I LOVE THE OCEAN! I grew up in a landlocked country in the middle of Europe, and I was already fourteen years old when I saw the sea for the first time. The occasion was very special, because I visited St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) in Russia during the White Nights – the time of the year when day and night intertwine. It was an amazing view, even though I only saw a small portion of the Baltic Sea, the Gulf of Finland.
The first time I experienced the actual ocean happened a decade later, when I moved to the East Coast of the US. My favorite places to visit the shore were in Maine, on Cape Cod and in Rhode Island. Two decades later I moved to the West Coast, where visiting the ocean has become one of my regular activities. I don’t actually like to swim in the ocean, but I love looking at it, listening to it, and even smelling it. The early morning beach (without the crowds) is very calming to me. It’s just me, a tiny spot on Earth looking at the vast, powerful body of water that covers almost three quarters of our planet. The weirdest feeling is to be actually standing on the very edge of a continent. I am standing on the land, and before me is the “never ending” ocean. One of the reasons I am more drawn to the ocean during low tide is the fact, that I am able to take a few more steps into the ocean, but still stay on the land. And while I’m walking there, I get to experience plants and animals that are usually hidden from me.
I took some pictures of the low tide at Little Corona del Mar a few days ago – it wasn’t the lowest tide, but it still felt and looked amazing. How did it feel? Like this: