Small Dispatches from Summer in the Great Lakes
Summer is starting to transition here in northeast Ohio. The day of this post, August 21st, my girls go back to school, soccer practices have started, and the fall calendar is starting to fill up. Seasonally, there is still more of summer to come. I still have three summer intentions to tackle by the end of September! However, it already seems like a chance to share some moments and discoveries from my smaller adventures this summer.
The Great Lakes Water Table in the Children’s Garden at the Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids, MI. In late June my older daughter and I stopped in Grand Rapids for a night on our way up to her sleepaway camp in Northern Michigan. We spent an afternoon at the Fredrick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park. This is a world class place – large scale sculpture, indoor gardens, outdoor gardens including one of the most extensive Japanese gardens I’ve visited. We also found an incredible way to splash around in all five lakes at one time! In the children’s garden there was an expansive water table for splash and play in the shape of the full Great Lakes system.
Beach Clean-up at Huntington Beach, Bay Village, OH. In early August I registered to do an early morning beach clean-up with the Cleveland Metroparks at this beach several miles west of Cleveland. As I usually find to be true, once up and going, I loved being out early for a 7 AM start. The weather was a bit unsettled that morning and when I arrived at Huntington, I could hear thunder in the far distance, with dark clouds hovering and shifting to the north, over the lake. Over the next hour while I walked the beach, I was able to see the sky in movement with sun and light playing hide and seek with the clouds. Eventually the clouds took over and there was local thunder, lightning and rain so I wrapped up my clean-up and headed for a cup of coffee.
Edgewater Beach, Cleveland. This is a prominent beach and park just west of downtown Cleveland. It has a long history with some ups and downs. However, few can criticize the work to revitalize the beach that the Cleveland Metroparks have done since taking it over in 2013. I met a wonderful friend for a walk on a summer Friday. Before leaving I visited the main hub near the beach and found that there is a BookBox branch of the Cleveland Public Library right on the beach. Love this so much!
Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve. This is a smaller property on the lake to the east of downtown. Overseen by the Port of Cleveland, it’s notable for its bird activity; it’s clearly a rest stop along the lake for our feathered friends. It’s a favorite family outing for us and we had a walk and picnic with cousins there in July.
Walking the perimeter trail of the small peninsula, on one side you are gazing eastward. On the other side you are gazing westward right at the Cleveland skyline. It’s also an angle that leaves me with some frustration. You see Interstate 90 running right along the lake and then after that Burke Lakefront Airport, a small, municipal airport used mostly for private and charter flights. Both seem like an unfortunate use of lakefront land. The city of Cleveland has long committed to reinventing the lakefront, but initiatives and projects have often seemed to stall.
I will have more small adventures before the leaves turn. But then it will be fall, which is really a miracle of a season, no?