Our tour of the Great Lakes continues today. We’re going to move eastward, from the deep, cold, expansive waters of Lake Superior, dropping down into Lake Huron.  

The first weekend of November, my older daughter and I went away for quiet time together. I wanted one more Great Lakes adventure before the winter settled in, and I really hadn’t seen Lake Huron other than acknowledging it as we passed over the Mackinac Bridge to the Upper Peninsula in July 2022. Many people don’t realize that Lake Huron and Lake Michigan are essentially one body of water, joined at the Straits of Mackinac which you cross on the bridge. Lake Huron is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by surface area but has the longest shoreline, creating an incredibly diverse geography to be explored in a future post.

I wanted to see the sunrise over Lake Huron. With off-season pricing, we rented a small house right on the waters of Saginaw Bay, a little over a four hour drive from Cleveland. 

Saturday morning, we didn’t get much sun. It was cloudy and overcast at dawn. A weather pattern had churned up the water; the visible and audible effect was every bit inland sea with waves rolling onto the small strip of sand in front of the house patio. My daughter was undeterred by the lack of a picturesque sunrise. Sometimes we don’t get sun. Sometimes we get clouds. We can still find joy from huddling together under a blanket, or romping around on the sand, looking at driftwood. We can still look out, beyond, and know that above the clouds, the sun has brought light and another day.

As I look to 2024, I sit with gratitude for some personal and family milestones that will be reached over the year. But I also sit with a heavy heart and an undercurrent of unease while thinking about our global and national realities. 

As former President Barack Obama once said though, “No matter what happens, the sun will rise in the morning”. And some days it will look like it did the next day, on Sunday morning, November 5, 2023. Simply nothing short of a magical gift.