Re: Are Steam and Water Vapor the same thing?

I think some of your confusion arises because these terms are not used consistently by different people.

In most usage in science and engineering, the terms "steam" and "water vapor" would mean the same thing (pure water in the vapor/gas phase). It would be more common for engineers to say "steam" (because of steam engines and steam used to generate electricity) and for chemists to say "water vapor," but they are the same thing, at least as far as I am concerned and I think most scientists would agree.

You almost got the term right for what you see over a teakettle -- it is called a "mixing cloud". That term refers to water vapor (or air with some water in it) mixing with air that is at a lower temperature, causing some of the water vapor to condense into a liquid (it is the liquid droplets that interact with light to give it a white color, just like in an atmospheric cloud). There is not any special sort of bonding going on when water vapor and air mix -- in fact the molecular interactions are pretty weak. It is almost entirely the cooling produced by the air that produces the cloud. This is also why you can see your breath on a cold day.

You asked about what happens to the air when liquid water condenses. For the most part, it stays behind. There is a very small amount of air dissolved in rain (or other liquid water in contact with the atmosphere), but it is negligible for most purposes (unless you are a fish, in which case the small amount of dissolved oxygen is pretty important!).