We've been to two museums in the past two days, and it's going to take a hot minute to compile posts for those, so let's talk about another main attraction of this trip--Lake Erie.

The place where we're staying was chosen specifically for its proximity to the lake--we have lake literally right off the back porch. Apparently the property normally features a stretch of beach, but the lake water levels are so high this year that it's completely submerged.

When we arrived, the lake looked like this:

Lake Erie, overcast and foggy, the surface still and barely rippling.

She was quiet and calm, with barely a ripple on the surface. Mist shrouded the view of the horizon, and there were low, wispy clouds with soggy, humid air but no rain.

Lake Erie in the morning, the surface tranquil, the sky blue and sheeted with white, tattery clouds.

The next day was still fairly quiet, but the sky was bright.

Lake Erie under a low, cloudy but blue sky, with waves crashing against the dock outside our airbnb. There are Adirondack chairs to the left. If you sat in those, you would get wet.

Overnight, I woke up a few times and heard a low, rhythmic roaring over the fan in my bedroom. I wondered if it was the lake, and it was. It was windy and a little rainy--not a storm, by any means, but the lake was riled up.

The angry lake from a slightly different angle. The waves are a bit higher.
More waves coming up over the edge onto the wide deck.
A wave splashes up several feet as empty Adirondack chairs look on.

Today, the waves have calmed a bit, but it's still not as quiet as it was when we first got here.

More waves on the lake. The sky above is bright blue and dotted with puffy clouds.

I've come down every morning to sit and watch the lake while I do some of my morning routine. Last night, I worked out that I could set my bedroom overhead fan on low to drown out house noises (my friends stay up WAY later than I do) but still be able to hear the lake. It's very meditative. I'm getting obsessed with the idea of living on a Great Lake lakeshore somewhere.

Like all but one of the other Great Lakes, Erie's name has Native American roots, in this case derived from the Iroquois erielhonan, which means "long tail." (Superior is the exception; it's called that because it's big and never gives up its dead.) It's the shallowest and warmest of the Great Lakes, all of which were created by glacial movement about 14,000 years ago.

There's a huge amount of history connected to Lake Erie, some of which is discussed in the displays at the Maritime Museum of Sandusky, which we visited today, and which I'll blog about once I get the materials sorted. In the meantime, I think I'll go grab a nap and listen to the waves from the bedroom window.