Elaine with Amy's black Lab, Molly , on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan.We had a great week back in the States. We spent the weekend performing at a kite festival in Milwaukee and hanging out with great friends. Then off to Northern Indiana to sent way too short a time with our friends Jen and Jason. Then back to Michigan to spend a couple of days with Kennedy Anne and her mom and to see other family and friends. There are new pictures of Kennedy Anne and of the festival on Flickr.
We're back with a whole bunch o' new stories and pictures and a new appreciation for our island home.
It was an almost perfect early fall week in the Wisconsin and Michigan. When we lived there, I loved fall in Michigan. Fresh, crisp apples (we brought some of those back with us). Apple cider. The yellows, oranges and reds brilliant against the evergreens and the blue sky. The first cool days when I could get out my sweaters. Okay. I still love all that - or at least the MEMORY of it. I miss the apples (apple pie is my absolute hands-down favorite). And the cider tasted every bit as good as I remember. But I don't miss the cool much at all and I don't miss my sweaters nearly as much as I thought I would.We went for several walks on a Lake Michigan beach but it is certainly NOT the same as our beach at Shacks. Even after just a few days away I missed the ocean. (And our dogs. And our horse. And Lola's.)
The lake is very different from the ocean. The ocean's rhythms are slower, longer, deeper. The lake's wind-driven waves are shorter and more frenetic. The sound of the waves on the lake is more constant with less break between waves, more like wind through the trees.
Elaine hit the other big difference between the ocean and the lake: You can be ON the lake or NEXT to the lake on the beach, but it is difficult if not impossible to fell organically connected to the lake. For one thing, the Great Lakes are too cold to stay in for very long. Lake Michigan rarely gets above the low 70s and that only late in the summer. Visibility in the lake for snorkeling or diving is at best very limited. And unless you're diving on Great Lakes shipwrecks, there just isn't that much to see. The fish aren't as colorful or as plentiful. There is no reef. Don't get me wrong. Lake Michigan is beautiful. For years I wanted to live on the lake. But I've felt separate from the lake, never a part of it like I do the ocean.
But we're back home now. Our first day back we managed to cram it all in - horseback riding, running the dogs, taking care of several transportation crises (more about that to come), Getting ready to reopen Lola's and finally an after dark snorkel.
The lake is very different from the ocean. The ocean's rhythms are slower, longer, deeper. The lake's wind-driven waves are shorter and more frenetic. The sound of the waves on the lake is more constant with less break between waves, more like wind through the trees.
Elaine hit the other big difference between the ocean and the lake: You can be ON the lake or NEXT to the lake on the beach, but it is difficult if not impossible to fell organically connected to the lake. For one thing, the Great Lakes are too cold to stay in for very long. Lake Michigan rarely gets above the low 70s and that only late in the summer. Visibility in the lake for snorkeling or diving is at best very limited. And unless you're diving on Great Lakes shipwrecks, there just isn't that much to see. The fish aren't as colorful or as plentiful. There is no reef. Don't get me wrong. Lake Michigan is beautiful. For years I wanted to live on the lake. But I've felt separate from the lake, never a part of it like I do the ocean.
But we're back home now. Our first day back we managed to cram it all in - horseback riding, running the dogs, taking care of several transportation crises (more about that to come), Getting ready to reopen Lola's and finally an after dark snorkel.
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