I don't like Jelly Fish

With an hour to kill before I get my son up for school, here I sit wide awake again. I have things I need to do today, but my day will likely be split into shifts. I actually like the 3rd shift life in the winter, but in the summer, I want to be at the lake from about 2 in the afternoon until dark! It's snowing right now, not that I'm surprised! It's Michigan.... meteorologists here have a very difficult job. I have watched four seasons happen in one week here! It's pretty crazy really. One summer, we'll barely hit 70 degrees, the next, it's 100 every day!
I love Lake Michigan! I always have. When I was little we lived just a few miles from a small lake, Hamlin Lake. I spent a lot of time in the water. We were only about 15 minutes from the Ludington City Beach and down the road from the sand dune beaches know to locals as 1st and 2nd curve. When I was a kid, we could have fires on the beach. The city put an end to that about 15 years ago.
Lake Michigan is beautiful. There's nothing better than hittin the beach with a grill and a radio and a few friends on a hot summer day. I've been to the ocean. I was in Cocoa Beach in 2009. I liked it, don't get me wrong, but I'm used to diving in and looking around. Not cool in the Ocean. Also, I have this crazy notion that I'll be in the water the one day that a shark decides to check out that particular area. Jelly fish frighten me as well. I've had two separate encounters with jelly fish. I don't know what kind they were, but I know I don't like not knowing what's in the water.
The first Jelly Fish incident occurred when I was about 13. We lived in Beaufort, South Carolina. We had been staying on the air station with my cousin while looking for housing. One day, my mom, my sister, and I went to a beach. We had no idea where we were going, we just found water on a map and went there. There were a bunch of parking places, but no one was around. There were a few signs with rules of the beach, no lifeguard on duty, nothing to alarming. We walk out on the beach, and the sand is black. I've never seen a black sand beach before, but hey, why not. The other thing I noticed was that the water was kind of red. Still, we decided to check it out.
All the way out, I'm thinking about the movie Jaws, and wondering what's under the red water that you can't see through..... Man did my eyes burn....
We were about chest deep in the water, when my mom noticed something in the water. She reached out in front of us and picked up this "ball" that was kinda clear with a pretty purple color like a super bounce ball kind of thing. I was walking over to look at what she had grabbed and she said, "Ick, it's slimy!" and dropped it in the water. Once in the water, it began to swim away!! My mother had picked up a Jelly fish approximately 2 inches around! That was it for me. I got out of that water faster than I thought I could. I didn't go back to the ocean after that, not until '09. I found out later that the black sand was due to high concentration of iron.
Cocoa Beach is very similar to Ludington Beach. Our beach goes for at least 60 miles without stopping. You can be on sugar sand and water for at least 3 towns without a break in the water.It's fresh water that is almost always clear. Blue or green like it should be. It's cold, but you get used to that part. We have waves, we have sun, we just don't have sharks or jelly fish.
When we were in Cocoa Beach, I thought, I'm gonna go in that water. It was a wavy day, people were swimming and surfing and collecting sea shells. I got about calf deep, and that was it. I just couldn't do it. In the back of my mind, I become part of a big bowl of soup the second I step into the ocean. Yes, I know it's crazy, but it's just a cold hard fact. I am a chicken shit when it comes to the ocean.
Managed to stay in the water for about 40 minutes or so, but then it happened. My niece was walking on the beach just out of the water. She starts yelling at me, "Aunt Billie, come here! What is this thing?" I go over to what she is looking at, sure enough, Jelly fish. This one was different though. It was long. It almost reminded me of a mushroom with long skinny tentacles, but it was clear. Then I noticed a little "bubble" wash up on the beach, it had a purple ring with little pink "fingers" coming off of it. Almost like an eye with pink lashes. As we walked away from those two, I noticed more and more washing up on the beach, we got the kids and left. I just don't know anything about them. The only thing I know is Jelly fish are not to be played with. I don't know if it was dead or alive. I don't have any desire to swim in the ocean. I would love to go on a fishing trip though :)