Who here loves going to the ocean? How old were you when you first visited? How long have you been going to the ocean?
Isn’t it a wonderful place to be?
The gentle ocean breeze brushing your face, the feel of the sand on top of your feet, and the splash of the waves on your back as you try to catch it.
It’s an experience that people who love the water enjoy coming back to again and again. It’s an experience they would love for people to enjoy at least once in their lives.
Some people have never been.
Believe it or not, there are some people who have never been to the ocean.
In the US, many of the states are inland and hundreds or thousands of miles away from the nearest ocean.
Their residents, especially those who prefer to stay where they are, have most likely only seen oceans in TV shows, movies, or photos.
One such person is this 85-year-old man they call Papa Bear.
Papa Bear has never seen the ocean, well, at least not until recently. His future son-in-law took him to the nearest ocean so he could see, feel, hear, smell, and touch it for the first time.
And Papa Bear was so grateful.
The first thing he did was lean over and grab the ocean water in his hands. He struggled a little bit, especially with bending his knees and hips.
His family had to warn the others to hold him back because it’ll be a problem if he falls over.
But he did it!
He finally touched ocean water and he splashed it around, giddy from the ocean air. Papa Bear could not believe he was finally at the ocean.
And it’s thanks to his future son-in-law. As a present to his future father-in-law, he brought Papa Bear and his family to the ocean so he could visit it for the first time in his life.
For 85 years, Papa Bear has never been to the ocean. His face just lit up and his smile was so big after touching the water.
He kept saying “wow” again and again.
“Okay, this is very amazing! It is more than I really ever thought of,” Papa Bear told them when they asked what he thought of the ocean.
And we can understand that because that’s still how we feel whenever we visit the ocean, even if we’ve been there thousands of times.
There are some people who don’t really care if they don’t see the ocean.
And then there are some people who have always dreamt of it but never had the chance to visit.
“My grandma died last year and she never got to see the ocean. When I started cleaning up her room, I found a collection of small cut outs of beaches, mountains and the sea (I guess it counts as the ocean?) that she collected over the years,” Slevena commented in a Reddit post about the ocean.
We can’t speak for everyone else who hasn’t seen the ocean but for Papa Bear, who has always wanted to go, we are so glad he was able to make the trip.
See Papa Bear’s genuine reaction when touching the ocean for the first time in the video below!
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