near water...

Grew up with a small creek running through the property. I used to swing across it on a grapevine (like Tarzan), hunt for crawdads under the rocks, and hike up and down it. I once drank from a small pool of water in the creek, and then found the remains of a dead dog a little further upstream.

Upstate NY, lived on the shores of Lake Champlain, more or less. We had a beach on the AF base - never went to it once in five years. The most interaction I had with the water was taking the ferry over to Vermont. My to-be wife's dad had a boat, and one summer, we all went out on Mirror Lake (very near Lake Placid), and I was bored stiff.

San Antonio - famous for its riverwalk right through the city - smelled bad and looked very dirty to me. We also went to Galveston, which was just about the dirtiest city I'd ever been to, and South Padre Island, which wasn't much better, and smelled bad.

Worked in Oxfordshire (RAF Upper Heyford), and the only water I remember there was a nearby canal with canal boats. Moved to Cambridgeshire and lived within a 10 minute walk of the River Ouse, very nice and gentle. I rather liked that one.

Delaware, just flat and marshy and smelly. That's what I remember of that.

Minnesota, The Land Of (slightly more than) 10,000 Lakes - it was hard not to live near water there. Our house was one street back from Prior Lake, and I used to walk the dog down there, and we had a sizable (public) pond that butted up against our back yard. I used to walk around Lake Calhoun at lunch sometimes (just like Mary Tyler Moore did in her show's opening credits). Drove over the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers pretty much daily.

Where I live now, I'm about 10 minutes from two lakes (either direction) and a river that features a lot of drunken tubing in the summer.

As a kid, the first time I saw the ocean was when we went to St. George Island in Florida. Very upscale, wealthy community...and it smelled like an outhouse to me. We also went up to the UP (Michigan) and I liked taking that bridge across, that was thrilling, but the water didn't do much for me.

Well, you just crossed off another thing we could do together if we ever were to meet. I already know you wouldn't let me cook with you, and now we'd have to avoid lakes, rivers and boats. I suppose you would share a few beers with me, but I'm not allowed to drink. Got any good non-alcohol beers up there?

CD

 

[caseydog]

I have a customer in Connecticut, around New Haven. Not a prospering city, these days, but great places to eat clams right on the edge of the water. I always like going there in summer months. First, the customers are really nice guys with killer cars, but after work, I get to go down to a waterfront bar/restaurant and eat fresh steamed clams, and chowder, and cod that was caught that day. Eating fresh seafood while overlooking the ocean makes the seafood even better. It's the same as eating a steak cooked over an open fire deep in the woods.

CD

 

[TastyReuben]

Rivers here are WAY better than they were. There was a time that a river was so polluted, that it actually caught on fire...

Cuyahoga River Fire - Ohio History Central

CD

Let's hear it for Ohio! Yeah, baby!

Well, you just crossed off another thing we could do together if we ever were to meet. I already know you wouldn't let me cook with you, and now we'd have to avoid lakes, rivers and boats. I suppose you would share a few beers with me, but I'm not allowed to drink. Got any good non-alcohol beers up there?

CD

We can get pizza, or German food, steaks, Italian, any of that'd be good. Even though I'm not a gear head, I like looking at cars, more from a design/cosmetic perspective, so we could go to a car show.

I've had very few NA beers, but one I can highly recommend, if you can get it there, is Franziskaner's NA beer. Not from Cincy, though, and a bit hard to find, but it's actually quite good.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

When we lived near Huntingdon, I used to walk sort of along the River Ouse, but even then

I to lived in Huntingdon for a few years (1970-1973) at R.A.F. Wyton not far from U.S.A.F. Alconbery.

 

[TastyReuben]

I to lived in Huntingdon for a few years (1970-1973) at R.A.F. Wyton not far from U.S.A.F. Alconbery.

I was stationed at Alconbury in the '90's. We lived on the Wyton side of Houghton-And-Wyton. I used to walk through the village down to the mill and then walk along the river there.

 

[Wyshiepoo]

I agree - I'd give anything to live in a house with sea views.

Depends where you are. Higher than sea level is fine but at sea level or just above it can be a nightmare.

My parents house is beautifully situated in the summer, but it can be a nightmare in the winter. They have Vazon bay to their left and Albecq to the front right.
When I lived at home it wasn't unusual to find seaweed on my bedroom window.
Every winter, if the weather is rough, the wind is in the wrong direction and it is spring tides my parents run the risk of flooding. They have to sandbag their house, drives and gates.

They live just where the arrow is.

 

[rascal]

Here's a view from a friend of my wife's. She's an I.c nurse and he's s pilot with air New Zealand. We have stayed here several times, although we turned it down this Xmas. One minute walk to sea. The house is valued at 2 million dollars. Yet there's no back yard. There's not a lot to do in summer unless you like swimming. This is in sumner.

Russ

 

[Burt Blank]

What a difference a day makes
Twenty-four little hours
Brought the sun and the flowers
Where there used to be rain. Well it's close enough. I like the stormy sea more than a flat calm.

 

[Duck59]

Ready for a story? No? Tough.

A Saturday evening in Eritrea. I was having a few beers at a hotel by the Red Sea. It was, I think, August, and the temperature, even at about ten o'clock at night was in the forties, probably about 45C. The humidity was intense and I was sweltering. Even though I was fairly well used to the heat and humidity by then, it was something else.

"I'm going for a swim," I announced, "I'll be back in fifteen minutes." I wandered down to the nearby beach, ditched tee-short and shorts and slipped into the sea. The water was pretty warm, but a whole lot cooler than what was going on outside of it.

After I'd been in for a couple of minutes, I heard some voices and spotted a truck trundling along the road. It was full of soldiers. Taking the view that getting arrested for indecent exposure might be harmful to my job prospects, I submerged. I'm not sure how long I held my breath for, but thankfully when I surfaced, the truck had gone past. I carried on my little swim and went back for a glass of beer that was badly needed.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

I was stationed at Alconbury in the '90's. We lived on the Wyton side of Houghton-And-Wyton. I used to walk through the village down to the mill and then walk along the river there.

I guessed that was why you were hear, I was there 20 years before you but I bet it has not changed. I lived on site at R.A.F. Wyton and visited Alconbury on occasion, they did a mean T-Bone stake there. We used to swim in the river late in the evening