You know people don't have to go to a body of water in order to have fun. There are various other recreational activities to do.
Personally, I can't stand beaches, the ocean, lakes, I don't like swimming in it if something is living in it. Rivers, depending on the river, I can deal with but not lakes or oceans, eck!
If people really wanna go to the beach though, then they travel. Same can be said for anything. If you live near the coast but wanna go skiing, you travel to where you can go skiing. Not everything can be around where you live, so if you really wanna do something then you gotta travel to do it. The rest of the time you do something else. It's that simple really. My sister, for example, likes beaches but the closest one for us is over 4 hours away - but she doesn't make a big deal out of it. We didn't grow up around a beach anyway, so it's not that big of a deal. We're used to not being near one all the time, why should it bother either one of us unless we were obsessed with beaches?
It's different having lived near something you enjoy for a while and getting used to the idea of it always being there as opposed to never living near something like that to begin with and being used to the fact it's not there. It's just a matter of how and where you grow up. I mean I've got a cousin obsessed with beaches and once he moves the glorious (that was sarcasm) prairies of Texas, he'll probably start whining and complaining about how he misses the beach. But I'm sure he'll get over that as he gets accustomed to the terrain of a prairie as opposed to a coastline. Such is life. It'll also be funny to see him adjust to the rampant weather changes, except in summer when it's always at least 101F.
What I'm getting at is, a lot of people don't have access to a beach, they never have, so unless they're overly-concerned with it then why should they care? They should already be used to it. So typically for people without constant access to something, going to those places would require traveling and thus a vacation. Same logic can be applied to anything really. If I really wanna see Mt. Rushmore, I travel to South Dakota because they're the only place that has what I wanna see. Or Yellowstone, same thing. For example.
Point is, you don't have to go to a beach, river, or lake to have fun. A lot of people have no interest in doing anything like that. I'm one of them, although I will swim in a river... depending on the river (I swam in the Yellowstone river once, it was fun). Many people don't wanna spend their time at places like those, then again many people do. It depends. on the people. But typically if you grow up with access to a beach, easy access, you can't imagine what people do without easy access to one. Or at least so I've gathered from people I've known who have grown up around beaches. For other people they don't even care that they don't live near a beach, it's just how it is. They've never needed a beach to have fun before after all.
To answer you question more directly though... we do other things that are fun. That's what. But if we have the option of doing so, then some may go to lakes, some may go to rivers. It depends on the people. Me, I choose to sit on my **** and do art.
[MENTION=150]zoldos[/MENTION]I didn't think the original post would inspire such a detailed reply. lol
My friend, you should know three things about [MENTION=36]Antigone[/MENTION];
1) She's extremely intelligent.
2) She writes a lot about everything.
3) Her replies to debates are even longer.
Oh, and somehow we're still best buddies after two years despite me being a nob.
A place to debate everything and anything!