1 post tagged “10-7-07”
At the Big Lake. Our favorite Lake Michigan beach, Meinert Park Beach.
It's in the middle of nowhere, it's never crowded, it doesn't have "issues" with E.Coli counts (b/c nowhere near a major river outlet or city), there are potties (though they're locked up in October), it's entirely covered in sugar sand, has dunes to climb, and a river runs through it. Well, a little stream actually, but that's enough to bring variety to the beach experience.
Plus, the fun of it is, it's a small enough stream that a family with shovels can change its course as it wanders across the sand. Another family did, on Saturday -- much to Eldest Son's chagrin. We spent Sunday trying to change it back, without success. Oh well. It'll undoubtedly be different when we go back at Thanksgiving. Its entry to Lake Michigan is always in a different spot, every time we go.
The Big Lake. I grew up swimming in it, often at this very beach, jumping in its waves, sailing on it, absolutely loving it. I could never get enough.
For you non-Midwesterners out there -- You look to the north and you look to the south, and as far as the eye can see, it's sandy beach stretching away from you. You can look across the blue water to the horizon without seeing land.
And yet, how can you tell it's not the ocean? Because you can. The most recent beach I visited before this was at the ocean, and somehow you can tell.
The size of the waves, the feel of the water, the color of the water -- the little curl of turquoise you see just before the wave breaks -- it's different. No foam, no tide, no hissing sizzle as the wide waves fan out over the strand . No salt to wash off, afterwards. Your feet squeak in the clean dry sand in a way that just sounds different from walking in salt-water sand.
