Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Watch Where You Step

Growing up on Long Island, I had the opportunity to be close to beaches - the Long Island Sound was fifteen minutes away and the Atlantic beaches were twenty minutes away. One summer day I was swimming in the water off Robert Moses State Park and I saw a bill float by - it was a five dollar bill. Bonus! I brought it out to my blanket and set it aside and returned to the water. Minutes later another five dollar bill floated past me. It wasn't the equivalent of money growing on trees, but finding ten bucks in the vast Atlantic was a nice return on the day.

I spent most of my summers in Maine and swam in the chilled waters of the North Atlantic. One day, while wading in the water at my grandmother's house, I stepped on a ray fish. Definitely not the same experience of finding money in the water. On a few summer occasions, we spent our vacation on one of Maine's many lakes, where the swimming was fine, but walking on the mushy lake bed was a little disconcerting.

From kottke recently, I spotted this article where New York Magazine mapped the floors of the waters around New York City. I shall not be swimming in those waters anytime soon. Or ever. Beginning today I will have the advantage of swimming in the waters of the Delaware beaches, and that will present its own set of adventures.

4 comments:

Amy said...

On a vaguely similar (New York! Maps!) note  . . .


New York Times: Scents and the City


via Cartophilia

Lana Gramlich said...

Gads! The worms sound absolutely horrific! It's like an underwater Dune down there!
I do miss both the north shore & the south shore, I must say.

Brave Astronaut said...

Amy - The smells of NYC are most unique.

Lana - Having spent the last few days at the beach, I really, really miss being close to the beach.

Lana Gramlich said...

I've missed the ocean for a long time now. I did manage to get a dip in Florida some years ago (when I was delighted to see 3 manta rays swim right by me.) I need to get out to the nearby gulf coast & see what it's like. Not much "beach" near the swamps around here, of course.