....merrychristmaslakeerie.....

It's Great Lakes extended family weekend! Taken from the car in Cleveland on Christmas day. Look carefully. There's water. Really.

Lake Superior Superiority

Check out this amazing post by James Fallows of the Atlantic Magazine: Sunrise over Lake Superior.
Really beautiful.

More Cliffs

Gray this time. We are having a thaw, and everything is misty and gray today.

Ice Cliffs and Ice Floats

Here are the "cliffs" formed by the piled up snow from last week, built up by splashing, freezing waves. The "cliffs" is in quotes because they are probably only 3-4 feet high.
And here is the sheen of newly forming ice, which will melt as the sun rises and the air warms up.

Dull to Dazzling

This is from Tuesday morning. It was quiet and gray, and this flock of geese was clustered near some forming ice.
And there are from Tuesday afternoon. Beautiful colors reflected by the setting sun.

Striped Icebergs in Lake Michigan?

Ha ha! Since I installed a sitemeter, I can find out where my blog readers are coming from, and lately, a surprising number are coming from googling "Striped icebergs Lake Michigan." This is because of a hoax e-mail going around claiming that the icebergs pictured above have been found In Lake Michigan.

A quick look at Snopes reveals that the icebergs are real, but they are NOT, I repeat, NOT in Lake Michigan. It doesn't get cold enough, folks. Yes, we have "icebergs" but not that size or that white. We here at LakeMichiblog love ice on the lake, and we'll be sure to report seeing anything this size as soon as it appears!

February 3, 2011 update: Welcome googlers! Apparently the hoax e-mail is being recirculated this year as I have been getting 100 or so hits every day on this post. Remember, when in doubt about any e-mail you receive, always run it through Snopes.com. And since you are here, why not look around at the rest of the pretty pictures of Lake Michigan? Thanks for stopping by!

February 21, 2011 update: I found an interesting explanation of how icebergs are formed. It makes it very clear this could not happen in any Great Lake. Enjoy!

Ice Puddles

The water was trying to turn into ice this morning, and the surface looked the way a parking lot looks after a rainfall.
See? The close-up shows it more clearly.