Beaches, streams, lakes etc?

we live less than 10 minutes from the ocean. I'm on the border or Rhode Island and Connecticut. We also have a nice lake that is about 25 minutes away where we go for picnics and to take the kids tubing and skiing on our boat. I love living right near the beach even though things tend to be expensive here because it's a tourist area, it's gorgeous in the summer. We practically live at the beach in the summer. I get the season pass and park free all summer.

Sometimes we go to Kalahari in Sandusky Ohio. It is a 90 minute drive. We live 40 minutes form the lake and 12 hours from Myrtle Beach. The closes beach on the ocean is Ocean City and we drove 8 hours to get there.

We love water and swimming..it takes us like 8-9 hours to get to a beach from here..we love the beach and are going to Myrtle Beach end of May first week of June..we have lakes and rivers here like 5 minutes from our house..so we go boating, swimming, fishing all summer long..

We have an irrigation ditch that runs along the edge of our property and I fully plan on both of us playing a bit there once it fills up this summer. I know it's country ghetto, but that's part of growing up in the country.

Weather here only allows for outdoor swimming from about the middle of May (on a good year) to the middle of September. A small-ish lake is about 10 miles away and we didn't go last summer because they were charging for parking and we didn't enjoy that idea much. We have three boat-launch areas on the river near us, about 3-6 miles from our house and we may visit those a bit this summer since my son won't be a toddler any more. Our favorite place is on the river about 10 miles from our house (opposite direction of the lake). The city hauls in sand each year to create a type of sand-bar, ropes in a section to make swimming a bit safer, and has a life guard on duty during daytime hours. Last summer we went at least once every couple of weeks and this summer I want to go at least every week, ideally a couple of times each week.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_ps_l3Mkthtk/SjwN62Qkf8I/...

We also have an "spray park" at one of our city parks (about 4 miles from our house) that runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We played there every couple of days last summer and I'm sure will do the same this summer.

Puddle jumping also works well here when we get lots of rain!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ps_l3Mkthtk/SjwLLeen-QI/...

We're about 30 minutes from Lake Michigan but we don't go there, the beaches tend to 'close' because of bacteria in the water, ick... We used to be walking distance and we'd go but that was pre-kids.

We are a half block from the neighborhood pool though and went pretty frequently.

Well, we have a pool at a nearby park (maybe 10 miles away) that we went to quite a bit last year.... Oops, you said other than a swimming pool............

The closest thing to us is VA Beach, which is probably about 4 hours away. I took him there for the first time last year, and he loved it! I'm planning a vacation for this year as well. I can only imagine how much more he'll like it this year.

50 yards to a small stream, that they used to play in pretty much daily until i noticed the disintinctly chemical smell coming from the water and decided that was a really bad sign.

very short walk to a reservoir, where we do play.

little more than an hour to the beach. honestly we don't do it that often.

We have to drive there, but not far (about 10 minutes to the nearest creek that they can play in).

I grew up a block from a river, so I completely understand the enjoyment my kids take in natural water.

Not often. Usually just in the summer. We would take the occasional trips to the boat basin but I don't think they count since we'd never get in the water.

Beach -45 minutes.

This year, we'll go every other weekend or so..

Last year, not so much, he didnt enjoy it as much as he will now. Last year, I was at my moms and she had a 30ft pool in the backyard. She sold the house though.