My apologies for the lack of summer posts. I feel very badly about this because I feel obligated to my readers/viewers (who are still visiting despite my absence!) and also because I think I may be inadvertently creating a chronicle of climate change (or lack thereof, if the current trends reverse themselves). Recall that all of last winter, there was never a layer of ice formed on the lake. This summer we've had barely any rain and temps over 100 degrees on multiple days, and most of the lawns in parks near the Lake are brittle and straw-colored. So I am sorry not to be chronicling this in real time.
Anyway, the issue is with my computer and I had hoped it would have been resolved quite a while ago. Since it has not been, I am reluctant to download photos on the loaner I have been using. I hope to catch up sometime in August with other summer photos.
For now, here is a lovely view of Lake Michigan at Sunrise in mid-June, overlooking Chicago's Navy Pier. This was taken by guest photographer PK. Thanks, PK!
One of the more dramatic photos of the June 30th storm: an overturned park pavilion. That's the inside of the pavilion you are seeing; the wind literally scooped it up and flipped it on its back, like a turtle.
And here's a tree snapped like a toothpick. Most of this is cleaned up now. Our parks are more like open fields and less like forests. Five minutes took out over 800 trees city-wide, some of which were growing for 100 years or more. Makes you think.
So here's a new location for this blog. Green Bay is not just a football team, it's an actual bay, not always green (as seen above) off of Lake Michigan in northern Wisconsin.
These pics were taken from Bay Beach, a park-district-owned-and-run amusement park right on the lakefront (bayfront?) They were taken from the top of the giant slide (4th pic from the left in this series.)
That chunk of land is on its way to being Door County, the penninsula that sticks out of Wisconsin into Lake Michigan like a thumb. These were taken in early August.
I have been neglecting to post but not to photograph. Here are some beauties from 6 weeks back. I love the gulls.
The weather changed from late winter to full-blown summer in one day--yesterday. Although this photo is from today, to show you that the leaves are almost fully open (compare with last year). 
Pretty clouds, too. From this morning.
I rode my bike to the office on Sunday, and there were hundreds of boats enjoying one of the last warm weekends on the lake. Here are a few.
I was struck by these beautiful prairie flowers right near the shore.
Some might call them weeds.
I think they look especially great up against the baby blue water.
Makes me wish I was a painter.
