The beach!

To celebrate the 4th of July, not on the 4th because I had to work, but on the 5th, which I actually had off, I went to the beach. Now, Lake Erie is a bit of a red-headed-stepchild of a great lake, only 210 feet at its deepest point, smallest of the great lakes by volume... (Lake Michigan, my previous great lake, is a giant of a great lake, 2nd largest, over 900 feet deep, and most lethal in terms of shipwrecks) However, I'm determined to make the best of it, and since I don't know how long I'll be living here in Cleveland, I did an internet search to find the *best* beach, rather than go for whatever is closest. I didn't stop to think that the *best* might also be the *most crowded,* but it wasn't that bad, just hard to find my car in the parking lot.

The internet told me that the beach at Headlands Beach State Park in Mentor, Ohio was the best, and it also convieniently features a lighthouse! It was indeed a very nice beach.

I brought a picnic lunch and really ended up wishing I was staying to barbeque something for supper. It was really nice, because it felt similar to every other beach I've been to (I'm taking a survey) but at the same time felt warmly familiar, like Ohio. I know some who may be reading this don't have the warm, squishy, memories of Ohio that I do, but to me one of the best things about being back in Ohio is that even though its a different part of the state it still feels like Ohio, familiar.

Due to being the shallowest of the great lakes, its also the warmest, which I experienced first hand. The water was a nice temperature, cooling on a very hot day without being shockingly cold. One thing I thought was odd though was that I did not see a single shell. When Jessica and I went to the lovely Kohler-Andre State Park on Lake Michigan in Wisconsin we found copious amounts of very small shells, clinging in clumps to bits of algae. But here, not a single one.

There were, however, copious amounts of nice flat rocks, perfect for skipping, so I went ahead and skipped a bunch of rocks. All in all, a lovely day.