NOT the OCEAN!!!!

 It drives me fucking CRAZY when people refer to the Puget Sound as "the ocean". You did not just swim in "the ocean". You did not sail on "the ocean". You are not watching the sunset over "the ocean".

There's a big difference between THE OCEAN and lesser bodies of salty water. Yes, there may be tides, but that does not make a sound or a strait THE or an OCEAN. Yes, it may be *connected* to the actual ocean, but it is not itself THE ocean.

Listen ... you can count the number of actual oceans using the fingers on your HANDS. There aren't that many of them. Four to seven, according to wikipedia. And you are not in any fucking one of them when you're bobbing around on a kayak commuting-distance to Seattle.

Would you call the Columbia fucking river an ocean? No? Then Puget Sound is not the ocean. Seriously ... a lot of rivers are more boss than Puget Sound (if you discount giant octopi in the Tacoma narrows or the deadliness of the currents at Deception Pass or okay even the currents on the ferry between PT & Whidbey Island).

It sucks, because you cannot correct people on this matter without sounding like a total bitch or an annoying Cliff Claven. Like ... people are so excited about dipping their toes in "the ocean" that you're just a complete fucking asshole buzzkill meanie if you try to say, "well actually technically speaking, dumbass, the OCEAN is a different kind of fucking thrill than this easy-access inland snapshot of saltiness you're dabbling in."

But it's so different. I mean ... YES ... we've escalated our tsunami warning systems to include a bunch of us living on bodies of water like Puget Sound, but IT'S NOT THE SAME. Like, in the event of an actual tsunami I hope you're all smart enough to know the risk is much much lower here on a sound or a strait than ON THE BEACH OF THE ACTUAL FUCKING PACIFIC OCEAN.