Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
People think the great lakes are as big as some scenic mountain lake in Colorado.
Seriously...Ive seen this online, particularly from Europeans, who dont grasp how "ocean-like" the Great Lakes are, in terms of vastness and how how high the waves can get in storms....and the size of shipping.
I was posting with an English guy from Sunderland (which was a shipbuilding place and he also worked aboard ship) and linked him to some stats & pix of Great Lakes ore boats & also pix of high seas on the lakes and it was "woah!" from him...
Seriously...Ive seen this online, particularly from Europeans, who dont grasp how "ocean-like" the Great Lakes are, in terms of vastness and how how high the waves can get in storms....and the size of shipping.
I was posting with an English guy from Sunderland (which was a shipbuilding place and he also worked aboard ship) and linked him to some stats & pix of Great Lakes ore boats & also pix of high seas on the lakes and it was "woah!" from him...
Exactly. This was just my whole point. The Great Lakes really don't fall under the image of what most lakes are usually though, small bodies of water. The Great Lakes fall more under the definition of Seas.
Exactly. This was just my whole point. The Great Lakes really don't fall under the image of what most lakes are usually though, small bodies of water. The Great Lakes fall more under the definition of Seas.
They are very large and pretty cool. But I guess is the question more along do people view them the same way as oceans/shores etc.
IMHO they still feel different than the salt bays/oceans.
Chicago is very cool with its lake frontage but personally it never gave me the same feel as being on an ocean. Maybe it is the smell and waves (I know the lakes have waves too) but to me there is a distinct smell and feel in the air (salty humidity) that feel different. That said the lakes are a tremedous asset to the region and places but I am not sure if the name change changes anything either in a good or bad way
My whole point is that the word Sea and the world Lake bring two very different images to people's heads.
It's kind of like the word hill and mountain.
People back east call hills 'mountains' and Europeans call puny lakes 'seas'. It doesn't change the reality of the situation at all.
Do you want to be next to a puny sea or a GREAT lake. The Great Lakes are an amazing, unique geographically phenomenon. They should never be cheapened by labeling them as seas.
They are very large and pretty cool. But I guess is the question more along do people view them the same way as oceans/shores etc.
IMHO they still feel different than the salt bays/oceans.
Chicago is very cool with its lake frontage but personally it never gave me the same feel as being on an ocean. Maybe it is the smell and waves (I know the lakes have waves too) but to me there is a distinct smell and feel in the air (salty humidity) that feel different. That said the lakes are a tremedous asset to the region and places but I am not sure if the name change changes anything either in a good or bad way
It's definitely not the same, I grew up on the beach in Florida and lived by the coast in California, Lake Michigan while nice is really nothing like it, different experience altogether. FAR different experience than the magestic pacific ocean.
Chicago also doesn't have the "beach town" vibes ... there are no coastal feeling towns that you will find in Florida, California, Oregon or even New Jersey or Massachussetts. Nowhere in Chicago has that kind of coastal town vibe either.
If you're going to rename the Great Lakes "seas", you would also have to persuade Canada to change three lakes to Great Slave Sea, Great Bear Sea, and Winnipeg Sea. All of those are larger than Ontario Sea.
I witnessed 4 of the 5 Great Lakes with my own eyes for the first time earlier this year and they were much more 'lake-like' than I expected. Despite the fact you can't see across them, they still feel and look more like the large lakes I'm familiar with, such as Bear Lake or Klamath Lake than they look like the ocean.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
