A Great Lakes Life

I’m Ellie and I’m an East Coast girl living a Great Lakes life.

I grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, hundreds of miles from the Great Lakes. I spent my early adulthood in Boston and then New York City for a decade. In that decade I met and married my husband, who grew up in Cleveland. In 2014, after our first daughter was born, we decided to move to Cleveland to be closer to family and for a better cost of living. We live in the Cleveland area with our now two daughters.

My favorite class throughout my K-12 years was 7th grade geography. I loved maps, places and people. I’ve always had a certain fascination with the Great Lakes. On a map they appear as huge patches of blue nestled in the middle of North America. If you look closely at them on the map and take a moment to compare their size to that of surrounding states, you may start to recognize their actual expanse – which is enormous. They are really inland freshwater seas.

Why this matters: We are living through accelerating climate and environmental change. Access to freshwater is rapidly becoming a very real issue in some parts of the United States. It is worth pausing to consider what it means that the Great Lakes hold 84% of all surface freshwater in North America.  

I invite anyone, from America’s east and west coasts, sunbelt, western mountains, or here in this region to take a closer look at our Great Lakes. As I have explored and learned more about them over recent years, I have come to see them as nothing short of awe-inspiring.

There are gorgeous coastlines, dramatic stories of ecologic disaster, recovery, and threat, and rich historical storylines. As a place of natural beauty, their value is immeasurable. The shores of Lake Erie are the first place I go to seek peace and solace in this increasingly complex world.

The goal of my blog is to inspire love and respect for the Great Lakes. They are, simply, one of the most tremendous natural resources on earth. They are also specific places, shaped by natural forces and human life. My blog posts will be a mix of content intended to share on both of these topics. The objective of some posts will be to share information about issues relevant to the Great Lakes. Other posts will share and celebrate my Great Lakes experiences.

I plan to keep most posts short; I believe it’s best to keep content concise and meaningful. I will not provide all the information on a topic, but hopefully I will nurture your curiosity. You can bookmark this page, or you can subscribe to receive a newsletter from me every other Wednesday in your email linking to new posts.

Let me edit the opening line of this post to close it out: I’m an East Coast girl loving a Great Lakes life. I’m so glad you are here and joining me on this journey.