Friday, July 01, 2011

Where

Where Would You Love to Go Swimming?
I learned to swim at a YWCA pool. When we were kids, we went to Coburn's Pond (I think that's what it was called). My aunt and her family lived on Coburn's Farm and there was a little pond across the street. We would head there in the summer, walking through the tall grass (well it seemed tall to me). When I got older, I'd go to camp on Little Island Pond in Pelham, NH. I never loved pond/lake swimming. The bottom was too gooey. The place that I loved to swim best has always been the ocean.

When we were small, my mother, my aunt, and one of their friends would pool their limited resources and rent a place at the beach for the summer. (New Hampshire does have 18 miles of coastline, and some of those miles have accessible beaches. Really!) I loved falling asleep to the sound of the waves. Once it got dark. (Our mothers, those crazy twenty-somethings, would set the clocks ahead and put us to bed, so the six of us would be easy for our 13 year old babysitter to handle.)

I'm not much of an ocean swimmer, not in the sense of the people who actually swim in the ocean. I'm more of a sunbather...someone who occasionally wades in to cool off. I might dive into the waves, or ride them, but I don't set out along the shore to swim.

Still, the place where I would love to go swimming (again) is Magen's Bay in St. Thomas:

13 comments:

Jennifer said...

Hawaii for me! Maybe I'll actually get there one day.......**SIGH**

Erin said...

I miss Lake Erie (I know, totally boring and gross compared to tropical isles, but still). Plus, no salt or scary things like sharks or jellyfish!

Hmmm. I am struck by the similar color palette in this picture and the one you posted of your floss toss for the challenge piece... :)

Peggy Lee said...

My parents sent me to the public pool in the small town I grew up in for swimming lessons. The instructor threw me out. I was the biggest(and by that I do mean oldest) kid in the group. Since then I've learned to swim all by myself (thank you very much). Now I just go jump in the lake when I can.

Denise said...

I'm with Erin. Kelley's Island. A little sand and shallow water. Some place to sit and cool off before venturing out and about.

Glenna said...

I'm a big fan of a nicely done swimming pool: landscaped, rocks, waterfall, natural color bottom (or blue). Has to be large, not too warm and not too chlorine smelling. I'm all about controlling the environment where possible: no fish, sharp stones, rip tides, rogue waves, left-over fish hooks, broken glass, impoverished people selling little toys and cheap jewelry (Mexico), starving abandoned dogs (Aruba), pickpockets, sharks or seaweed.

jhm said...

Swim - public pools, school pools (nothing like having PE first period and going thru the day with wet hair - yuck!)

Can you explain NaPoBloMo to me? I tried to google it but didn't actually get an explanation.

Thanks

Jackie
http://needleworkerssamplings.blogspot.com/

Stephanie said...

Beautiful! I'd love to swim there as well. Actually, I just like to stand in the ocean, far enough out that the waves lift me and set me down again, but not far enough out that I look my footing and get stuck in the undertow. It's a delicate balance!

doris said...

Harbour Island in the Bahamas. Oh, if only ...

The Queen Bee said...

What Glenna said. The warmer the better.

Denise said...

Looks like a beautiful place to swim.
Denise

Alice said...

I am more of an ocean paddler as well. I like the Indian Ocean... specifically the Maldives.

Aussie Stitcher said...

I love the picture. Me, I prefer to swim in rivers. I do not like salt water or sand.

Sher said...

Long Beach, NC. Yeah, I live an hour from the Jersey shore where I have only been a few times but our family favorite spot is 10 hours south of here. The water is warm, the waves range between "lake" and "awesome for body surfing," the beach is not full of a million other bodies so I don't have to care how I look when I leave the water and trod back to my chair and my book.