Atlantic vs Pacific

Last weekend T and I visited the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.  Well, not really our first time seeing the Atlantic, but our first time getting in the Atlantic.  We went to the Ocean City Beach in Maryland.  We thought we would make a quick day trip of it.  But it definitely turned out to be a long day trip.  It took four hours and some crazy traffic to get to the beach.  We took the free shuttle from the mall to the beach because we were pretty sure that parking on that little strip of land wouldn't be easy or cheap.

 

The beach at Ocean City is very different from beaches in Southern California.  First of all at Ocean City Beach there is an actual boardwalk along the beach.  So Cal doesn't have that.  The boardwalks here have full on amusement parks and kitchy souvenir shops that face the beach.   In SoCal, it is almost all houses that face the beach.  There were SO many people at the Ocean City beach.  In Southern California there are people around, but usually no closer than 20 feet.  This beach was packed six groups deep with only about seven feet between groups. This photo shows it pretty well.  Also note the lack of waves in that photo.

So the atmosphere is different on each coast and so is the actual ocean.  The Pacific is frigid.  You don't so much get used to the water temperature as you become completely numb.  The Atlantic was surprisingly warm.  Not warm like Lake Powell, but considerably warmer than the Pacific.  You can get used to the Atlantic water temperature in about five minutes and then it really does feel good. 

Another huge difference between the oceans is the waves.  T and I brought our boogie boards to the Ocean City Beach hoping to catch some sweet waves.  The Pacific Ocean always has good waves.  In SoCal we never paid attention to high tide vs low tide because there were always sufficiently big waves to boogie board on.  The Atlantic doesn't really have waves.  There are small swells that break about three feet from the shore.  We never even took our boards in the water.  The entire time we were in the Atlantic there were only two waves that we could have seriously ridden.  Maybe next time we'll try to plan for the tides?... Maybe the waves are better at a different beach?...

It started getting stormy so we didn't stay at the beach as long as we planned.  Then it took us three hours to drive home.  I think next time we go to the beach we will make it a weekend trip because driving for seven hours to play for three and a half hours wasn't our greatest idea ever (but like I said, we would have stayed longer if it hadn't gotten stormy).

We had to cross the crazy long and high Bay Bridge on the way to and from the beach.  Well, it's actually two side by side bridges.  Each bridge is 4.2 miles long and rises 186 feet above the water!  A photo from their website on the left and our drive on the right:

If you're afraid of heights you might want to close your eyes.  The bridge is three lanes across, but as you can see there is no cushion between the lane and the wall.  And the wall isn't that high.

So to sum up:
Pacific Ocean = shorter drive time from our old place, colder water, fewer people, better waves, calmer atmosphere

Atlantic Ocean = longer drive time from our current place, warmer water, more people, smaller waves, party atmosphere

Our verdict = undecided

Have you visited both oceans?  I think we'll try Virginia Beach next...