A house on the lake (or at the lake) that faces the lake is lakefront.

To Buzzer....what about the GOLD COAST? heh, heh

ncgrrl - While visiting NC, we'd like to go to the beach, but we may travel up & down the coast to see different areas. How am I doing? When staying at Captiva Island, FL the "waterfront" room theory wouldn't have worked, as we had a bayside view, but gulfside was also available. No telescope in our condo, but I like the idea!
Wednesday - At risk of starting another thread - where I live, if you asked for a Coke, the response would be " Classic or Diet?" I quickly learned about the Coke issue when in FL - also would I like more "aas" with it?! Any hope for a "Southerner at heart" who was stolen at birth & transported North?! LOL!

I grew up between NYC, New England & Florida. I have always said "the beach", even when my family moved to NJ and the common phrase was "down the shore". "The coast" always meant California, or that you were going to travel the length of a shoreline, photograph sites, or visit lighthouses.
Cassandra,thank you for that memory. Our New England neighbors all had "camps", usually a very rustic cabin, sometimes with an outhouse, probably originated as a hunting cabin. It was the best possible reverse snobbery, like, The Hamptons got nuthin on us, even we have a "camp". And as Cassadra said it was usually a place to cool off in the mountains.

I live on the Central Coast of California and this morning I went to the beach! I have never heard anyone say "the shore." When my parents come to visit (they live inland) they say they are going to "the coast."

I go to Gulf Shores on the gulf coast to go to the beach but I live on the bay- nowhere near the ocean

I live on the Westcoast of Florida in a rural area called Bayport. Our home faces "Parson's Bay" which is on the Gulf of Mexico. The only beach (we refer to a beach as a sandy location) in our immediate area is on Pine Island. Like neworeanslady...we only use the term shore to describe the area we plan on fishing (as in on-shore or off-shore).

Any where on the East coast of the United States, when going to the ocean we're going to the "beach". But for some reason people who go to the Atlantic Ocean in New Jersey call it the shore ---