Pacific Northwest coastline
The first time I recall being at the ocean was not the ocean at all. It was the estuary known as the Puget Sound connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We were at the Golden Gardens in Ballard, Washington with Mom's friend Lavonna. I was squeamish about touching seaweed, but oh how much I loved Lavonna's teriyaki beef on sticks. I could not eat enough of them to satisfy my appetite (more than once was scolded for eating more than a "reasonable" serving.) I always considered the Puget Sound to be "the ocean." Whether from "Discovery Park", previously "Fort Lawton" where Dad was enlisted as a Military Police Officer before us girls were conceived; or Suquamish where Dad ran a grocery store on the reservation, or at lunch breaks on Bainbridge Island. To me the ocean consisted of water at the edge of rocky shores, barnacles, muscles, sand crabs, and seaweed, boats transporting people shore to shore, seagulls, and ...