On Monday I treated myself to a walk on the lakefront. “Treated,” because going for a walk is a major operation these days, involving long underwear, serious snow boots (thank you, L.L.Bean!), a balaclava-type hat (otherwise your face freezes), and fingerless gloves for taking photos. I was amply rewarded: fresh air, no one around except me, and wide open white space!
However, Lake Michigan is gone. The water is gone. No waves, no splashing, not even a gentle tinkle, nor ice floes rubbing against each other. Rather, the utter silence of a frozen lake, immobile and white. Last week, when I was flying back to Chicago from Virginia and looked out the plane window, I was surprised when suddenly the checkerboard of Midwestern farmland was replaced by unbroken whiteness. What was that? The lake! Covered in a blanket of snow.
No more steaming lake as in photos when the arctic cold first hit in early January. Now the city lies silent and gray beyond the snowfield of the lake.
The city has given up on plowing the lakefront path, at least the one that winds around Promontory Point.
PS: Can you tell I have a blogging deficit from my time at VCCA?
I can't imagine Lake Michigan being frozen. Great pictures!
Nancy, it is pretty amazing. I keep wondering how far out one would have to go to get to open water because I didn't see any from the plane.
Ja! Tolle Fotos. Und sehr plastische Beschreibung der Stille. Und wir? Hatten den ganzen Winter noch nicht eine (nicht eine!) Schneeflocke.
Barbara, also Winter ganz ohne Schnee ist schon ein bisschen langweilig. Hier haben wir allmaehlich genug von dem Spektakel.
The photos themselves look cold! Amazing to think of a lake that big freezing up.
William, I wouldn't trust the ice but the surface is solid enough to be immobile and hold snow cover.
Love these photos. I was born and raised on the other side of the lake, in Michigan. I guess we all come from "winter people".
Monica, I dare say you have to be a winter person – you've got way more winter up in Alaska than we do in the Great Lakes region, even with a hefty winter like this one.