Yup. No jellyfish.

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Aggravating_Bell_426@reddit

No sharks either.

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smokiechick@reddit

I grew up going to the Atlantic Ocean for vacation. All up and down the coast, including Nova Scotia. I moved to Chicago in August back in the 90s. I had swum in lakes and ponds, so I figured it would be like that. Nope! The waves were small but the undertow was real! And you don't have the salt to help with your buoyancy. I was bloody from being dragged on the bottom of the lake and I was so pissed off when I got to shore. It was warm and fresh water and I was so mad that I nearly drowned in an overgrown bathtub!

Low_Cook_5235@reddit

We had an exchange student from Spain in high school and when she saw Lake Michigan, she said “thats not a lake, its the sea”

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MichigaCur@reddit

My cousin married a man not from the US. He too views them as a sea. We had friendly arguments that they are not seas. I finally convinced him that it wasn't a sea because there were no cruise ships on them. A couple of years ago we elwnt to Mackinac where in the harbor was a cruise ship... Sigh... I have to admit the defeat and agree... They are seas :(

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SophisticPenguin@reddit

Does this make the Danube and Rhine rivers actually seas because of Viking Cruises?

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Quirky_Spinach_6308@reddit

That was my reaction when my family moved to the Chicago area from New Jersey How can that be a lake? I can't see the other side!

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-dag-@reddit

Shoot, you can't see the other side of Mille Lacs in central Minnesota and that's a significantly smaller lake.

Explaining the size of the Great Lakes by saying you can't see across them really undersells their size.

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jpgr1965@reddit

I grew up in Chicago and we vacationed on Lake Michigan often. I have a picture of me and my brother on the sand looking out at the lake. My college roommate (Central California native) saw it on my wall and asked what ocean it was. She wouldn't believe it was a lake, even when I showed her on a map how big the Great Lakes are.

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LoopDeLoop0@reddit

The eastern shore of Lake Michigan is the most beautiful place I have ever been. Bar none. I went to Sleeping Bear Dunes national park last summer and walked a trail to the beach on the south side of the park. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much natural splendor.

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trustme1maDR@reddit

I'll be visiting next week! I'm so excited! Is that the beach where you have to be rescued via helicopter if you can't climb back up the dune?

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Persis-@reddit

So, that’s an overlook on the Pierce Stocking Drive. It’s a very long, very steep climb down and back. There used to be two platforms at that location, but one was removed due to safety concerns this spring. As a kid, I saw many, many people throw up upon getting back to the top. I’d just go to the platforms, lol.

The dune climb part is nearby, but you need to drive between the two.

Enough_Roof_1141@reddit

Technically speaking factoid means it’s not true.

sneezed_up_my_kidney@reddit

Nazareth, actually.

I loved it because it was so cold, and the snow was so fluffy you could walk in the snow in sneakers and brush it off when you got inside.

Not at all like the snow I grew up with.

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neverdoneneverready@reddit

How does it compare to Buffalo? They always seem to be on the news in the winter.

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MarcusAurelius0@reddit

Depends, past two Winters they've gotten dumped on and we've got some shit but no where near as bad. Im 35 and zi remember back when I was a kid wind blow snow that piled up 12 feet behind bushes at my childhood home and when it didnt go above freezing for 2 months so you learn to shovel snow out as far as possible so you dont end up with massive piles next to the sidewalk/driveway.

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WatermelonMachete43@reddit

Golden Snowball winner many years!

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Hot_Aside_4637@reddit

Was at college when the Keweenaw got 390.4 inches in '78/'79.

Overheard:

My hometown of Duluth, MN is one of the busiest ports in North America. I am away visiting relatives in South Dakota and find myself stunned by just how rapidly wind turbines and wind generation capacity is building up in Southwest MN and the Dakotas. A lot of the wind energy infrastructure comes through Duluth.

Duluth Port Authority Press Release from 2020

The blades and towers and such are truly enormous. So it's better to ship them by, uh, ship. Since we are the closest ocean-going port to the center of North America it is cost effective to bring them to us. We have plenty of rail interchanges and access but I don't think you can bring them in trains. Anyone who wants to fact check me on any of this please go right ahead. This is not a hill I plan to die on. But it also has something to do with the Rocky Mountains and probably the Canadian Shield, too.

I guess I might be burying the interesting part here. So they transport them on semi trailers. And they are huge. So it blocks a couple lanes of traffic under most conditions. And they have to carefully plan out a certain route to get them out of the city and avoid tunnels and bridges and such. They will have a couple of highway patrol vehicles as escorts and then a pilot vehicle and maybe a chase vehicle even to manage traffic. I live and work near the port and so we see them moving turbines regularly. It is kind of just one of those things that you get used to, like dealing with a railroad crossing. You see the state patrol vehicle and you pull over and then the next thing you know there is a semi with an extra long trailer carrying something that is like the size of a commercial airliner wing. Nobody moves for like 2 or 3 minutes until they pass and then you go back about your business.

I think they make them in Denmark or northern Europe someplace. They are highly advanced technology in terms of the aerodynamics. Maybe it is proprietary or something but I do wonder why we don't or can't manufacture them in the US or even Canada. For now, it's cost effective to ship them through my hometown for a whole mess of US states and Canadian provinces.

I'm not sure if you can transport them by barge up from Texas or New Orleans. That might have something to do with hurricanes. They are truly massive.

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Tim-oBedlam@reddit

I've spent a lot of time on the North Shore of Lake Superior, and I've been to the Apostle Islands and Isle Royale. There's something special about Lake Superior, even moreso than the other Great Lakes.

I've been on the architecture boat tour. Well worth the price.

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AluminumCansAndYarn@reddit

I've heard so many good things about it.

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Darryl_Lict@reddit

I was in Duluth for a wedding and wanted to take a dip in Lake Superior just to say I have. Surprisingly, the water was really pleasant, probably 72°F, warmer than the Pacific Ocean next to my SoCal beach town.

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thisisallme@reddit

Must’ve been a fall wedding? Grew up where one of the Great Lakes was my front yard. Definitely takes a lot of time for the water to warm up but it’s pleasant towards the end of summer/early fall

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chriswaco@reddit

You can easily remember the names of The Great Lakes using this acronym:

Glacial Lake Agassiz was larger than all of the Great Lakes combined. It drained through for major rivers, one being Glacial River Warren in what is now the Minnesota River valley. Even today you can look at satellite images (try Google Maps) and see the huge valley home to a ridiculously small river. Lake of the Woods is one of the remnants of Glacial Lake Agassiz.

Like, an hour and a half?

Lol at their country

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Deep_Contribution552@reddit

Bigger than Wales? Heck, it’s nearly three times the size of Wales. And Lake Superior is bigger than Scotland (!)

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Mobile_Bench7315@reddit

The color shocked me in Chicago

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Enough_Roof_1141@reddit

It’s only been that way since the 90s.

When I grew up they were more brown but the zebra mussels came from Europe and absolutely took over. Then their cousin wiped them out. The entirety of the water in the Great Lakes is filtered every 2 weeks by mussels.

thegmoc@reddit

Ain't that crazy? I showed my friend overseas a video I took of Lake St Clair and told him "mins you, this is the one too small to even be considered a great lake" and he said it's crazy that's even a lake lol

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Apocalyptic0n3@reddit

Lake St. Clair is tiny in comparison, and also very shallow. But you'd never believe it when you're on Jefferson trying to see Canada on the other side. Most you can see is windmills in the water

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ophaus@reddit

There's a town in the middle of Lake Erie, Put-in-bay.

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02K30C1@reddit

I grew up near Lake Michigan, and it was just part of how you thought of the city, the lake is always there. Always that way ->

The most Midwestern of all cryptids!! I've never heard of him before and now I need to learn more!

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jeffbell@reddit

He's not well known outside of Saybrook Township. I think my Aunt made him up.

One of 3 places in the world with lake effect snow. East shore of Hudson Bay, and the west Coast of Japanese islands Honshu and Hokkaido are the others.

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culturedrobot@reddit

My grandparents lived on Lake Michigan when I was a kid. They lived on top of a huge bluff overlooking the lake and my grandpa built a set of stairs that numbered into the hundreds to get down to the beach.

I remember falling asleep in their house to the sound of the waves crashing upon the shore of Lake Michigan. Those are some of the most peaceful memories I have.

Every summer I was at one of the Great Lakes, whether it was at their house at Lake Michigan or traveling with them to the UP and seeing the beaches of Lake Superior, or to the west side of the state and swimming in Lake Huron (which is technically the same lake as Lake Michigan as there's no land to actually separate them, just the Straits of Mackinac).

I remember seeing the Atlantic Ocean for the first time when I was 11 or 12 years old, and it was indistinguishable from any of the Great Lakes I had visited, save for one key difference: the first time I swam in the Atlantic Ocean, I realized how much water I let in my mouth when I went swimming. I hate the ocean compared to the Great Lakes to this day.

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flareblitz91@reddit

That bluff is part of the Niagara Escarpment I’d be willing to bet.

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Top_File_8547@reddit

coronarybee@reddit

It’s part of the MI public school curriculum (at least when I was a child) that this only applies to Superior

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frogmuffins@reddit

I grew up near the eastern part of Lake Erie. Basically every year there are ice fisherman that get stranded on melting ice on the lake.

The creepiest thing I've seen was a documentary about all the preserved dead people in lake Superior.

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Amazing_Excuse_3860@reddit (OP)

It's always eerie (no pun intended) when you find out that Gordon Lightfoot was being literal when he said Superior "never gives up her dead."

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ChicagoZbojnik@reddit

The USN converted 2 paddle wheel civilian ships into aircraft carriers during WW2. They were used to train carrier pilots. There are also over 100 WW2 aircraft at the bottom of Lake Michigan from training accidents. Some of these planes were combat veterans of the early Pacific War, which were placed in training roles when newer models were produced.

Now that I no longer live in MI, people are often shocked to find out that the lake effect is also natural insulation…so it’s always warmer in MI in the winter va other states at similar latitudes. Also that we always considered going to the Lake, “the beach”. Apparently a lot of people are unaware that Michigan has sugar sand?

Waves were so high during a summer storm they crashed into the windows of my rental cabin on Lake Superior.

It was a rickety old cabin on the rocks with about 30 ft drop to the lake below.

The storm lasted several hours and it kept me awake bc at times I wondered if a wave would smash the cabin and sweep us all into the lake.

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Amazing_Excuse_3860@reddit (OP)

It's theorized that 35+ ft rogue waves are what took out the Edmund Fitzgerald. I'd be terrified of the lake taking me too if I were in your shoes.

35 ft waves are a cakewalk on the ocean, but freshwater works a bit differently and makes them much deadlier. Something about how the waves chop instead of rolling, and the troughs between waves being smaller, I think? I'm no expert.

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8amteetime@reddit

I was a new letter carrier in Highland Park, Illinois, a town north of Chicago on Lake Michigan. It was December, and a snow storm came in off the lake, dropping a foot of snow in an hour. It was a complete white out and I couldn’t read any addresses or find mailboxes on the big houses next to the lake. It got dark, I said screw it, and walked back to the post office.

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Amazing_Excuse_3860@reddit (OP)

Found the one thing that can stop the mail: lakeside blizzards

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seifd@reddit

If you want to hear about winter storms, the worst of them is the White Hurricane of 1913. Check out this video:

https://youtu.be/bVnh-35vSDs?si=d8WTEW3k7ihnrHs8

Lake Michigan "turns over".

Simplistic explanation (because I am not a biologist): The sun hitting the top of the lake heats the water on top. But, because the lake is so deep, the water deep below stays cold. However, in the winter the top is cooled down due to low air temperatures, and eventually gets colder than the water down below. Because heat rises, the (now) warmer water that is down below wants to rise to the surface, while the cooler water on top wants to sink below. Suddenly, you hit a tipping point and the lake "turns over".

I was in Chicago one year visiting a firend and we went to the beach, basically. Lol

LIke...literally, they are so large! May as well be looking across the ocean. I don't normally think of lakes as something that have waves and that you can't see past the horizon.

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AluminumCansAndYarn@reddit

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CaptainMalForever@reddit

Why do you get to define the beach, though?

If I go to a lake in Minnesota, I don't say I went to the beach, I say I went to the lake.

If I go to Lake Superior and its beach, I say the beach. The scale is vastly different.

To me, a beach is on an ocean or a sea, with waves and other currents. There should be the possibility to find shells. Seagulls are around.

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NoKindnessIsWasted@reddit

Great lakes aren't an ocean or sea.

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NoKindnessIsWasted@reddit

We get to say what it means to us.

I'm saying it's regional.

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GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

Right? Like I don't call some sand next to an inland lake a beach....but fricken Frankfort or Holland or Manistee? Those are beaches.

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GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

New England doesn't have a monopoly on the use of the word "beach".

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NoKindnessIsWasted@reddit

Nope. And that's my point. It's regional.

We say beach to mean ocean beach.

I hope you pipe up when someone is whining about using barbecue to mean an outdoor event where you cook on a grill.

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AluminumCansAndYarn@reddit

Salt water is overrated and irritates the eyes.

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Jass0602@reddit

I’m sure -20 does too.

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AluminumCansAndYarn@reddit

Considering we only hit -20 during polar vortexes and then we stay in the house and it only lasts a day or two in our well insulated house. I'll take the cold over the salt water.

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Jass0602@reddit

Fair enough. I’ll take a salty flip flop january (from Florida here) 🤣

I bet the summers on the lake are super nice here. Usually by about this time of year the water here is so warm it’s no longer refreshing 😢 but like March to June is great!

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Jass0602@reddit

Aren’t some places around the lakes also notorious for rip tides? It’s so crazy for me to think of a lake acting like a sea or ocean. I really should come up that way sometime.

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GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

Rip currents and shells, yes.

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Jass0602@reddit

Ooh do you guys have shells on the beach?

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AluminumCansAndYarn@reddit

So the lake is still cold right now. It'll get warmer as the summer progresses but it is pretty refreshing. Cause it's so hot.

And we do get rip tides. And people that don't know how to behave on water or on boats. There was this thing called black yacht weekend or something recently and several people died and the paramedics kept getting called to the lake for things.

We don't get seashells which is unfortunate but also the creatures that occupy those shells don't do well in the environment so no shells for us. We do get pretty cool pebbles though.

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AluminumCansAndYarn@reddit

Warren dunes, I swear the dunes are taller than my high school which was four stories.

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GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

Gallahadion@reddit

There are several wineries along the southern shore of Lake Erie, thanks to a microclimate that make the area ideal for growing wine grapes.
Lake Erie is also prone to seiches, wind-driven waves with effects similar to the storm surges caused by hurricanes, with the added effect of the water oscillating back and forth.
Manitoulin Island is the largest lake island in the world; it has over 100 lakes of its own and the largest, Lake Manitou, is the world's largest lake on an island in a lake. Maintou also has islands, meaning there are islands in a lake on an island in a lake (though not the only example on Manitoulin Island).

shelwood46@reddit

When I was in college, I did a summer internship at Peninsula Players, which is technically on the Bay side but pretty close to the tip so I count it as Lake Michigan. We had a little rocky beach beyond the dining hall. During the days, we built sets and props outside, on the concrete pad by the set barn (behind the barn that had been made into the main stage). Around 3 pm, we interns would usually decided we were too hot and sweaty and "fall into" the water. Which required us to run about 200 feet and traverse the rocky beach, but you know how it is when you fall in Also, we'd do changover every 2 weeks, switching from one show to the next, so we'd stay up all night, strike the set when the show ended, take dinner break around 1-2 am, then put up the new set. One night, we ate outside because someone had read there were meteor showers. And there were, but we also got a surprise visit from the Northern Lights. It was incredible.

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Enough_Roof_1141@reddit

Door County is great because you can hit the lake side and the bay side within minutes.

The water is warmer on the bay side and since the winds come from the west you can get amazing waves to play in and sunsets.

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redheadMInerd2@reddit

"The lake it is said, never gives up her dead."

Bodies don't decompose in Lake Superior, it's too cold, and all the shipwrecks there are treated as gravesites and you aren't allowed to dive around them.

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GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit

I have lived most of my life near the Great Lakes. I've navigated boats on all of them except Ontario.

I will probably die on one of them someday.

They are not for the faint of heart and those that don't respect them are making a mistake.

On a lighter, happier note, I am friends with some of the guys and gals who surf Lake Michigan.

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GreedocityOnSmite@reddit

Where I went to college lake Ontario was mere steps away from my dorm. I Saw a lot of unique weather phenomena from rare clouds to purple lightning, lunar halos and golf ball hailstorms. I endured massive lake effect blizzards, and wind that would literally knock you over if you weren't careful. I loved it there.

My happy place was watching the sunset over the lake on the rocks after a long day. Never seen a more beautiful sunset.

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Buhos_En_Pantelones@reddit

When I was 11-ish, I was vacationing at lake Ontario. I saw a hole in the ground where bees were coming out of. I'm my infinite wisdom, I thought it would be a good idea to poke the hole with a stick. Cue me running and screaming as I got chased and stung by angry bees.

Also I stepped on a dead fish.

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jeffbell@reddit

If you live in Detroit the drive to Michigan Tech in Houghton is longer than the drive to Washington DC.

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They were really great